January 1, 2004
In this issue:
1. Newsbrief: Post Your Comments at Amazon.com
2. Readers Respond
3. January Citation: Another Take On the Left vs Right Fracas
4. More Newsbriefs: Spartacus a Big Hit
Willis Harman Article Available on Unemployment as a Spiritual Crisis
5. Next Month: The New Pioneers: Blazing a Trail to a Better Future
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NEWSBRIEF:
Post Your Comments at Amazon
Readers of John’s most recent book – Getting to the Better Future – are invited to post their opinions on Amazon under “All Customers Review” toward the bottom of the page; once you have your comments drafted it takes only about fifteen seconds to post your review – very easy!
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READERS RESPOND:
What follows is the partial text of an email John received on December 17, to which he responded (see below):
“….. I just got out of meeting announcing layoffs a week before Christmas. I did not lose my job, but I was personally impacted and demotivated by the announcement. I found a lack of basic human concern in the timing of this announcement. Having been in leadership positions over the last decade within large companies, I know there is a need for conscious leadership. I know there is talk about conscious leadership, but are there any companies
or organizations actually doing this, and how do I throw my hat in with them. Any thoughts you have on this subject would be appreciated!”
Here is John’s edited response:
“…..yours is the first story I’ve heard for this season but layoffs during the holiday season seems to be standard fare every year in these times – like the modern day version of Scrooge except they are true stories and not fables.
“The request you make is one I get asked often but, alas, there is no company I can point to and say “they will never do this.” Part of the problem is due to the perverse attention paid to quarter-to-quarter profits driven by companies being either publicly-traded or thinking like publicly-traded corporations.
“Consciousness in leadership (as well as anything else) starts with one person and percolates from within. I use the word “percolate” because it best describes the process of progressing underground without being immediately visible. This percolation is still “underground” – and hasn’t yet shown up in external action. Eventually, people will burst forth with their values and start demanding new corporate cultures and values (this is the conscious leadership I write and talk about) but it is largely “in the closet” (underground) at this time. When the pain gets bad enough or the promise of possibility becomes so compelling, we will see this new breed of leader assert themselves.
“Perhaps you will be one of them.”
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JANUARY CITATION
In my September editorial, I addressed some of the similarities between the left and right and their constant warfare. After that piece ran in Better Future News #62 (see archives), I was forwarded a link to an editorial in The Press by
contributing writer Matt Cook. His article was entitled “Why There is No Left Wing Rush Limbaugh” and he opined why there will never be a left wing mainstream discourse in the media. I thought some of his points might augment my September ’03 piece.
Here are some highlights of Cook’s opinion which I share with Better Future News subscribers:
“Mainstream lefty discourse is not coming….here are the reasons why….
“Much of the rhetoric of the left, and rightly so, draws attention to the stupidity of the American public…. you can’t build a popular television or radio audience by condemning the behavior of your audience-as well as exposing its stupidity.
“There is a much greater tendency toward consensus on the right….those on the right cooperate much better with one another. This has always been the case. The right is dominated by a corporate, “team player” attitude that
helps it build consensus. The right is comprised of joiners….The left is splintered into factions and is proud of it.
“The rhetoric of the right has always been structured around easy answers-and easy answers make for better TV….What makes the rhetoric of the right so simplistic, of course, is its interest in the status quo….The conservative position has always been that America is essentially just fine….It is peoples’ inherent resistance to change that makes the conservative worldview both more popular and, hence, the superior media programming format.
“Hate is the basic entertainment payoff of right wing radio…. Hatred is more passionate than reason. It’s more entertaining. This has always been true, of course, but it was never a problem until our culture and our economy became driven by entertainment. Hatred, anger, reactionary streams of vitriol, etc. – these elements will always make for more successful commercial entertainment than elevated, truth seeking discourse.”
You can read the entire Matt Cook piece at
.
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Next Month’s Editorial: The New Pioneers: Blazing a Trail to a Better Future
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NEWSBRIEFS:
Spartacus a Big Hit
John’s article on Spartacus received more attention than any other one he has offered to his subscribers. Requests for free copies of “Spartacus, Spartacus, Wherefore Art Thou Spartacus?” surpassed the previously most popular pieces – one on “bogus leadership” and another entitled “Waking up America” – which John offered last Spring.
Willis Harman Article Available on Unemployment as a Spiritual Crisis
Better Future News subscribers are invited to review one of the last articles written by the late visionary Willis Harman. Harman was an author of many books, including Global Mind Change, former Stanford faculty, SRI social scientist, and was President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences when he became ill and subsequently passed. “Unemployment: Spiritual or Economic Crisis?” was published in The New Leaders newsletter while John served as Editor-in-Chief, in its March/April 1996 issue…. a thought-provoking view of the way society views work, jobs and employment. The link to the Harman article is here.
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About John Renesch
Better Future NEWS is prepared monthly by John Renesch, a San Francisco writer, business futurist, and consultant/executive coach.
His latest book is Getting to the Better Future: A Matter of Conscious Choosing. For a list of all the SERVICES John offers, go to Services.