Timeshares to avoid

My friend Stan Goff (who also has this) loves to use this acronym: OODA. If it looks unfamiliar, I had to look it up again, and I was actually taught this stuff at one point.

OODA is an acronym and a mnemonic in the field of manuever warfare. Of course, since we worship conquest above all else in this culture, it has spilled over into a business model, sports, and politics. It's really just a way of conceptualizing what us humans do when we face an adversary. Let's break it down:

• Observe - what is the situation? what is your opponent doing?
• Orient - where are you coming from (physically, culturally, etc)? where do you want to be?
• Decide - what are the available plans and which will you choose?
• Act - put your decision into action and then repeat

Notice the "repeat" part? This is the feedback mechanism and why this is called the OODA Loop - as in: it is ongoing. And maybe that's ok if you like sitting in the same OODA loop doing the same things (relatively) against the same foes, always ending up in relatively the same spot. Work all year to build up to the same protest and then. . . well, start working on next year.

I'm seeing this now, ironically, in the Peace Movement. The war-makers, -lovers, and -profiteers are out beating the drums and the peace activists respond as does the other side, as does the other side, etc. The Peace Movement is playing war games. Is it any wonder this isn't going anywhere? How long have people opposed war? How much closer are we to ending it by fighting it in their terms? I'd say killing each other is the area in which humans have shown some of the most profound ingenuity and "advancements" in our entire history.

And lest anyone feel I'm singling out the Peace Movement, what about the folks who consider themselves part of the Vanguard of the Red Left spending their days building labor unions so they can fight for contracts, fight for grievances, and fight each other, even? How long have we heard that Labor Unions would one day lead to Communism? In my home state of Florida, Unions are barely even legal. Is this progress?

In an earlier post this week, a comment touched on where some of this thinking can lead - where the "revolutionary" just becomes a usurper to the status quo. Many people quote Machievelli, but do not understand the context in which he wrote.

I think ultimately, it may be the means which justify the ends.