No, I am not thinking about Marc Short or Shelley Long. I am thinking about what a person values and what interests a person pursues. Of course, I first experimented on myself, which is not always a good or representative point of departure … but it is hard to avoid. In general, I found huge gaps between the two and noticed that when I was younger I tended to focus and act primarily on short term interests and values. I wanted to be a pilot, so I managed to get admitted to the Air Force Academy where my eyes started to deteriorate and I was not able to go to flight school and developed a strong interest in philosophy and was named the outstanding cadet in philosophy at ISAFA1967... yes, I am older than dirt. I opted for becoming an intelligence officer after graduation as I thought I would get to remain in the USA … this was during the Vietnam conflict in which about half of my Academy classmates died … and work on building an intelligence database … but then I was given a choice of learning Vietnamese or going to the Philippines as an intelligence officer.
As I valued my life, I chose Clark Air Base in the Philippines. I think it was there that I began to shift from short term pursuits to a focus on long terms values and interests, such as acting in accord with that honor code we followed at USAFA. Truth … the truth began to be more important than being promoted or finding a better position in the Air Force. And, speaking truthfully in intelligence briefings and debriefings got me sent to Thailand and put in charge of airmen who were convicted of various offences and sent there to build a fence around the base along with machine gun bunkers … and I was put in charge of those people??? Surprisingly, I found many of them interesting and serious and managed to develop a working relationship in which I became Sergeant Mike to them in spite of my officer status. That might have been the result of my trading many roles of concertina wire for a box of steaks which we cook on the perimeter fence we had built. The person I replaced had built a machine gun bunker facing inside the base rather that outside the base. We had to rebuild it although we all thought it was an interesting way of protesting that officer’s mistreatment.
Anyway, I was saved from my own mistreatment by Senator Al Gore senior who managed to get me out with an honorable discharge as I was being treated as if I had committed an offence without a hearing or evidence and offered an honorable discharge or reassignment elsewhere. My choice of the discharge marks my shift from short term pursuits to a stronger focus on long term values.
Of course things got worse after my discharge with unemployment and a divorce. I wandered about and managed to find a position with an IBM research and development lab outside Boulder, Colorado. I learned a lot at IBM, including being first in my programming class, but I found the work boring and wanted to do something that might have a more directly positive impact. So I got a leave of absence and went to Israel as a volunteer teacher for a year, where I reverted to short term interests and pursuits … i.e., girls. When I returned to IBM I really felt lost.
My older and wiser brother was completing his PhD in history at the University
of Texas and said I should apply to study there, which I did. I was admitted
with a year delay due to a cap on admissions and lack of funding. At UT, I was
initially a teaching assistant for an ethics course. I found the students uninterested
although the professor was very supportive of me. In my second year there, the
department had a dilemma as none of the faculty wanted to teach logic so I
spoke up and said I could do that. I then became a lecturer for the remainder
of my studies being paid half the salary of a beginning assistant professor. Teaching
logic was easy for me but boring for most of the students. I was a little
frustrated and I now know that part of the problem was me … I expected students
to find logic relevant and useful but few did. Initially I blamed them, but the
fault was mine as I later realized years later.
Anyway, I wanted to say something meaningful about focusing on long term values and interests rather than just pursuing short term interests. The discrepancy became obvious to me while watching and listening to such folks as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Chris Murphy, and then contrasting their behavior and interests with those of such folks as Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham and Joe Manchin.
It seems all too easy to differentiate those who emphasize long terms values and interests over short term gains and pursuits, yet the short termers seem to gain the support of so many others. Why is that? What am I not understanding? How could anyone belittle Liz’s heroic leadership on the Jan. 6 Committee or Adam’s willingness to say what he believes rather than pursue another term as Senator of Chris’ long time efforts to rectify the conditions that led to Sandy Hook and Uvalde. How? Yet they are continually attacked by small-minded people supported by a few with deep pockets and strong interests in deepening those pockets. But so many of those mindless followers fail to see that their own short term interests are being marginalized by the deep pocket people.
Whew … I had
to get that off my mind and out of my fingers.
July 2022
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