Hope all is going well with you. I enjoy your blogs. Bonne Chance!

Alan

Last year I was engaged for 9 months with a client in San Diego. When I checked into the hotel I would stay at I noticed, just next to the hotel, a big sign stating “El Bahr Shrine” with what appeared to be a Middle Eastern figure on it, and the property was filled with high palm trees. I was really intrigued. The first weekend I walked over and saw that it was a Shriner’s Facility, with lots of garages containing children’s carnival rides and old timer cars. There were lots of older men working on the equipment. I knew nothing about the Shriner’s other than that the built hospitals for children and wore those strange hats. There was a big golden statue of a Shriner in front of the building carrying a child. About 15 parking spaces directly in front were labeled with things like “Chief Potentate”, “High Priest”, etc.

I decided to have a look at them on Wikipedia. Shriners split off from Masonry ~130 years ago because a few men enjoyed getting together and having a good time, and they wanted a particular charitable focus – so they chose children’s medical needs. Then they sat down to write their mythology !!! I got SUCH a kick out of that! So once a week, they enter a different world, hidden from the world behind these windowless walls. Highly hierarchical. Responsive. Charitable. SELF-ORGANIZING. I would say that is all a good thing.

Calvin Arnason

The Occupy movement lacks a Mario Savio. America today lacks a Churchill.

Decision to Act: I find religious groups handle this in an interesting way. The fundamentalists believe that God chooses the leaders. That makes the decision to act much easier for its members. Others look to their scriptures for final direction. There are situations were that is an enormous advantage. It is orderly. Weimar is at the other end of the spectrum.

We want to be able to take coordinated actions. The price is that we gain the ability to take the wrong coordinated actions. Which is better? Paralysis, or action with the chance of choosing wrong?

Related point – As a kid I used to think that the service organizations like Lions, Optimists, Rotary, etc. were humorous. I don’t any more. And curiously, I seldom see them any more today.

Calvin Arnason

Lyndon Johnson called it jaw-boning. His voting rights achievement would never have been anything more than hot air, had he not used “every means available”. Obama’s modus vivendi was to tell congress to come up with a plan that he could sign while he climbed the stairs to his bedroom with a good book.

I am not breaking up with him. But I no longer believe in him and his vision. He is a weakling – Hillary would have been much more effective. Or Bill Clinton!

Calvin Arnason

Yes.

And critically important.

And, by the way, I like the subtle differences between the notion of possibility vs opportunity. And creating meaning vs. finding or discovering meaning.

Here’s to the possibilities of 2012.