“In viewing the instinct for survival in this manner we imply that a basic aim or goal, as individuals, is to improve our capacity for independent action.”
Via: http://goalsys.com/books/documents/DESTRUCTION_AND_CREATION.pdf
Boyd was absolutely correct. Here is what independent action looks like:
Pretty obvious, actually.
Far short of merger, but the same logic holds: you are weak where I am strong and vice versa. Why not ally and crush all opposition on global basis.
This would-be globally integrated enterprise as a preview of globalization’s coming attractions.
From an Economist story on Chinese carmakers.
What Tom is describing is called a ”Cheap Trick” (Tempo, Venkatesh Rao).
Cheap Trick: In the Double Freytag model, the moment when a key insight turns around the trajectory of increasing entropy in a deep story. A cheap trick follows the exploration phase. The notion of cheap trick is essentially identical to Clausewitz’ notion of coup d’oeil (strike of the eye). Cheap tricks provide elegant, organizing insights that allow a decision-maker to make temporary and local sense of a high-entropy mental model. Cheap tricks also provide a window of opportunity for high-leverage decision-making.
The cheap trick in the deep story between GM and the Chinese corporation is defined in these words: “…you are weak where I am strong and vice versa.” In the exploration of the automobile market in both economies (east and west) have become so complex and the increase in what is not known is so great that the relationships in the narrative within the market has begun to spike into a Cheap Trick, to release both complexity and that what is not known.
A Cheap Trick is strategy, and in Tom’s example, the way (logic, of the strategy) is defined in the words, “Why not ally and crush all opposition on a global basis.”
A cheap trick is strategy, but not the final strategy, so what is known about this Cheap Trick is that it is flawed. As Venkatesh says on page 77 in his book Tempo, “Every such insight is flawed, since it is based on excluding some part of reality as noise.”
What GM is excluding from some part of reality as noise is the fact that China is monopolizing the market around a benevolent leadership that is centralized. The reality is that the east (China) moves to a different tempo than the west (USA).
While the cheap trick and the logic behind it might be the same, GM and China (if one can distingush one as western and the other eastern anymore) have completely different Liminal Passages.
With different liminal passages, but with a need to achieve the same tempo (if harmony is desired between the east and west) the liminal passages have to merge. To merge the liminal passages, the separation event need to need to happen at a time that gives retrospection a chance to reach the same level in the deep story.
Once the same level has been reached in the deep story, the relationship between the east and west can grow deep together, if not close. Otherwise the east and west need to orient themselves within the same OODA loop, which is not easy if the relationship is not close in mind nor deep in heart.
The centralization of an authoritarian benevolent leadership that is represented in the phrase: “Why not ally and crush all opposition on a global basis” seems to be what is dividing most of the customers in the American market, and what both sides divided seem to not want.
The Tea Party (TP) and Occupy Wall Street (OWS) both seem to agree we need less centralization and neither are acting in a benevolent manner. While most Americans are not either TP nor OWS, the logic that binds these two is distintive American, i.e. they want freedom to act and freedom to decide.
It may prove hard to sell cars in such a divided market that is together on this one issue, the decentralization of the market into one deep passage that benefits only themselves.
It could be that the Cheap Trick that GM and China are using isn’t flawed in its logic, it is flawed in the end that both GM and China are equally moving towards, as they combine the means (resources) to that end.
As we are living within the “valley” of that Cheap Trick (we are obviously past the “sense making” of that trick) it may be that GM’s decision to centralize into one monopoly to rule the market together with a benevolent China, will give the US customers cars that we need (cars that will not destroy the economies of the world) instead of what we want (cars that give us freedom).
However, giving us choices only of what we need has never worked out that well in America. It is going to be hard for GM and China to build cars China needs and the US wants, when considering the resources (means) used.
Posting from flickr. At least now we know what the house looks and smells like.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
These are some picture I took recently of the Living Room and Dining Area of the house my wife is offering up for sale, as a part of her mother’s Trust. I was hoping to capture the affect the view has on the person as he or she enters the room. As you become familiar to the spectacular view and the comforts of the rooms, the effects move into your subconsciousness, only to be suddenly given your conscious attention in, perhaps, mid-speech.AFRICA IS DYING – INN
I mentioned to my nephew’s wife that sometimes you can’t tell there is a war on, unless you find out which side the warriors are on. There are some real warriors on Obama’s side.
I happened to notice this sidebar-ad, on one of the websites I happen to be visiting.
The logic seemed to be a good one, “Get Barack’s Back.”, which means to me that he is going to need all the help he can get in this election, and can use someone to guard his back.
Ok. But then if you take the words literally and you look at who is at Barack’s back, it seems to be a black guy, WTF?
Barack also seems to be bumping knuckles with a Hispanic worker in gloves. It could be some bias of mine that I say this, but that is my impression.
So when you hoover your curser over the ad, this is what you get:
The guy behind Barack is gone, mission accomplished.
I am just saying that warriors tend to go on missions, and recruit for those missions. This ad seems to be a recruitment poster, but to what end?
I found this picture of my wife’s cousin Chet on youtube. He is pictured with his bronze sculpture of a Native American that my wife is attempting to sell, as trustee of her mother’s estate. My wife is asking $40,000.00 for the sculpture. Her mother Bea was a practical person, but the sculpture and a painting of Chet’s were really priceless to her. Hopefully my wife has set a price, on all of this, that Bea would not have objected to.
I know Bea set a price of at least $30,000.00 dollars on the above original oil painting of Chet’s that he painted of quail. Bea loved the fact that quail showed up at her place one day and never left. As Chet says in the Youtube video, women are not always drawn to his sculptural of eagles, but I think everyone can enjoy his drawings.
Bea also loved her handmade Chinese rugs, which are shown in the slideshow below.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
I am not sure of the price that my wife has set, but they go well with the house and it would be a shame to remove them.
It should be noted that, in the slideshow, the tag showing where the rugs were made has a stain on it. This doesn’t reflect the condition of the rugs themselves. Bea was a meticulous house cleaner, and the stain to the tag was my fault and not her’s.
