Danger Flags #8: Being And Doing

'GATE

“And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got.”
 
--  Richard Nixon, Annual Convention of Associated Press Managing Editors Association, 17 November 1973
 
***
 
A WARRIOR CREED
 
“In times of war or uncertainty there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our Nation’s call. A common man with uncommon desire to succeed.
 
Forged by adversity, he stands alongside America’s finest special operations forces to serve his country, the American people, and protect their way of life.
 
I am that man.
 
My Trident is a symbol of honor and heritage. Bestowed upon me by the heroes that have gone before, it embodies the trust of those I have sworn to protect. By wearing the Trident I accept the responsibility of my chosen profession and way of life. It is a privilege that I must earn every day.
 
My loyalty to Country and Team is beyond reproach. I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow Americans always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves. I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions. I voluntarily accept the inherent hazards of my profession, placing the welfare and security of others before my own.
 
I serve with honor on and off the battlefield. The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men.
 
Uncompromising integrity is my standard. My character and honor are steadfast. My word is my bond.
 
We expect to lead and be led. In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates and accomplish the mission. I lead by example in all situations.
 
I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.
 
We demand discipline. We expect innovation. The lives of my teammates and the success of our mission depend on me – my technical skill, tactical proficiency, and attention to detail. My training is never complete.
 
We train for war and fight to win. I stand ready to bring the full spectrum of combat power to bear in order to achieve my mission and the goals established by my country. The execution of my duties will be swift and violent when required yet guided by the very principles that I serve to defend.
 
Brave men have fought and died building the proud tradition and feared reputation that I am bound to uphold. In the worst of conditions, the legacy of my teammates steadies my resolve and silently guides my every deed. I will not fail.”
 
--  The United States Navy SEAL Code
 
***
 
DANGER FLAGS, FINALE: BEING AND DOING
 
My purpose in my writings – at The Strategic Review  and in books like Pragma – has always been, and continues to be, for everyone reading to have their mind expanded, to do better, to live better.
 
This series has been our darkest exploration yet – we opened with Niccolo Machiavelli being tortured in the wake of an assassination attempt in Florence, and then followed the tragikomedya of the Soviet Security Chiefs working their way downwards under Stalin’s direction.
 
From there, we explored what Western interrogators were looking for and at during the Cold War and visited in with Nietzsche’s reflections on the origins of hatred and the schisms between the different branches of the aristocracy. We saw Scipio Africanus see neglect  in the Carthaginian camps and fortifications, leading to the famous night fire raid that contributed so very much to the triumph of Rome in the Punic Wars – and to the destruction of Carthage as a civilization.
 
One century later, we saw the foolish bravado of Julius Caesar’s opponents that led to him crossing the Rubicon and starting the Civil Wars, and Caesar’s own bravado that led to his assassination on the Ides of March.
 
We finally investigated the rise and fall of the Knights Templar – rising to a position as arguably the world’s first multinational corporation, until falling under the avarice and malice of a deeply indebted French King, who had the Templars arrested, tortured, and burned to death.
 
Yes, this series has undoubtedly been our darkest yet – but how else to get across and burn the lessons of history in our minds? There are many bad things that can’t be anticipated at our current levels of science and technology – earthquakes, typhoons, outbreaks of particularly virulent diseases – but when it comes to human nature, we really should  be able to spot a lot of bad things that happen before they do, and take appropriate countermeasures against them.
 
Danger Flags.
 
I call them “Danger Flags” – not a flag as in a banner flying in the air, but “flagging” something noteworthy for further review and scrutiny.
 
The concept is simple, but frequently neglected: before a person does something bad, there’s often predictable signs that they were going to do it. You want to be able to notice and flag common warning signs and then take countermeasures against them, or avoid entirely a person who comes with immense danger about them.
 
This final chapter, we’re looking at an entire class of danger flags – those related to being .
 
***
 
“WHAT HAVE I DONE? WHAT HAS HAPPENED?”
 
“It was after dinner that night when Nixon summoned Henry Kissinger to the Residence of the White House and sat with his Secretary of State in the Lincoln Sitting Room. Though the two leaders had worked tirelessly together on foreign policy during Nixon’s administration, they didn’t necessarily like each other. Nixon was often jealous of Kissinger’s popularity and dismissive of his personality. Kissinger thought the President was bitterly mean at times, and unnecessarily paranoid about Kissinger’s loyalty. They worked well together, but more often than not, they downplayed the other’s role in crafting the administration’s foreign policy when speaking to others. Nixon didn’t trust Kissinger and Kissinger was often angered by Nixon’s irrational behavior, especially in the past few days as the Secretary of State believed the President’s problems had paralyzed the country’s foreign affairs.
 
“On this night, however, Nixon and Kissinger simply talked. They discussed their accomplishments, their failures, their philosophies and disagreements, and Nixon urged the diplomat to stay on as Secretary of State and provide Gerald Ford with the same service he had provided Nixon. Sitting there in the smallest room of the White House, Nixon asked Kissinger about how he would be remembered. Although he had made mistakes, he felt that he had accomplished great things for his country.  Nixon was worried that his legacy would be Watergate and resignation, but he desperately wanted to be thought of as a President who achieved peace. Kissinger insisted that Nixon would get the credit he deserved.
 
“President Nixon started crying. At first, it was a teary-eyed hope that his resignation wouldn’t overshadow his long career, but soon, it broke down into sobbing as the President lamented the failures and the disgrace he had brought to his country. Nixon   —   a man who never wore his Quaker religion on his sleeve   —   turned to Kissinger and asked him if he would pray with him. Despite being Jewish, Kissinger felt he had no choice but to kneel with the President as Nixon prayed for peace   —   both for his country and for himself.
 
“ After finishing his prayer, Nixon remained in a kneeling position while silently weeping, tears streaming down the large jowls often caricatured by political cartoonists. Kissinger looked over and saw the President lean down, burying his face in the Lincoln Sitting Room’s carpet and slamming his fist against the ground crying, “What have I done? What has happened?”.  Nixon and Kissinger both disliked physical affection and Nixon in particular hated being touched, but Kissinger didn’t know any other way to console his weary, broken boss. Softly patting Nixon’s back at first, Kissinger embraced Nixon in a hug and held the President of the United States until he calmed down and the tears stopped flowing. Kissinger helped Nixon up to his feet and the men shared another drink, talking openly about what role Nixon could have in the future as a former President.”
 
-- Anthony Bergen, " The Final Hours of Richard Nixon’s Presidency ", emphasis added

“What have I done? What has happened?” – these two cried-out questions, from that carpet on the White House, might best make understood what ended the Nixon Presidency so ignominiously.
 
***
 
BY ANY OTHER NAME
 
“What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”
 
-- Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet
 
This next statement might sound trivial, but I contend it’s important to understanding this whole mess of a thing –
 
Nixon genuinely believed he was not “a crook.”
 
And again, this might seem trivial, but –
 
What’s a crook?
 
I think we would a call someone a “crook” who “does crooked and criminal things” – or something like that.
 
But the universe doesn’t have any substance of crookness – there’s no element on the Periodic Table called crookium; as far as I know, there’s no composites of elements that become hydrocrookide; no, the word “crook” is just a label.
 
Nixon thought he wasn’t that ; whatever a crook was, it wasn’t him .
 
Can you not see how this is a potential problem?
 
***
 
BEING AS A DANGER FLAG
 
From time to time, I point out the verb “to be” – variants “is”, “was”, “are”, “were”, “am” – as something to watch closely in your thinking.
 
I didn’t come up with that myself; a lot of scholars recommend “ E-Prime ” – using English without the word “is” and variants of it –
 
“E-Prime (short for English-Prime, sometimes denoted É or E ′ ) is a version of the English language that excludes all forms of the verb to be, including all conjugations, contractions and archaic forms.
 
“Some scholars advocate using E-Prime as a device to clarify thinking and strengthen writing. For example, the sentence "the film was good" could not be expressed under the rules of E-Prime, and the speaker might instead say "I liked the film", "the film made me laugh", or "the film has value". The E-Prime versions communicate the writer's experience rather than judgment, making it harder for the writer or reader to confuse opinion with fact.
 
“Kellogg and Bourland describe misuse of the verb to be as creating a "deity mode of speech", allowing "even the most ignorant to transform their opinions magically into god-like pronouncements on the nature of things." ”
 
Very often, “I am” and “they are” and “it is” type thinking leads to making a person feel exempt from their actions. If you’re “not a crook” regardless of your actions, then – paradoxically – all the crooked dealings in the world might not change that for you.
 
I contend that very many “I am X” beliefs are danger flags and ought to be carefully noted when seen in another person. The most dangerous occur when people believe themselves honest, just, good – you know, “not crooked” – and thus fail to reflect regularly on their actions.
 
***
 
A FORK IN THE ROAD
 
““Tiger, one day you will come to a fork in the road,” he said. “And you’re going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go.” He raised his hand and pointed. “If you go that way you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments.” Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed another direction. “Or you can go that way and you can do something – something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won’t have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference.” He paused and stared into the officer’s eyes and heart. “To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do. Which way will you go?”
 
-- Colonel John Boyd, U.S. Air Force;  compiled by Robert Coram
 
This is a slightly less dangerous variant than the above, but the same theme holds – John Boyd’s famous “To Be Or To Do” speech is now taught across much of the U.S. military.
 
It looks at people who want to “be somebody” – hold offices, get promoted, get awards and decorations – rather than do what needs to be done.
 
***
 
AN ABILITY TO EVOLVE ONE’S THINKING, OR NOT
 
“I finally realized today why politics and religion yield such uniquely useless discussions. [...]
 
“I think what religion and politics have in common is that they become part of people's identity, and people can never have a fruitful argument about something that's part of their identity. By definition they're partisan.
 
“Which topics engage people's identity depends on the people, not the topic. For example, a discussion about a battle that included citizens of one or more of the countries involved would probably degenerate into a political argument. But a discussion today about a battle that took place in the Bronze Age probably wouldn't. No one would know what side to be on. So it's not politics that's the source of the trouble, but identity. When people say a discussion has degenerated into a religious war, what they really mean is that it has started to be driven mostly by people's identities.
 
“ Because the point at which this happens depends on the people rather than the topic, it's a mistake to conclude that because a question tends to provoke religious wars, it must have no answer.  For example, the question of the relative merits of programming languages often degenerates into a religious war, because so many programmers identify as X programmers or Y programmers. This sometimes leads people to conclude the question must be unanswerable—that all languages are equally good. Obviously that's false: anything else people make can be well or badly designed; why should this be uniquely impossible for programming languages? And indeed, you can have a fruitful discussion about the relative merits of programming languages, so long as you exclude people who respond from identity. [...]
 
“The most intriguing thing about this theory, if it's right, is that it explains not merely which kinds of discussions to avoid, but how to have better ideas.  If people can't think clearly about anything that has become part of their identity, then all other things being equal, the best plan is to let as few things into your identity as possible.
 
“Most people reading this will already be fairly tolerant. But there is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.”
 
-- Paul Graham, “ Keep Your Identity Small ”
 
So if you think of yourself as a “Ruby programmer” and hold that dearly to you – if it’s something you are  – you become less able to evaluate the tradeoffs and downsides of that programming language, and to potentially switch to another language when appropriate.
 
Going a step further, I’ve noticed that a lot of times people who identify themselves as “creative” run into more writer’s block and desperate failings in the creative domain, people who think of themselves as “smart” melt down more often when they come to a problem at the threshold of their skill and intellectual ability, and so on.
 
The worst of these aspects are often the people who think they’re “not a crook” – this can surely lead one into problems and mean less self-scrutiny and self-awareness – but most such being  seems to hinder people’s ability to change their minds, see things clearly, and understand both themselves and the world.
 
***
 
BUT WHAT SHALL WE BE?
 
In this whole series on Danger Flags, we’ve looked at some common cases to be noticed – flagged – and either avoided or carefully managed.
 
This one is a relatively easy one to spot and fix in oneself – you stop taking pride in what you are ; and start taking pride in what you do . It’s not difficult to see how being proud that “I am creative” might lead to producing less art than “I write a three-act play every quarter, four per year”, no?
 
And yet, it’s very human and natural and normal to want to identify  with things, to be  things.
 
When I first sat and mulled over this, it was confusing and difficult. Clearly, if you can handle it, scrubbing most “being” out of your thinking and what you’re proud of can make you more honest, reliable, effective; can lead to acting better in a variety of ways.
 
But this almost certainly will never go mainstream, can’t go mainstream; being  is going to be around for the foreseeable future, downsides and all.
 
And to that end, I think the “Navy SEAL Code” offers great lessons and alternatives to the sort of “mindless being” that leads Nixon to say he isn’t a crook, despite paying off the “White House Plumbers” to keep silent about the burglary.
 
Look at how it begins –
 
“In times of war or uncertainty there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our Nation’s call. A common man with uncommon desire to succeed.
 
Forged by adversity, he stands alongside America’s finest special operations forces to serve his country, the American people, and protect their way of life.
 
I am that man.
 
My Trident is a symbol of honor and heritage. Bestowed upon me by the heroes that have gone before, it embodies the trust of those I have sworn to protect. By wearing the Trident I accept the responsibility of my chosen profession and way of life.  It is a privilege that I must earn every day. ”
 
Interestingly, it notes the SEAL is a “common man” – not a special man, not an ultra-talented ultra-warrior by birth, not possessing otherworldly powers, no, a common man with uncommon desire to succeed.
 
It then emphasizes “forged by adversity” – that’s where it comes from, from actually going through adversity, from doing .
 
It says “I am that man” – being – but immediately tempers it with, “It is a privilege that I must earn every day.”
 
Earn.
 
Work.
 
Do.
 
“We expect to lead and be led. In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates and accomplish the mission. I lead by example in all situations.
 
I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.
 
We demand discipline. We expect innovation. The lives of my teammates and the success of our mission depend on me – my technical skill, tactical proficiency, and attention to detail. My training is never complete.”
 
Really, the whole thing is remarkable. It’s worth re-reading in full and thinking through, and then perhaps spending some time studying the very difficult selection process that the would-be Navy SEAL must endure and persist through, and the ongoing training they do.
 
And it’s not all lofty – emphasizing the need for technical skill, tactical, proficiency, and attention to detail. “My training is never complete.”
 
Apparently, you can’t just “be” a Navy SEAL. It’s something you must earn every single day.
 
***
 
FAREWELL, DANGER FLAGS
 
We’ve looked at a mix of attributes you should notice immediately and carefully flag in others – liking without respect, internal strife, hatred, neglect, bravado, avarice, and a lot of other big and small things.
 
The people you choose to have in your life are one of the most important things for how your life will run. And while we could spend another few years just investigating other types of danger flags, for now we are concluded – though I must recommend you continue to study and think on who should be in your life.
 
And just as importantly, who are you becoming? How are you training? Any attribute we dislike in others, we must work ten times as hard to scrub out of ourselves.
 
This might be the difference between triumph and defeat on the grandest of stages, it might be life or death, or it might just be whether life runs more smoothly and tranquilly, and whether we’re able to get the best out of ourselves across these few decades we have on this planet.
 
"I brought myself down. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in. And they twisted it with relish. And, I guess, if I'd been in their position, I'd have done the same thing."
 
Yeah, Richard Nixon said that. Do things; don’t be things.
 
Thank you for joining me on Danger Flags .