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Ed Brenegar's avatar

Okay. I see where you are going with this. Sorry if I misunderstood.

Stockdale’s story is unique partly for his conduct as the highest ranking officer imprisoned by the North Vietnamese. He had the responsibility of rank to lead his men. More so his story is noteworthy because his intentional application of philosophical principles. Here is an audio recreation of a speech that was also published as a pamphlet where he talks about these principles. https://youtu.be/pmA_Rn-R2y0

In the context of our discussion, I think there is a distinction to be made between duty and responsibility. Duty has the sense of something that I must do. Responsibility is something that I do because I am accountable for my actions and the outcome of my actions. Who am I accountable to? The people to whom I am responsible for and who are responsible to me.

Stockdale clearly felt responsible for each man under his authority as highest ranking officer in the prison. Here’s the Medal of Honor video where he describes his actions while in prison. https://youtu.be/Pc_6GDWl0s4

As a leadership guy, I see Stockdale not only as an example of what organizational leaders should be like, but stands in contrast to what leadership has become in our time. Your use of the idea of duty and the detachment of reward from the fulfillment of duty has some merit in our current context where corruption is a real problem of global proportions. However, detachment on a personal level has dire consequences on a social level. To fulfill duty as to some, let’s say, minimal fulfillment of the letter of the law would ultimately isolate every individual from one another to preserve one’s detachment. In a political prison, this not only affects the other inmates, but the nation as a whole. This is why I see Eastern philosophical detachment as idealistic and ultimately self-serving. Stockdale was prepared to die to preserve the lives of the men under his command. This ancient philosophical principle is found both in Stoic philosophy and biblical faith. And today is only found in people who do not carry the title of leader in organizations or public life. And with people who value the study of philosophy or have a biblical faith, this not about what believe, but what we do with our beliefs.

There is a parallelism between Stockdale and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. Both were political prisoners, both suffered unjustly, both wrote about their experiences in service to those who suffered with them. I encountered the writings of both these men early in my career, forty years ago. As I turned from traditional ministry to leadership work, their influence remain central in my thinking about leaders. When Jim Collins came out with his construction called The Stockdale Paradox, an application for Stockdale’s example became available to many others. Here is Jim Collins speaking about his encounter with Admiral Stockdale. https://youtu.be/GvWWO7F9kQY

There is more to say, for another time.

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Andrew N's avatar

reading this I thought of the Bhagavad Gita, hard to explain in a comments section, but to me it captures Stockdale's stoic approach. Accept the current reality, do what you can to change your reality and continue to do so, but still accept the facts of your current reality, almost an iterative process.

The last line of the Gita, nor be attached to inaction, is very important in this context.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.

Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results. We have the right to do our duty, but the results are not dependent only upon our efforts. A number of factors come into play in determining the results

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