Shakespeare’s King Lear gives a good (accurate and artistic) accounting of what happens when a powerful leader descends into madness. Lear is impressed by the flattery he receives from two of his daughters, and leaves his kingdom to them, ignoring the third daughter, who is more circumspect and honest in what she says. The play is a tragedy because it does not end well for any of the main characters. Although the play is “fiction” in that Lear was not a “real” king, the characters are based on common historical events. History shows how common it has been for those . . . → Read More: King Lear in Charge
|
||||
 Comments are closed  Blog  Agincourt, battle, Battle of Hastings, civil wars, commoners, corporations, crew, Earl Landgrebe, ethnicity, golden parachute, gossip, history, King Lear, living in interesting times, madness, Magna Carta, media, news, newspapers, Nixon, Paul Simon, race, radio, reporting, royalty, self-interest, Shakespeare, Slip Slidin' Away, town crier, troops, Trump, TV, Watergate, we the people If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you already know about the conflict between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. While the Trump administration seems to be setting a new record for corruption and other “dishonesties” in the White House, this isn’t the first time in U.S. history politicians have yielded to temptation and the abuse of power. As Lord Acton pointed out, power corrupts, and that has certainly been true for U.S. Presidents. As is true today, our Founding Fathers tended to be the rich and powerful. One of the ways they used their wealth and power was . . . → Read More: Stormy Weather Comments are closed Blog agri-business, American Presidents, Belgian Congo, corporations, corruption, Democrats, Donald Trump, earthquakes, fame, Founding Fathers, fracking, French Indochina, Gordon Gekko, greed, Lord Actor, Martin Shkrekli, Mexico, Native Americans, oil and gas, political donations, politics, power, presidents, profit, Republicans, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Shkrekli, slavery, slaves, Stormy Daniels, the Fugs, the Rolling Stones, Vietnam, wars, wealth, White House, White Man's burden, Wide Wide River Although the impetus for this blog was a “customer service” call I experienced with the “help” available at Charter/Spectrum when my cable was out, most everything here applies to all companies that assume artificial intelligence can serve customers as well a breathing, thinking, human being. Eventually, my problem was solved—but not before I developed a deep and abiding hatred for Charter/Spectrum in spite of a long history of good service from the human technicians who work for the company. Here’s the story: I was at home nursing a very sore back (which probably reduced my tolerance for the stupidity . . . → Read More: Customer Service Comments are closed Blog artificial intelligence, Best Buy, bottom line, cable box, cable TV, Charter, Charter-Spectrum, cord cutter, corporations, customer, customer service, Direct TV, Downtown Marathon, Hudson's, human technicians, Illinois, K-Mart, local stores, march of time, online competition, radio programming, Satchel Paige, Sears, service, Spectrum, TV programming, Urbana I knew that it had been a while since my last posting, but I had no idea how long it had been. John Lennon is usually given credit for saying that “life is what happens while you are making other plans,” which is included in the lyrics for Beautiful Boy, written for his son, Sean. Since my last blog, we’ve had two major holidays (Christmas and New Year’s), and more than a month has slipped away while I was busy making other plans. And shoveling snow. It is, after all, winter in Michigan…. We have had some winter weather . . . → Read More: Time Flies Comments are closed Blog Barbara Marx Hubbard, Big Enders, Catholics, changes, Christianity, Co-Creation, conflicts, corporate ethics, corporate profits, corporations, Elizabeth Kolbert, end-of-times, Evolutionary, humanity, Hundred Years War, John Lennon, Jonathan Swift, Life, life is what happens, Little Enders, military, modern technologies, New Testament, no-peeing end of the pool, North Pole, oceans, partisan divide, plastic waste, pollution, primitive concepts, profit, Protestants, resources, Sixth Extinction, snow blower, South Pole, time flies, Tom Lehrer, tribal affiliations, winter weather In “That Ol’ Black Magic,” in reference to the Ol’ Black Magic of love, Robbie Williams says he’s loving the spin he’s in. Love isn’t of course, the only “Black Magic,” that puts people in a spin. In the U.S., we’ve grown increasingly aware of the “spin” used by major corporations and politicians to influence politics and consumer behavior. “Spin” is basically a biased interpretation. While some form of “spin” has undoubtedly been with us throughout human history, the “father” of modern political spin is usually thought to be canaries in cages down in coal mines so that, when the . . . → Read More: The Spin I’m In Comments are closed Blog Agent Orange, bats, bees, birds, bomb, bombs, butterflies, canaries, canary, clear the airway, coal, coal mining, Coca Cola, Coke, corporations, deforestation, Edward Bern's, global climate change, GMO, Good Samaritan, health, insecticides, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State, Lincoln, long-term problems, Mandy Patinkin, Miami, Mideast, military and civilian first-aid, Monsanto, natural gas, neonicotinoids, North Vietnamese, oil, Ol' Black Magic, politicians, public relations, Robbie Williams, sea-level rise, short-term thinking, Spin, Stephen Colbert, stone age, stop the bleeding, The Late Show, trees, Vietnam War, walking dead, well-being No, not the The Leftovers TV show…. The “left-behinds”—those who are failing to keep pace with the technological revolution. I am increasingly one of them. At one time, I was among the “techno” leaders. I was one of the first academics to embrace email and did so at a time when most of my colleagues were rejecting email as a method of communication. I have previously mentioned secretaries I knew in days gone by who resisted having their typewriters replaced by computers and word processing programs. They were among the first left-behinds. At the time, I didn’t fully understand why . . . → Read More: The Left-Behinds Comments are closed Blog advertising, Amish, buggies, buggy whips, computers, corporations, distance learning, documents, Donald Trump, Facebook, heavy metal, know thyself, left behinds, left overs, LinkedIn, mental limits, music, online class, organizations, physical limits, Pinterest, politicians, rap, Rock and Roll, science, secretaries, social media, technological revolution, technology, TV, tweets, Twitter, typewriters, video We certainly live in interesting times, don’t we…. Lately, we’ve recently seen a number of complaints about how a percentage of those living in the US are only interested in “free stuff.” The main complaint is that those people will vote for Democrats for political office rather than for Republicans, who want to make sure that no one receives “free stuff.” According to some, we have become a culture of “cheaters.” The original impetus for this blog entry was a comment a friend made about the concern companies have about people who “telecommute” and work from home rather than driving . . . → Read More: Cheating on Our Ethics Test Comments are closed Blog "get even" mentality, 80/20 rule, academic community, adjunct faculty, bribes, captains, cheaters, college, colonels, corporate, corporate ethics, corporate systems, corporations, Corvair, credit-default-swaps, democratic, ethics, financial industry, Ford, free stuff, generals, Glaxo, globalization, GM, governmental regulations, high school, honest day's work, ignition switch, leadership, Lieutenants, lobbyists, local problems, majors, nation, NCOs, Noncommissioned Officers, office, part-time, Pinto, primary education, prostitutes, Republican, schools, secondary education, shit runs downhill, standards, standards for behavior, systemic problems, technologies, technology, telecommuting, universities, vacation, Wilfredo Pareto, working from home, world-wide While we don’t always get good customer service, I hope that we (you and I) always do our best to provide it. This blog post is a follow-up to my previous post on Gas Pains. When I wrote that blog entry, I had received less-than-wonderful customer service from #Napoleon Fireplaces and blogged about my experiences attempting to get a new plastic knob to control the gas valve on a Napoleon gas log insert. You can still see much of the discussion on Facebook, although at this point you’ll need to search for it. To summarize, the original gas knob, . . . → Read More: Customer Service Comments are closed Blog Australia, automotive, Boy Scouts, business friends, communication, competitors, corporations, customer, customer service, dislikes, email, Europe, Facebook, fireplace, gas, gas appliances, gas fitter, gas knob, gas log, General Motors, head, head and heart, heart, Hearth & Home, international, Japanese automobiles, knob, likes, Lindy Asimus, manufacturing, marketing, merit badge, Michael Moore, Napoleon, Napoleon Fireplace, negative experiences, online identities, organizations, publicity, quality products, restaurants, Roger and Me, Sackett's, Sackett's Fireplace, sales, Scout, servers, service, social media, truth, valve, word-of-mouth |
||||