Mark Gowan's Blog, page 10

The Corporaty

The continued corporatization of communication is the continued degradation of language. Corporate lingoism is a lie that as corporations become more formidable, becomes more accepted and normalized.

“Sharing” is distributing memos. And people that we work with are not necessarily “family”. Simply because something is “above [your] pay grade” does not mean that it is not your responsibility. We make goals, not “action items”. 

And we do not work in terms of “bandwidth”. We are too busy or not interested. We do not have “brain dumps” but we can be creative. The only silos that need “breaking down” are agricultural, not corporate. People cannot be guaged based on “core competencies”. Consequences, outcomes, quality of work are matter and are usually a product of an individual or group of individuals that have worked together.

Corporate language turns to corporate communities of lingoism and lies. Corporations are organizations created to make money, and nothing else. Most of the time they do so by breaking or bending rules. To allow the corparaty to reign is to lose the ability to communicate in any real manner.

To Be Great

To be great takes a few simple things that each of us are capable of. But first we must ask ourselves if it is worth the time, the pain, the heartache, the cost. The cost of being great is extremely high and it is a serious question whether or not to pursue greatness.

First, greatness takes passion. This is easy enough. One must have a love for what you want to be great at. Such passion comes naturally at first but becomes much more difficult with time.

Secondly, one must be willing to give it all or most of the time that one has. Most, if not all, other endeavors and people must be put aside in pursuit of greatness. And this must be done consistently. Passion over time, applied consistency is the path to greatness.

Third, you must be consistent in your pursuit of greatness. There is no place to waiver and there is no place for change. A single mindedness is key to becoming great.

There is no guarantee that greatness will be achieved, and if you are great you will never know.

Civility

No matter how much we may try we will run across people that we do not like. There are probably many reasons for this, but no matter how much you might believe that it is your duty to be liked or like, it is not. Lying about it will only last so long. All facades fail eventually.

It is better to embrace the truth. Face the reason(s) head on. Be honest with yourself, and if necessary with the person that you do not care for. Nothing new may come of it. Nothing may change, there is a chance of that, but truth can provide some comfort.

What is important is civility. Civility does not require us to like everyone or even most people. It does require us to be courteous, it may require us to minimize the time spent with these people. But no matter: be courteous, be polite, but be honest.

Civilization is not based upon amiability but it is based upon common courtesy.

Gunpoint

“You can’t build a nation a nation at gunpoint”

War is waged by people in suits who peruse accounts and numbers, statistics and costs, benefits, namely their own. A person is nothing more than a numerical figure to such people. A figure that can be added or subtracted. 

Their world is one of illusion and reality mixed seamlessly. To them there is the 1% and then there are the 0%, the rest. There’s is a zero sum game. Their desires are there own, for themselves, and at all costs.

These people are human but they are not humane. The are mortal but have gods on their sides. For every generation has its suits and seamless integration of engineers and accountants. These are not the movers nor are they the shakers.

They are the destroyers. They are the ones who piss in their pants to stay warm. And no matter how much you say, no matter how much you try to make them understand, they will not. They cannot. Because theirs is the world of numbers and probabilities. There is no winning. There is only more, or there is less.

And on their side of the table are those who believe that wars are winnable.

Two Wheels and a Tent

The third travel book, Two wheels and a Tent is now out on Amazon and other distributors. It is available in eBook, print and audio form. 

Mark and his Suzuki DL 650 that he calls “Mabel” love adventure. This is a collection of some of the
adventures that they have shared. Like most motorcyclists, a certain relationship develops with the motorcycle; Mabel and Mark trust each other. As they have found out on many occasions adventures are those things that happen to plans and sometimes you need someone you can trust. These are some of those stories.

“Mabel and I have had our fun and our difficulties. Both she and I are getting up there in years but I like to think that both of us have a few more thousand miles in us. I know that when I get back from a long tour and park Mabel it’s not long before I’m thinking of my next adventure, and I think I can hear Mabel thinking about the same thing.”

Logic

Logic will not save us but it is not because it cannot. It is unfortunate that logic cannot save us because as civilizations are built upon the shoulders of giants they are destroyed by the hands of fools

The fools among us turn their crooked backs on logic and cut the branch upon which they sit. Those who do not put a price on logic are those who do not put a price on anything of value. At best they are stupid and at worst they are liars and cheats.

Those that dismiss logic are those that dismiss the importance of not only being and doing good but of their own potential, their very lives; and perhaps most importantly, they dismiss those that do.

Some Aphorisms

To be a master you must feel like a novice.

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Don’t dumb down the divine

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Ignorance is a challenge; stupidity a choice

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Happiness is not constant pleasure; nor is it unending progress

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Fear is a hammer. It can be a useful tool or a violent weapon

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There is no purpose, only process. There is no point but only progress

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Time knows that it is all there is

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Know what is necessary and take the rest in stride

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It is not that we let loose. It is that we don’t tighten up again

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Laziness is not a virtue. Popularity is not a talent

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The drive to be better at the cost of everything else is an empty bargain with the devil

Mastery

Try to become a master at something. It is difficult. It is misunderstood. And if you succeed, which is doubtful, you will live in a world that thrives on mediocrity and overlooks your art. It will redefine mastery to include mediocrity.

But to be a master you must overcome all of this. A master dismisses those who smile snidely and do not care for such heights. A master does not brag because an artist does not need to. Mastery, though, comes at even a higher cost than all of this.

Failure is the norm. Progress is slow and tedious, often feeling like it is non-existent. You will be alone and the world will not care for what you love most. It will take a lifetime to realize that you have not achieved your goal. There will always be better. Your ego will stay bruised and you will relinquish pride with a tear in your eye.

Honesty will be forced and you will kneel, humbled, at the foot of the mountain that you know you must climb. This is when you will be a master but feel like a novice.

Celebration

We want to live and enjoy life. we drink and we are merry. We eat what we want to eat because it tastes good. We enjoy our respite from the world and from ourselves and sometimes we desire to be nothing more than lazy and irresponsible, if only for a while. We might ask for too much, but most of us probably do not.

And yet, just for a little time in the sun, just for a beer or two, or a large, filling meal we pay the cost. We are guilty.

“I’ll gain weight.”

“I’m lazy.”

We might say. And still just for that short time living beyond our own strict regiment the fun of doing so is taken away. Relaxation turned to regret. This is not how it is supposed to be but often it is how it is. We reach goals only to have them swept away because we have dared to celebrate.

But we must smile every now and again because misery is our only other option. Take a piece of celebratory cake and our week is ruined. But savor the sweetness and the texture, and savor the slight smile on your lips.

The universe does not exist for us, but we must always remember to rise above the universe.

Compromise

The word “compromise” sounds good in our modern ears. It rings of progress and of social good. And it is good. It is even necessary. One of the arguments in its favor is that it allows all to sense contentment and happiness. It is for the common good after all.

But there is a price for everything. Not even death is free from this. And compromise is a much more expensive commodity than mortality. With every compromise we make we sell happiness. It is important to remember that all commodities have two aspects: quality and quantity. It is also important to remember that happiness is a quality and compromise is a quantity.

We chip away at the quality of one to allow more of the other.

Compromise is a necessary component of civilization and is becoming more important as we over-populate this planet but to say that compromise is always better is a fool’s game. We compromise our own happiness for numerous reasons but only one reason is worthy. Compromise is warranted when it causes the quality of each of our lives to be greater, not lessened.

Compromise in most of its forms is a lie wrought by those who know nothing of happiness.