I wrote this the last week I was on active duty and left it on the unit bulletin board:
Don’t Believe the Hype
- Your Loyalty is to the Constitution, not your boss. If your haven’t read it lately, read it:
https://www.usconstitution.net. - America is not a democracy, never has been, never will be. At best, the United States is a Democratic Republic, but in all truth it is presently a representative oligarchy catering to a hegemony of influential power groups seeking to advance their own special interests.
- You can’t control your career, so quit worrying about it. The professional warrior is paid to die and kill, not to become a slave to the one writing performance evaluations or climbing some ladder of success. The minute you find yourself thinking, “how will this effect my career, my chance of getting promoted, or my ability to re-enlist?” you have become a slave to the myth of a military career and its time to get out.
- Freedom is yours to relinquish but once its gone you must battle to get it back. To learn just how hard it is to wrest liberty from an oppressor, read about those who tried and failed and what happened to them: The Aztecs, the Spartans, the American Indians, and the Hebrews among others. If you are conservative, read Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn for perspective; if you are liberal read Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein for perspective. Read James Webb because you are a Marine.
- The Marine Corps is just as guilty of heinous crimes against helpless people as the rest of the military, and it can be again if you forget it. Yes there are organized assaults in Germany, Russia, China, and Cambodia that have a greater body count, but tell that to the victims in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Hawaii, and Haiti of the despots put into power and trained by the Marines. The most honorable purpose of the Marine Corps is to defend those who cannot defend themselves. Try to remember that when stuck in the next impoverished battlefield filled with stressed out, terrified people who are being pushed to the brink of their own humanity by the whims of the greedy, power hungry, ego driven policy makers in the centers of power.
Damn the Man
- ‘The Man’ is the status quo, the way its always been done, the way it is. The Man is happy when nobody rocks the boat and nobody points out the obvious; that the Emperor is naked. The Man is happy when nobody asks questions about why or where. The Man is happy when there is no accountability for his authority. It is the responsibility of every member of the organization to question the motives and objectives of the organization and its leaders; to understand and demand explanation of direction and vision; and to hold accountable the authority bestowed upon individuals as stewards of the resources and future of the corporate body. When there is a breakdown of those responsibilities, the path to tyranny is short and all down hill.
- Stellar performance sheds light on the incompetence of others. Stellar performance by younger, junior Marines reveals that their positional supervisors are perpetrating a deception regarding their skills and abilities. The appropriate response is not to punish or exploit the more competent individual, rather to educate or reprimand the less competent individual. The most certain way to ensure that no one challenges the status quo is to snuff out the belief that merit will be rewarded and demonstrate that mediocrity is accepted and applauded.
Make the Right Way your way
- There are axiomatic decisions about right and wrong, and there are arduous decisions about right and wrong, but there are no decisions without a solid black and white answer for the context if you look for it. Seek to always see the issue in black and white. Then do the right thing, make it a habit, and refuse to compromise right for ‘right now’.
Just Say No
- The most grievous offense that can be perpetrated against an organization by a leader is the inability to say “no” to the unreasonable and unrealistic and inane. The simple act of saying “no” requires a functional brain, a spine, and intestinal fortitude, it is often among the first five words children learn and universal in its simplicity. Remarkably, this simple expression is absent from the vocabulary used when dealing with a client, particularly those clients who have knowledge of our specialties one or more orders of magnitude below our own. Evidently, the less informed and less involved one is with the actual execution of a screwball plan, the more qualified one is to determine whether or not it should be accepted.
- “God gave man judgement that he might use it.” Don’t be afraid to make a decision. The most pathetic cliché I’ve heard in the last ten years is ‘good initiative, bad judgement’. Generally that really means ‘nice try, but don’t think for yourself because you’re not capable of it.’ Absolutely inexcusable. Anyone with the presence of mind to actually make a decision should be allowed to make the decision and endure the consequences, good or bad; this builds confidence and decision making abilities. Often there is a tendency to protect and coddle the individual, trying to protect them from themselves, rather than letting them make mistakes and learn from them. Leaders are obliged to insulate individuals from being in positions that require decision making beyond the scope of their abilities, but not to remove them from decision making all together.
Do it right or don’t do it at all
- There is a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach you get when you are doing something that you know won’t work, but because ‘They’ said it has to get done now a flimsy effort of bailing wire and bubble gum is embraced as the plan of action. Knowingly initiating a faulty plan is a corruption of the adage that an imperfect plan now is better than a perfect plan later. It is irresponsible to plan to fail, and that is exactly what happens when leaders fail to recognize the difference between a good plan made imperfect by chaos or poor execution and a poor plan that is dependent upon the miraculous to succeed. Miracles do happen, but relying on divine intervention for success is not a tenable position to be in on a recurring basis.
- If an organization can’t develop a disciplined process of planning for the future and create reliable results for repetitive actions failure will stalk the organization like a pack of wolves. An undisciplined, impatient organization that cannot replicate routine tasks efficiently is unable to muster repeatable results for crisis situations and invariably falls back on a claim that it is ‘task-organized’.
- When the structure of the organization, the culture of the corporate body, and the education of the individuals is insufficient for the task, then the leaders of all levels are obliged to defer on future takings until such a time as the deficiencies are able to be corrected.