Those small epiphanies...

I have been the subject, of late, of a seeming barrage of wild and crazy statements, some of which represent a 180-degree turnaround of conventional "wisdom." Herewith, two such items:

Belief

One of the several houses of worship down the street has, on its street sign, words to the effect that there are some things in the world that must be "believed in order to be seen." They, of course, are talking about some key aspect or other of their religion, and are encouraging the passerby to have faith. For sure, their formulation turns on its ear the old saw about having to see something in order to believe it.

Believing in something after you see it is easy. That's why nobody doubts the ability of airplanes to fly. On a personal level, it's why few doubt their ability to buy a hamburger, or rent an apartment, or go on vacation; so many people you know have done these things, you know they are accessible to you, too.

But believing in something before you see it...well, that takes guts. But it is sometimes essential if some goal is to be achieved.

More on this later.

Action

One of the mottoes made memorable during my three-month, all-expenses-paid sojourn off the coast of South Carolina (i.e., boot camp on Parris Island) was "when the going gets tough, the tough get going!"

Makes sense, right? Now turn it around: When the tough get going, the going gets tough.

I found that scribbled along the edge of a page of notes I took some time ago; I don't remember when or where. With no disrespect intended for those who, facing adversity, find that they have an untapped reserve of toughness that helps them weather that adversity, after musing on it a while, I now think that the "backward" version of this cliché is the real McCoy.

Why? Because goals are not easy to achieve (nor should they be). Want to be physically fit? You have to exercise. Want to buy a new car (and avoid murderous finance charges)? You have to save. In each case, your life becomes a bit more difficult, and the going gets a little "tougher." And the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles that must be overcome.

I need to chew on these further; the fog is beginning to lift.

Cheers...

Even misinformation can lead to interesting truths...

An article published last Wednesday on rambler.ru speculated that the British e-publication The Register had been placed on a cybercensor's "banned" list owing to a lack of appreciation for "British humor" directed at Bill Gates and Microsoft in the wake of the recent earthquake in Washington State.

Not quite the case, it would seem.

According to The Register's latest article on the subject, the block - imposed by a company named SurfControl via its Cyber Patrol software - had been imposed because of a reference, in one of the publication's stories, to Peacefire.org which is an ardent opponent of filtering software, and in particular to the organization's web site, which offers software that supposedly defeats programs such as Cyber Patrol.

At any rate, the folks at The Register are not at all happy, since the ban percolated though a number of Cyber Patrol OEMs, including Novell's BorderManager, effectively keeping a number of corporate users from reading the magazine. Furthermore, it appears that the official explanation offered by SurfControl for the ban was that The Register was a sex site, which served to further ruffle editorial feathers.

A question of interest raised by The Register in a separate article is very thorny: Is it appropriate for a company to have - and exercise - the right to block publications that may write about that company from its customers view?

By the way, the story that informs readers of the ban being lifted is datelined March 9, at 12:27 pm (presumably GMT, which pegs publication at 4:27 am Pacific Time). As I write this, it is about 1:45 pm Pacific Time on the 10th (over 24 hours later), and The Register appears to actually still be on the list of banned sites, (at least according to this link, which may be one of the aforementioned OEMs, but I got there via the main Cyber Patrol site).

Interesting times we live in.

Cheers...

On fear...

Fellow LJer bsgi observed, regarding a previous post:

...to believe in something unseen and unexperienced, instead of guts, one may only need a lot of fear.

Interesting point, but I believe this blurs the distinction between motivation and belief. The former is a prerequisite for the latter, I think.

No doubt, fear is certainly a motivator. Throughout history, it has been ubiquitous in that role, ever-popular among many parents, teachers, governments, and employers. Responding to fear can cause you to decide to do things you never otherwise would have believed you could do.

But while fear is a motivator, it is not the only one, nor does it necessarily provide superior results, much less guaranteed ones.

During my stint with the Marines, there came a point during basic training when recruits who had repeatedly failed to finish the morning P.T. run were assembled together and told, "Fall out during tomorrow's run, and you'll be sent back to repeat the last three weeks of basic training." Some of that group buckled down and finished the run; then again, some others didn't.

Conceivably, similar (or even better) results could have been obtained by promising a reward instead of a punishment, but in either case, what ultimately allowed the finishers to succeed was their ability to change their beliefs (from "I can't run 3 miles," to "I can run 3 miles").

One of my favorite passages on the subject of fear comes from Frank Herbert, writing in his Dune mode:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit to to pass over me and through me.
And when it is gone past me I will turn to see fear's path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Cheers...