The Differences Between Civilized and Uncivilized Behaviors in Nation Building

In our society we know that we must have civilized behaviors in order to survive and maintain the core functions of society. There must be collaboration between the different elements of society. According to the Cambridge dictionary a civilized society is, "A civilized society or country has a well developed system of government, culture, and way of life and that treats the people who live there fairly"(Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). It means our institutions and systems are in alignment with their stated purpose.

In any society there are civilized and uncivilized elements. When the uncivilized elements overcome the civilized elements we are out of balance and may begin to see things like civil defaults of institutions. Americans expect a civilized society and while we may have uproars from time to time (i.e. capital riots) we have shown thus far that we eventually settle into a shared understanding (i.e. civilized society).

That isn't always the case in every place as different values start to supersede national values (This usually happens when distorted values make their way into official positions so the natural checks and balances between the independence of institutions is unduly influenced by an embedded network who hold alternative/counter values. Embedded as a word is used more casually here to denote a group with an identity that has its own social structure and values that influences/distorts institutional purpose.) We have room for improvement and not recognizing that room for improvement means we compound our future problems (Small continuous adjustments today are easier than wide adjustments tomorrow. That becomes especially important in institutional management improvements toward national/philosophical goals. In other words, when we stay focused on working toward the central purpose of democracy's existence and its philosophical logical system we will be fulfilling that national purpose.). Keep in mind that people who challenge the system to be better are actually doing the right thing because they are protecting the system from itself (It lets us see areas where improvement should happen to keep the whole system from becoming sickly. Continuously improvement is necessary for business, for people, and for nations. If your not improving then your backsliding.)

Imagine for a moment a society (i.e. an isolated village) where unwritten rules, laws and codes supersede the official rules. Where clans and social networks have created social hierarchies much like we may find in rigid immobile societies where there are no movements between these different societal stratums. We would find other markers such as slack investment over a period of time, lost population, general decline in economic well being, etc. as secondary consequences to the micro choices derived rom those implicit values. If we researched places that are declining we may find higher levels of nepotism, corruption, or mismanagement. (Values that led to basic "trust" made Democracy and Capitalism build some of the strongest nations in the world. We now find our system challenged and should think about what we can do to make our society stronger, better, more able, and resilient. We can look on the economic side but we should also look on the civil side and its impact on human capital and national development.) 

The laws, rules and even morality change within this entity based upon being within a good old boys network. Where the rules of a mutually shared social contract (i.e. Constitution) have been discounted they are replaced by unwritten rules and codes (Its possible to go back and analyze value statements of those who adhere to those unwritten rules). For example one could justify aggression against those not in the network based on racial, religious, and ethnic differences as the rules would not apply (This is often called wink and nod.). 

That would be a village that nudged toward incivility based on the definition and would need to correct itself (either by itself or by outside intervention). Strong nations can bring and encourage those local systems tipping toward incivility back to the world of civility. That would require commitment by our politicians and institutional leaders to focus on building and pushing democracy to its next universal state of existence. All of our villages should point in the same direction if we hope to achieve our stated national goals.

This is my opinion. Democracy is a commitment and way of life. Much of the problems we face in terms of crime, competitiveness, etc. are often based in how we treat each other on a human to human exchange/"trust" level. It is based in our realized beliefs that transcend the differences between peoples. Civility is about building stronger universal societies where the rules apply fairly to everyone and in turn are rewarded through higher economic performance and social cohesion. (I can't really say apply the same to everyone but can say apply fairly to everyone. Each case has its own merits and therefore having the same approach to everything doesn't really work. Let us just think in terms of "rules apply fairly". i.e. moral conscious.)

Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Civilized. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/civilized

Great Lakes Governors Launch '100% Whitefish' Initiative': Love the Smell of Fish!

If you would like to purchase picture
check out gallery HERE.

The '100% Whitish" Initiative is designed to bring back fishing through increasing the value of Whitefish for commercial use. According to the press release, "Campaign aims to demonstrate how commercially caught Great Lakes whitefish can be more fully used, raising per fish value toward $3,500" (Michigan Department of Natural Resources.)

The Conference of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers got their minds together to ponder how to increase the value of whitefish in the Great Lakes. When we look at places like Iceland's fishing policies that have returned some of their commercial fishing industries. we should always implement best practices into the Great Lakes (It would be nice to not think as much about limiting catches but about how to increase total fish populations and manage the permits to that increase. Paying special attention to ensure a variety of different commercial fishing opportunities such as owner-operator boats to large commercial fleets. That would mean much of the tax revenue from fishing would go directly back into fish development and fish environment creation to increase populations. I'm assuming it doesn't now. 🤔) 

Great Lakes commercial fishing has been on the decline due to mismanagement, pollution, and misuse of resources. There are many interested stakeholders that would like to bring back commercial fishing with abundant renewable fish supplies. It takes regional stakeholders to create self-renewing large scale systems that can regenerate. You have to think from a wide angle lens perspective and have enough science to know the inputs and outputs, basic relationships between events, how to refunnel related tax revenue back into the industry, and how to improve the overall health of the system.

(Here are my initial thoughts. Good, good, good! We need a strong source of protein to serve a growing world population. If we took the Great Lakes as a macro ecological system that is mixed with our regional macro economic system we begin to see why it is so important to managed the environmental safety of the system as well as increase its total economic value. My dream of someday working a few days off of a fishing boat out of Escanaba might someday be realized. 😂 Ok....really.... just more of a future hobby I'm thinking about. Maybe if we can get a new classification of individual hobby local commercial fishing permits might work in keeping money in a community as well as offering fresh Great Lakes fish to local restaurants/stores. A local market! Who wouldn't want to be on the water every few days? I mean really. You can get satellite internet. 🎣 )

You might be interested in this documentary on commercial fishing in the Great Lakes. Since I like to learn how they do it the video provides some pretty solid advice. I don't c

Happy Veterans Day-Democracy will Persist!

Our veterans have seen the best and worst of mankind. They know all too well the risks to democracy and the sacrifices that are needed to maintain our freedoms. Most have first hand account and memories of what a lack of freedom and democracy looks like on all too vivid scale. They have visited places where race, religion, and ethnic differences were exploited to commit the worst humanitarian disasters (They also worked and fought in units where racial and religious differences didn't even cross their mind.). 

Many of our veterans know what it takes to uphold democracy and they know all too well what the world looks like when people are stripped of freedoms (or perhaps never had them). They are the ones who upheld our essential American values while the world collapsed around them. They stood tall as the ground turned cold. We raise our flag high on Veteran's Day.

Its more than that isn't it? We must live and honor those hard earned passed from generations of sacrifice in our home towns and in our institutions. When we fail to live by our ideals we must correct our course because even veterans can be targets of hate. The lessons veterans have learned about democracy cannot be easily disseminated to those who have not experienced the same breadth of life.

As an experienced people I encourage our veterans to be involved in their communities, their nation, and even in politics. I think they have something to say about how Democracy will Persist! 

(If you would like to see some of our veterans who are continuing to serve you can look at the Congressional Veteran's Caucus)

NASDAQ, DOW, and S&P500 Rises Quickly on CPI Lower Inflation Expectations

The NASDAQ, DOW and S&P500 stock rally is expected to last throughout Thanksgiving. There has been a bump because of signs inflation rises are slowing down which reduces some future investment risks. Nov 10th 2022 CPI From BEA. We want to understand what happens between economic data and how stock markets respond. CEOs, investors, and even politicians want to understand stock markets in order to raise value and capital. (What type of actions create large scale stock increases? From an older study we might see broad based economic announcements have an impact. Perhaps if we looked at all the Bull & Bear markets and cross analyzed them with announcements/events we might gain insight historically. We can also consider that major events such as stopping/starting oil, Russian conflict, supply chain issues, etc. create market volatility. I would also suspect anything that is known for decision making to impact the economy is likely to have some effect i.e. a large scale infrastructure innovative improvement that lowers elemental transaction costs through synergy. What we can say is that lower inflation has broad impact on many markets so changing that is like changing a fundamental ingredient.  )

A couple of articles I really like:

Why the Nasdaq Is Soaring Even as Inflation Remains High from the Motely Fool

Markets Soar on Signs of Slower Inflation from NY Times

 

Dow pops 1,200 points, S&P 500 jumps 5% in biggest rally in two years after light inflation report by CNBC

Competing to Win, Manufacturing in America: Detroit Economic Club

Manufacturing in the U.S. is one of key industries that not only carried the U.S. to unseen heights after WWII but also has received increased attention in the post-COVID world. Manufacturing has moved into the spotlight and of renewed interest as the global conflict rises and supply chains are disrupted. The video from the Detroit Economic Club is from two weeks ago but it is an interesting discussion on how to back manufacturing to the U.S. and what these manufacturers need to grow. Some of the of the key points relate to regulation, what people feel, hiring, and education. You can check out the Detroit Economic Club's page HERE (Its worth the visit and influences business policy). 

Key Notes and (Thoughts): (Don't expect it to be perfect. They are like notes and key points. Also application of a theory I'm writing.🤓)

-Manufacturing is hiring lots of people. 12.9 mil. people. The economic value of human capital.

-6 job seekers per 10 open positions.

-70% of people feel govt. is on wrong track. Biggest Threats

-Listen to lawmakers and take the nuggets of knowledge without being party constrained (Scientific and divergent minds should consider all of the information from any side before coming to a conclusion.). You may read something on the civility in politics. 

-Energy and workforce issues (I advocate or diverse plug & play energy and human capital development. The system should continuously push toward efficient, cleaner and renewable.) A little article on efforts to protect the electric grid and how to help industry protect from natural disasters like hurricanes to manmade events such as Russia Banning Oil. 

-Red tape, delays and regulations often slow business. We need some method of getting things done in fairly quick fashion (i.e. streamlined regulations). We must still protect our environmental health as a key future business component so some oversight is still necessary (Most industries have no idea how connected they are to the environment they create. Its the beginning of the life chain.). There are some responsibilities to not only protect our current systems (i.e. Great Lakes) but also clean and improve them.  (Government should consider setting a minimum standard that can be used to push industry to adjust while also maximizing opportunities for industry to self manage and stay ahead of the curve legislative curve. The more business takes initiative, the more freedom to self regulate and influence policies into workable frameworks that helps the environment and business at the same time. We will need either a win-win between government and business on the environment or we will need global regulation that creates the same playing field for everyone. Considering that American businesses seek to protect the environment, and other countries are less concerned, the costs would seemingly be a short term disadvantage. To me, the more flexible approach government and industry oversite practices can settle on the more we can focus on building our nation in a healthy and sustainable way.) 

-Michigan Manufacturers Institution: Develops skilled workers for advanced manufacturing industry. 

-Business should become part of the educational process. We are one society so we should be grooming our students to be ready to take important positions in our economy as well as having the skills to contribute in civil development. Industry also should provide key insights into what work skills they need from graduates. Industry often determines what specific skills they need while Academics determine the skills that advance society as a whole (i.e. Industry-Competency model as one method to better ensure skill creation and infuse that within the general knowledge needed by society.)

Values that made America and Manufacturing Strong: free enterprise, competitiveness, liberty and equal opportunity. (All business, economy, and the fabric society are based in maintaining certain shared values. Some have tried to misuse that but we must keep these as the higher higher vs. lower principles we follow.) Read about leadership and innovation. 

-Competitive tax rate for small and medium business to encourage investments (Delta County MNC example.).

-How infrastructure impacts manufacturing industry

-Research tax deduction to keep us competitive.

-China challenge needs a whole nation response. i.e. Chips legislation and semiconductors. ☝

Military and Irregular (IW): The importance and the necessity of "thinking out of the box"

Firing Range at Camp Swezey
1943 All Chinese American Unit
US Army Airborne and "Flying Tigers" 14 Air Force

The military world is changing and has been on the path of movement from large ground troop invasions to highly specialized force incursions. As we are updating and changing our military into a Digital Era warfare system we must keep in mind that similar trends of adjustment will occur on low cost militaries (and large scale) that don't have access to emerging technologies (As one strategy/resource adjusts other militaries adjust to find a competitive position. Large armies have formal hierarchy with designated resources while non-traditional irregular armies {i.e. ISIS, Taliban approach, mercenaries, insurgents, amebic groups, etc.} will utilize low cost with amebic structures to their advantage.)

We created the Irregular Warfare Functional Center (IWFC) with the passage of the Mac Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act of 2021. One of the goals is to attract and develop leadership from multiple sources within the DOD and leading universities to tackle these issues. (Its a very long document so not sure anyone is really going to read it but you can see the table of contents. One of the points to be made is that fields of study begin to specialize and now we see how emerging new technology and low technology coexist as two different fields of investigation. An example is research on Higher Ed and how there are topical changes/"Islands" and gaps that leads to further investigation and specialization. HERE. Sometimes requiring exploration into related fields through a methodology of transactional clusters theory might lead to butterfly development across many fields and industries {new products and development is important. i.e. discovering something that impacts military, auto, space and outdoors as the same time}. One can do this by occasional analyzing the other potential uses for different levels of discovery by allowing industries to collaborate and explore potential. It increased research breadth and improve adaptation and economic growth from those sharing fields. Its mostly an additive process.  A sort of related topic on islands of new knowledge.) 

There is an opinion piece that I think is kind of interesting HERE. (I like Austin so whatever whatever but there are a couple of interesting points being made). I do agree that we should engage in serious study to explore the ability to fight a large scale war and multiple small scale IW campaigns at the same time (There is some discussion on whether or not we can fight two major wars and I still think that is a good goal. One could also consider multiple small scale IW designed to slow down, trip up, and thwart emerging secondary threats in their formative stages but can be be used as a supportive resource. Highly mobile secondary systems that can use the best of methods to help small nations/people defend themselves as well as form up to be substantive if a major conflict deterrent if necessary. By doing so we are hedging multiple large and smaller scale strategies through new lines of military science that can counter different forms of threats on a spectrum. As IW develops it should help prepare American units to counter the strategic positioning of others. It also offers an opportunity to develop advanced strategies for more formal training and equipment development. IW will bring different equipment needs. Likely small scale multi-tool outdoor wearable technology. ) 

You can read the job description for a IWFC Specialist as it is kind of interesting. They are not currently recruiting but if the Center gets more traction you never know!. Feel free to read the LinkedIn IWFC Specialist description. If you got those skills and abilities you might want to reach out to them anyway. Our country always needs good people with advanced skills stepping forward to make a contribution (That is everyone in the country has a stake in how our democracy turns out and our ability to maintain our democracy governmental system in a world where some actors are challenging our destiny. No restrictions on race, religion, or other protected value systems when applying. Don't let some the politicians confuse you political and self interest....we are all on the same team with different strengths and opinions. If we {or some} are not on the same team with shared long term goals it detracts from our national competitiveness.)

Spending Time in Big Bear: I Still Think of Mountaineering and Climbing. (The Outdoor Industry)

Purchase Digital in Gallery HERE

Big Bear CA is one of those places where people love to have weekend getaways and downhill ski, hike, fishing or hang out on the lake. It is also a place where you will really enjoy the outdoors. Its about 7,000 feet above sea level so its not way up there but you could notice a little climate change and a a touch of thinness of air.

Mostly it is just a place to vacation and live nestled into a mountain surrounded by nature. Residents remind me of people who live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They are a little isolated, surrounded by nature, and everything is very clean (You can read about an analysis I'm currently doing on how to attract businesses and outdoor recreation to Delta County Michigan. HERE.)

When your in eclectic places like this I often start to think about climbing and mountaineering. I started a little on that path about 5 years ago and was thinking of maybe training to climb Everest (I still sort of think of it but time and age is moving forward.). Something to do and to do it for a good cause!

Purchase Digital in Gallery HERE

Life circumstances change but I also see where it is possible again. While I'm not sure if I would make Everest I might still start engaging in more climbing and mountaineering and just see where that leads (Hiking, climbing, camping, rappelling, navigating, etc.). Not all the time, just enjoy the outdoors, and engage it on a fairly consistent basis.

That is part of balancing life. To fulfill these inner needs to explore, understand, and overcome. There are just some who are built as explorers and some that are not. Adventure and outdoor sporting are not for the faint of heart but are worthwhile augmentations to "normal" life. Our nation was built on explores, dreamers, and those who dared to be different. 

There is a reason why so many people flock to the outdoor lifestyle and why it is a growing trend. You can read an Outdoor Industry Report HERE. "Outdoor recreation accounted for 1.8% of the U.S. GDP in 2021 with $689B in gross output and 4.3M jobs."

Purchase Digital in Gallery HERE

 

Purchase Digital in Gallery HERE

The Outdoor Industry Association (August 22, 2022). 'State of Outdoor Market Report: Summer 2022. Retrieved Number 4th, 2022 from  https://outdoorindustry.org/resource/state-of-the-outdoor-market/#:~:text=Key%20findings%20from%20the%20report,output%20and%204.3M%20jobs.