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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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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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Dec 9, 2022·edited Dec 9, 2022Author

Who is your duty to? If you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions, then you are not entitled to joy and love that should come when the person to whom you have performed your duty thanks you.

I'd say you are reading the Gita far too narrowly for your own happiness. For if it is as you say, there really is no reason to do anything, for the fruit of your motivation to do your duty brings some satisfaction. And based on what you say, you have no right to feel satisfied in fulfilling your duty.

I am also certain that if you are married, and you tell you spouse that your care them is simply performing your assigned duty as a spouse, that your relationship will not last long.

Admiral Stockdale's duty of honor to the men in the prison was out of respect and love for each one of them. His book Love and War describes this well.

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I was thinking more along the lines of he has the duty to the men to help them, he could say to them in the example you give, don’t be so optimistic, stay connected to reality or you will die, whether the men accept that is up to them, he can only offer it ie do his duty, he has the right to do his duty, but ultimately it is up to the men to accept it. In that way he cannot concern himself with results. He can act how he sees fit (he has the right to perform his duties) but he cannot control how other people interpret his example or advise. Did he have any control over how the North Vietnamese treated him, he only had control over his own actions and thoughts ie he had the right to perform his own duties but could not determine how those duties would affect the North Vietnamese or his fellow inmates, nor be attached to inaction ie he still kept going still trying despite that, he still had hope - to believe in a better future - in the midst of an embrace of reality - confronting the brutal facts.

What were the evil captors, the North Vietnamese trying to do? Were they trying to force and coerce him to live in their reality? For his own good or their own good?

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Thanks for this commentary--especially resonates with me.

"Be absolutely convinced that you will prevail in the end, and at the same time, face up to and deal with the brutal facts of reality. The more you practice them, the greater confidence you have to stand on your own and be less subject to the hyperreality of modern-day consumer and political propaganda."

I work on this daily, thankful for alternative news sources. There are those whose faith in 'Jesus' or 'God' or the 'Bible' seem to be their source of solace. I'm not prone to relying on biblical tales to confirm my faith, especially when there is an entire world of people whose beliefs rely on completely different religions. When I look around me, I see that many people are not even aware that they are in this Matrix. My attempts to educate 'friends' usually falls flat. But I try to insert little comments into conversations that might cause people to think that the story is not quite what they think it is, or that their lives could be different. I am in awe of those who've gone so far out on a limb to reveal the truth about the Covid Matrix and to continue to educate others, despite being reviled as misinformation spreaders. These are true leaders. My leadership consists of living by example.

"We need people in our lives who believe in us. We need to believe in ourselves, but also in others as well. Where those relationships are strong, we can face the brutal facts of our world, with resilience and hope. These relationships require honesty, transparency, integrity, and mutual caring."

I so believe this. My two brothers share my ideas. My partner calls me a conspiracy theorist. She is 'embarrassed' by my views. This is hurtful, but I persevere, quietly reading substacks and other sources, knowing from the readers' comments that we are a community, that this is my community right now, that together we are rising against tyranny, that one by one we are waking up. In my personal in-person daily life, I don't have anyone that 'sees' the situation we are currently in on this planet, in this moment. The conversations I have with my partner usually end in frustration, with me being called a quack, "like your father was." Believing in myself has always been one of my strongest survival/adaptation skills.

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Thanks for sharing. It is an interesting time. The real side of people has begun to show. I have had a number of people accuse me of being crazy and a danger to society. I try to get them to describe where they get the basis for their positions. Ultimately, they can't say other than from the experts. You really can't argue with them. What amazes me is how people will trust people they don't have a relationship with rather than those who they do. Does your partner understand how hurtful her denigration of you and your father is? Hang in their. Trust your intuition until it is clear that you shouldn't.

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I think many of us who are aware have that fear of being called crazy and a danger to society. I've been called crazy. What's so fascinating is that when I posit some 'new' facts to friends, the very few that even respond will parrot something like: Paul Alexander is not a reliable source, or Peter McCullough's medical license has been revoked for his spread of misinformation. Others wouldn't even read RFK's "A Letter to Liberals." Coincidentally, today I was walking the dog and charted chatting with a stranger (and I was in a new place). She heard my accent, assumed I was a Yank and asked how things were 'over there.' In mentioning the manufactured polarization between parties and the ludicrous, dangerous Covid BS, she asked if I had the shots. "No way," I told her. She said, "Me neither." This is in Australia, so there's hope of enlightenment everywhere. And I made a new friend.

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I get the feeling that for some people they feel like they are holding on for dear life in a hurricane. That is all they can do.

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Thank you for such a thoughtful reflection on these timely themes.

"It is the loss of the past as a living reality, the loss of reality as a context for understanding, and, the loss of an embodied presence that gives a clear sense of who we are."

This is likely over my head. "The past as a living reality..." Is it? It certainly helps when we can agree on facts about what happened in the past, as an ongoing 'reality' and something fixed but, can we ever really do that, or to a sufficient enough degree where we call it a living reality? (Was that Eco or you?)

Re the rest of the quote - I so agree. "The loss of reality as a context..." Certainly sums up where we are. ..."the loss of an embodied presence that gives a clear sense of who we are." Yes and yikes.

"The hyperreal present is one without a past, a future, or hope." Losing me again, but think I have a sense of what this means. When we lose our story, or the thread of the story, we can't find the path forward? Does this imply identity is tied than to history and shared narrative? Cause I'm not too sure about that.

Much of this resonates for me - I've often thought - since the 90's really - that there was a hollowness to the world underway - a hollowing out of content, in favor of form - which this piece reminds me of.

Not just an emerging superficiality - but what felt like a fake version of reality imposed or superimposed over actual reality.

And also this sense that people are not really here, embodied. This has certainly increased with personal devices as it does seem, many are slipping into the 'machine' so while you still see them, when you speak to them - not really here.

Did something happen, or is this just what happens at the end of large cycles? Has all this happened before? I will have to read more of your posts on the topic. Fascinating.

Reading about the lost-hope author, I couldn't help think her biggest problem was myopia. She just couldn't get out of her way enough, to pull back into a larger view and see the world is not here to meet her expectations.(I've done this.) Maybe a little martyrdom complex too. I don't mean to be unkind, but it felt self-important.

I find it helps to go big - so big that we have to admit everything we can't see or know, which instantly humbles us. It also re-fortifies, because even though I don't know the whole story, I still have my bit to do in the world like everyone else.

I also thought of the practice (Hindu) of detachment - putting everything you've got into your work and then letting go of outcome. (You can spend your life time on that one.) It's none of your business in the end, how your work is received, but how you extend it, matters. And of course, work that matters, means that you must be present, embodied, to do it.

Thank you! So much good stuff to dig into.

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Thank you very much. I love with people read and have questions. Let me explain what I trying to convey. I think you get it.

1. If we treat the past as a collection of dates, and time as a clock, then we don't see the wholeness of time. More importantly, we don't see how our past is embodied in us. If you know someone who experience physical or emotional trauma as a child, they can be triggered by a memory of a moment where that trauma was experience. The same is true with a joy or a transcendent experience is some beautiful place in nature. We retain those memories, not just in our head as some file, but in our bodies as a fully realized experience. This is why certain situations, like a movie, elicits certain emotions. When I see a moment of gratitude or honor in a film, I'll tear up. That is because of experiences in my past where those experiences had a fundamental effect of defining who I am. As William Faulkner wrote, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." Ultimately, a living reality is something will find nurtured through our relationships. In my family, we talk about our ancestors a lot. So, for us what happened in the past has an explanatory power to understand who we are in the present. Recently, I found letters that my grandmother, her sister, and their mother (my great grandmother) wrote in the 1920s. I laughed because who they were then was very much like who I knew them to be later in life.

2. Hyper-reality. Have you watched the first The Matrix movie lately? If you have the chance, do so. I think you'll see how it is a pretty accurate depiction of the way our world has been since the beginning of the pandemic. There is certain hyper-real aspect about it. When authority figures complain about misinformation, then we know that they are losing their grasp on the simulation's narrative. It means that they cannot argue from a position of real logic or information. It is like the Wizard on the screen in the Wizard of Oz. Everyone thinks he is real. He isn't. Just an image. The real person is an old guy behind a curtain who really doesn't much to offer the world. The same is true in the Spectacle of the Real. I wrote a series of posts about this earlier this year. You can find them linked here - https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/the-culture-of-simulation-series

3. I believe there has always been this aspect of human society. Today, it is just more evident because it is on a screen. The key for me is to focus on my direct relationships with people. Those are ones where respect, trust, and mutuality are present. They are the antidotes to the Spectacle. When we can have an impact on people directly, and they upon us, then the kind of superficial spectacle that we see on social media has a less of a pull on our lives.

Hope this helps.

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Yes, thank you, very helpful.

1 -I get what you mean on living relationships and definitely on the past as never really past, since we do embody it.

2 -Haven't seen the Matrix in a few years, will rewatch and check out those posts.

3 - I take your response to mean you don't think what's happening now is part of a larger cycle? A "fourth turning" phenomena? I tend to think of it that way, a period of unraveling and revelation ending with a new start and cycle. But, I don't know.

And I feel the same regarding relationships as antidotes to the Spectacle. Many have become more precious over the last few years.

Appreciate the generosity with your time in replying.

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Regarding #3. I think that what we are experiencing is unique in form. But there has always been a sort of simulated, myth-making by people in power. When I first became interested in the field of leadership in the mid-1980s, I began to read books on leadership and leaders. From the beginning, I didn't agree with what I read. It did not fit with my experience of the people who had been the most influential in my life. They were common people, average people, not "leaders". Most of the business biographies I was reading seemed to be trying "to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." The power of images has really only been exploitable at the level we are expereincing it for the past hundred and twenty years or so. So, in this sense, it is unique.

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That's an excellent point on the power of images.

(Though I have a suspicion that the history and evolution of humanity on our little planet here - is all wrong. We may have experienced highly advanced cultures in the past, and have been provided a skewed history.)

Still, I know, we have to work with what we can agree on. :-)

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The meaning of what is an advanced culture would be a good topic for discussion.

This I know. The technology advances of the past century has made it possible for the vast majority of people living in extreme poverty to escape it. Unfortunately, our global leaders seem to believe that this is a threat to the planet. I’m waiting for an advanced civilization to appear at the top of of the global power hierarchy.

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