Kashmir's Shak

The Offer'd Fallacy

What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty,   
I’ll entertain the offer’d fallacy.

The Comedy of Errors
(Act II, Scene ii)

We are addicted to sensationalism . It is the drug of choice. I have no clue what chemical it emits through our central nervous system, but the thrill is cheap, cheerful and readily available, 24/7.

People engaged in polarisation either as instigators or spectators lose the essence, become charactatures of themselves. People are people not labels, titles and mass marketing segments. Apple is not in battle with Microsoft, Democrats are not at odds with Republicans, the United States of America is not in a war with Islamic terrorists. These are all modern day myths that shape society and alter the way pepole think and behave, but in reality these dramas serve no purpose than to give polarised politicians a space where they can create their own wealth and power.

There are as many divisions within the Islamic faith as there are differences within the Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish faith. We bandy about labels such Democrat, Tory, Liberal, Republican, Conservative, Congress, Akali, etc... these distictions serve no one but those who wish to be served. The decisions that need to be made are always made by individuals, the rest is sugar coating for what those individuals want. When the uniqueness of each individual and the changing nature of any individual is painted over by such bland colours something vital is lost, we die a little everytime this cartoon one-ness melts people into political convenience.

We have been schooled to enjoy a good story. Stories help us open up our experiences through the lives of others, be they actors, friends, politicians, poets or neighbors. That is why during a natural disaste or major war, the press reduce the story to an individual situation, so we can relate.

The power and beauty of life is blunted when we reduce the story to good guys and bad guys, I guess it is more fun to watch a game or battle where we are rooting for one or other person. In every arena of art, science, religion, sports and fashion, there is a drama, of mythic proportions just waiting to crawl out.

The thrill is the thing.

Monster Ignorance

"Be deaf to my unpitied folly and all the gods go with you! Upon your sword sit laurel victory! And smooth success but strew'd before your feet!"  Anthony and Cleopatra (Act I, Scene III)

This is a stupid question. Probably the reason why I feel so compelled to ask it. How do the masters in any field of human endeavor make the impossible look so effortless? A consistent trait of leadership in any craft, be it artists, engineers, boxers, parents, musicians, lovers or carpenters is the overwhelming sense of calm the true masters of their craft exude. When I watch them flow, working with such ease and elegance, a hungry confidence washes over me, the awe lifts the curtains on my naive belief that - "I could do that".

How do they do it? The answer is very simple. They know what they are doing. When they don't know, they don't waste precious fuel going round in circles, they stop and ask for directions. They act without fear of expectation. They are engaged in the work for its own sake. That is why their work has its own purity and is such a natural source of awe and inspiration.

"He hath rais’d the wall, and houses too.  What impossible matter will he make easy next?" The Tempest (Act II, Scene I)

True experts take their time, enter the moment gracefully, patiently, seemingly effortlessly. Self appointed experts splash and drown in the noise of their own nonsense (taking in innocent by standers with them).

I spent today working at a large Japanese auto-manufacturer. I have spent a large chunk of my life in European and North American factories. The contrast is between success and failure is alarming. It continues to blow me away, how the accumulation of the smallest (seemingly insignificant) differences in values and behaviour can result in such a drastic difference in outcomes!

Not all Japanese firms get it, but the one I was working with today, does. They define the global standard. Whether it is the offices, car park, cafeteria, loading bay or the shop-floor, everyone glides along at a graceful pace. Suddenly you realize - they are all working at the same beat to the same destination. There is no panic. No screaming. No excuses. No blame. No shame.

These are ordinary people doing their honest little jobs with pride, dignity and an extra-ordinary obsession to succeed through each other.

Yes, I have seen them in a crisis mode, but that is exactly what it is, a temporary uncertainty, an unusual and unexpected difficulty that spurs immediate action to avoid a complete disaster. A mistake is made, the crisis arises, the team rallies, the disaster is averted, celebration and relief are followed by an honest autopsy. No blame, just learn, change and move on. In most other firms crisis is the norm, where on earth could they possibly find the time for this reflection and inquiry crap?

This company's competitors know what they do and how they do it (it is no secret) but they cannot replicate these masters. It looks easy, but it isn't. They have slowly, steadily and mercifully crippled their competition, forcing them to resort to mega-mergers and buy-outs, hemorrhage loyal employee's. Executives burn out and they are quickly replaced with new hope. The new band plays the same old tune. They have become the very thing they focus on. Failure.

"My bowels cannot hide her woes, but like a drunkard must I vomit them. Then give me leave, for losers will have leave to ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues"  Titus Andronicus (Act III, Scene I)

"This ague-fit of fear is over-blown;  an easy task it is to win our own" - Richard II (Act III, Scene II)

To 'win our own' is not the easiest task. We need to invest in ourselves. Define what should be done, bring in the right people, allow them to work with others, given the space and time to be true to themselves. We become whatever we focus on.

How hard can it be to do this? Well it is hard. It is virtually impossible for people who have not worked in this system to appreciate these  so called "idealistic sentiments". Some say ignorance is bliss. I say it is a living hell. 

"O! thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!"
Love's Labour's Lost (Act IV, Scene II)

Improbable Fiction

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth
(Act V, Scene v)

When we blatantly violate other peoples perspective, be it their deeply held values or our fly by night opinions, when we questions their sense of identity, we either damage our relationship with them or their relationship with their own sense of self. Either way it hurts. In my role as a management consultant, I have to do this as part of my job. Even if it is not expected of me, I have to do it if I am to add any semblance of value to the drama that is unfolding on my client’s stage. I am invited to play the fool in their play (so much so that they pay my cab fare to get there).

This is when the rage enters the stage of human affairs. The drama being played out in the ‘hype-space’ of our living rooms, streets,  stores and more recently in on-line chat rooms or their more grandiose home of blogs, wikki’s and pod-casts. This is our stage and we get so much time on it.

Arguments are important, questioning what we see, think and feel is vitally important. The grandy daddy of them all Socrates said it the best way it could be said: “an unexamined life is not worth living”

We need to pay attention to the argument and the plot, but also the arena within which it is cloaked. A teenage will rail against a parent who says “study and prosper” but will be comforted by a peer who is helping them through their exams.

A friend will challenge our thinking and yet the same words from someone we distrust are examined, as we dig our nails deep into the earth of our own insecurity. Two neighbours will fight over an overhanging tree but when a war breaks out they fall deeply in love with each other on the battle field. Such is the nature of the stage.

The fool played such a special role in Shakespeare’s stage. The fool was the audience on the stage. The fool could see through the false face paint and flaws of all the other players. The fool asked questions that cut through the comfortable convenience these players, tearing apart their labels of self adornment.

Our chief challenge is to step off this stage, walk away from our selves, to be self and stage aware. It goes beyond sensing and seeing our drama through the eyes of the people on the stage, but sizing up the stage, the environment in which the drama is occurring. These insights open our eyes. Once we learn to see with these eyes, we can engage more fully and take the drama beyond sensationalism to a realism that is enlightening, so much so that we awaken at every step, being free'd by every foolish thing we say and do.

We can draw cold comfort from the fact that today is just another phrase in history, it will never be read (accurately - if at all), this stage will whither back into planks of old wood and into silent darkeness after the fall of the final curtain call.

“If this were played upon a stage now,
I could condemn it as an improbable fiction”
Twelfth-Night
(Act III, Scene iv)

Dark As Ignorance

"This house is as dark as ignorance,
though ignorance were as dark as hell;
and I say, there was never man thus abused.
I am no more mad than you are: make the
trial of it in any constant question"

Twelfth-Night (Act IV, Scene II)

According to Robert Kegan, there are three broad stages of ego development, these are – fantasy, concrete and abstract.

These stages of maturity are linked to age. Around the age of six (+/- 2 years), we move from the fantasy age where the mysterious world floats around our reality to a concrete world. This is a painful transition as we move from feeling and acting out of intuition to sense making.

We suddenly want answers, we need to make sense of Father Christmas, how cars work, where clouds come from, who are our friends and why do we have to put up with teachers, parents and friends?

Around about the 16 (+/- 4 years) we transition from concrete to the abstract. An even more painful transition, as we realize that the world is full of chaos, there are more things to know than we will ever know.

Puberty opens up the pearly gates of abstraction, in pours the imperfection of our parents, with this realization also arrive the media mongrels who size up and seize their feast, (this is not the fastest growing sector of the economy for nothing).

There are no simple linear rules, but mysteries feeding into deeper caves of mysteries, we spiral and seek a way of grasping a truth that does not exist, except in the fantasy of our eyes, the concrete comfort of years past.

According to Kegan, this is the moment of truth. Some press on, some have no choice, most regress back into the comfort of concrete fantasies.

The next stageis the shift to the highest form of ego development which is to transcend these three states of fantasy, concrete and abstraction.

The fourth state is nirvana. This is the ability to dance out our rage on the stage and sit dispassionately in the audience at the same time. This state is so elusive that the magnet of the fantasy and concrete world tugs us back all the time. The default is back here, we have to reset and refresh on purpose to escape the default.

When we are at the fourth stage, the fantasy opens up the child within us, the concrete provides the parental boundaries and the abstract sets us free to fly. The spiritual quest is not an isolated element, it grows out of these ego states and it returns to these.

Knowing where we are at any point in time helps us take the next step with clarity and purpose.

Cherish'd, Will Sting Your Hearts

Learning to see with full on clarity, openness and honesty requires us to suspend our habitual assumptions. Interrupt our impulse and allow meaning to seep through the innocence.

Whenever we judge others without this reference point, whenever we have built the scenery in our hearts before we have opened our eyes and seen what lies before us, heard the story in our inner ear before anyone has even opened their mouth, decided what is locked in the heart and minds of other people, when we don’t even know what is in our own, these are the moments of truth, when we run blind and lock ourselves in the tedious snare of our own making.

In every interaction, in every day our character is called into question. When we are tired, lazy or pre-occupied with our ‘self’ we forget what it means to see. We cannot be still or silent, we comfort ourselves with the clutter and noise because it is our clutter and noise. Whenever we are not self aware, we create the pain that we can project and layer on the very people who we could not be not bothered to seek out in the first place.

All of this discomfort comforts wells up inside us cluttering our minds because our fear conceals what we feel we cannot afford to face or feel. Fear is our vehicle not our viel. We wrap our hearts in the cold comfort of fear, so we dare not risk a single moment to touch anything new, discover unknown and unknowable truths.

We are too busy with reality to make it stop, for even one split second to be still and see it for what it is .

Let pale-fac’d fear keep with the mean-born man,
And find no harbour in a royal heart.
Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought,
And not a thought but thinks on dignity.
My brain, more busy than the labouring spider,
Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.
Well, nobles, well; ’tis politicly done,
To send me packing with a host of men:
I fear me you but warm the starved snake,
Who, cherish’d in your breasts, will sting your hearts.

Henry VI (Scene iii, Act i)