Saturday, August 28, 2010

You Cannot Unring The Bell Once It's Been Rung - High Noon at the "Ground Zero" Mosque

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You Cannot Unring The Bell Once It's Been Rung - High Noon at the "Ground Zero" Mosque

Dear Readers (and those folk who are having this read to them):

It is August 27th, 2010, and I'd like to express my view on something currently in the news which demonstrates a recurring dynamic which has destroyed relationships between people since the very beginning of time.

It's a Fundamental Principle of Physics - A body in motion tends to remain in motion while a body at rest tends to remain at rest.

What happens (you ask) when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Why, The Cordoba Islamic Community Center and Mosque (referred to with increasing frequency as the "Ground Zero Mosque.") proposed to be built in downtown New York City!

Once you get something started, and you gain a bit of attention and momentum, it becomes increasingly impolitic to your own constituents and followers for you to back down -- or to even modify your plan. Those who support you, as well as those who are vigorously opposed to you, will invariably perceive this as weakness or an admission of wrongdoing -- it puts you in a very, very tough spot. It's somewhat like taking a dive off of the high board, only after looking down to notice that there is no water in the swimming pool while the crowds around you are cheering and jeering.

History reveals that we ("we," meaning any citizens of any country which appreciates ro purports to appreciate the notion of "rights') must vigorously exercise our rights in order to preserve them, even if sensibility, decency or a simple change of heart would have us retreat or make an exception -- to waive our rights "just this once".

Once you waive your rights, especially if you've been advocating them so vigorously and passionately, you don't generally appear to be considerate, even if you are, in fact, merely exercising your judgment not to exercise your legal rights due to pef3ectly reasonable circumstances. Human Nature dictates that most of the crowd around you and within your own ranks will view you as weak...as the loser in a battle that you actually brought upon yourself.

If rights are not exercised, they will ultimately be trod upon or disregarded entirely. Once you have admitted to having a right, if you are then given the opportunity to exercise it and fail to do so (especially if you were the first party to bring up the subject of your "rights') your inaction will always be misinterpreted to your disadvantage.

Sadly, business and military strategy both dictate that once you embark upon an aggressive assertion of your rights, you had better be prepared to see it to through to the finish.

The sponsors of the Mosque Project at issue might have done better not to have raised it in the very first place -- or to have raised it very quietly, with some advance politicking to pave the way for such an undertaking. It's potential for great offense (in the circumstances) was either not taken into full account, or there was deliberate affrontery and a challenge issued.

But once you stick your flag into the soil, it is most embarrassing to pull it out, retreat, and re-plant it further away...even if your supporters or detractors carve out some new territory for you to plant it in. If you re-plant the flag, it will be perceived as if you were waiving your rights, and worse; that you were "doing as someone else ordered you to do."

The developers of the Mosque Project are being watched by all of the Islamic world. If they were to "back down" now, the consequences politically, as well as the worldwide ramifications, would be enormous and calamitous. And because the bell has already been rung and the flag already planted, proceeding with the plan as originally announced will also have potentially calamitous ramifications. Damned in either case.

Do the developers have the legal right to build so close to the tragic, raw wound left by the terrorist attack on 9/11 -- yes -- in fact, they do. Absolutely. Are they playing a dangerous game by asserting this legal right? --Yes indeed. And the "game" cannot be unstarted just as a jet aircraft can land in the sky to "pull over" to repair a failing engine.

Too many Americans, especially New Yorkers, feel (predictably and understandably) that the contemplated placement of this mosque is arrogant, offensive and disrespectful.

Sadly, the longer the US tries to either palliate or intimidate the developers of this tribute to rights over ordinary sensibility or at least a clearer understanding of Human Nature, the more the developers will want to plant their flag even more deeply into the bloody soil. And they will be increasingly pressured to do so by the force of Human Nature's Gravity.

The most lamentable aspect of this "bridge-building and reconciliation" construction is that it will increase rejection by the people of the United States of Islam and its adherents. Expect tremendous blowback against Islam within the United States -- suspicion, hatred and an incredible upsurge in violence directed against Muslims in the US.

This could have been avoided, and should have. But now that the play is in motion, the construction, as planned, of this Mosque, threatens to be one of the greatest threats to American-Islamic relations worldwide. And if the location were changed, and the developers were to yield, there would be just as great a potential threat coming in the opposite direction.

Lessons:

1. Be careful before you make a public announcement;

2. Think about your rights before you act on them;

3. If you are in a position of advantage, beware that you do not press it to far -- better to be powerful and humble than powerful and too arrogant. The power part doesn't hurt people's feelings as much as the perception of arrogance does.

Watch. Humans are so predictable.

It hurts to know the future.


Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

Key Tags, Terms and Labels: battle strategies, conciliation, defending rights, Ground Zero Mosque, irreversible political positions, outcomes, pragmatism versus arrogance, provocation, tolerance, US-Islamic relations, power, humility, pressing your advantage, anticipatory thinking.


Douglas Castle
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"Nature May Abhor A Vacuum -- But Power And Ambition See It As An Opportunity" - Douglas Castle

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"Nature May Abhor A Vacuum -- But Power And Ambition See It As An Opportunity" - Douglas Castle, from TAKING COMMAND! at http://TakingCommand.blogspot.com



Douglas Castle
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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Bi-Polar Politics - Douglas Castle, Co-Chairman Of TNNWC Group, LLC

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Bi-Polar Politics - Douglas Castle, Co-Chairman Of TNNWC Group, LLC

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Incessant Detractors:

It's a perfectly predictable Human behavioral phenomenon, which stems from a need to blame a third party (to abdicate responsibility); a natural fear-mongering "mob mentality,"; a quest for simplification of the thought process by generalizing and stereotyping; and the natural propensity to exaggerate to make a point.

To be a republican almost requires that you denounce anything which the democrats are doing, while you embrace (part and parcel) whatever is put up on the republican table.

To be a democrat almost requires that you denounce everything which the republicans are doing or have done in previous administrations, and that you accept whatever is put up on the democratic table.

This leads to radicalism and an unhealthy "groupthink" on the part of both parties. After a while, the role of either party simple becomes to upseat, defame and encumber the actions of the other party. It turns very negative, and problem-solving and bridge-building are replaced by finger-pointing and wild leaps of paranoic logic. It's not bi-partisan. It's more bipolar, with a deep twist of paranoid schizophrenia on each side. respectively.

Lies lead to bigger lies. The unproven rumor becomes grassroots gospel. Distortions and contortions abound. Now Hear This! -- The "average democrat" is a leftist, radical progressive, while the "average republican" is a xenophobic, flag-waving demagogue, hawkishly obsessed with matters of terrorism and national security. The polarization grows to the extent that there is no room on either party's agenda for having its members serve the citizenry of the United States.

Citizens have become spectators. We have largely stopped thinking and accepted party platforms as package deals without individual picking and choosing of what's good or bad about either. It's all or none. It's black or white.

Bi-Polar politics, and the politicians and pundits who play and promote them, are inherently devisive, destructive and are a simpleton's circus of simplification. They are an omnipresent, loud diversion from the business of team-building and problem-solving that is incumbent upon any organization (a company or a Nation-State) wishing to survive in hard times.

It is not unlike the staff and crew of the ill-fated Titanic pointing at eachother to determine "whose fault it is" while the ship sinks rapidly into the icy water, with far too few lifeboats to rescue all of the passengers -- whoever designed the vessel was either very negligent or very, very self-confident.

A real commander has to transcend politics and a "shame and blame" behavioral default setting in order to unite the troops and make progress in solving problems and moving onward.

What have we here in the United States? Two parties fighting. A public (and a republic) losing hope, faith and initiative. And not a single leader to fill the void that is sucking the life out of a once-great nation.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

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Douglas Castle
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Victims have rights too! LINKS 4 LIFE Public Service Announcement. http://bit.ly/9Zw7Iy Sponsor: http://www.TNNWCGroup.com #douglascastle

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Victims have rights too! LINKS 4 LIFE Public Service Announcement. http://bit.ly/9Zw7Iy  Sponsor: http://www.tnnwcgroup.com/  #douglascastle





Douglas Castle
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

LINKS 4 LIFE - A "MUST HAVE"

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If you haven't already done so, either make LINKS 4 LIFE a favorite, bookmark it, get email updates, or subscribe to the RSS Feed -- You can even get a free widget to put on your website or blog. It's a great resource. Go to http://bit.ly/LINKS4LIFE  . We are a Public Information Service, sponsored largely by TNNWC Group, LLC (http://www.thenationanetworker.com/)  and The Castle Consultancy.



Thank you, and please pay it forward.

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Douglas Castle
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Monday, August 16, 2010

Supplements, Alternatives Or Replacements for Endangered U.S. Social Security and Vaporizing Pension and Retirement Plans - Possibilities worth exploring NOW - REVISED.

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Article Title

Supplements, Alternatives Or Replacements for Endangered U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY and vaporizing PENSION AND RETIREMENT PLANS - Possibilities Worth Exploring Now  ...Unless you have a great deal of faith in government and your company's money managers to secure your future...
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Note: This article was written by Douglas Castle (http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com), author of THE GLOBAL FUTURIST, THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE, and BRAINTENANCE. My Castle is also Co-Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC, a firm which provides publications, intelligence and uniquely powerful services to entrepreneurs and emerging enterprises. Visit http://www.TNNWCgroup.com and become a Member for free today.
---------------
Article Type:

Open Discussion Forum.

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fellow Futurists: 

There is great concern amongst the aging U.S. population that they will not be receiving their full share (which they have worked hard for, and which has been in the "financial management" of the United States Government and its agencies.




This fund has been raided and is rapidly vaporizing. The Government and legislators are dropping hints (the size of bombs), that they want to raise the Social Security eligibility (i.e., so you run a higher chance of either dying "on the job" before you can collect, or you'll collect less over your "remaining lifetime."




This, of course, will be funded by increased taxes on the U.S. labor force -- but then, that requires employment and wages to tax -- in combination with massive cutbacks in government services.


Corporate pension and other retirement benefits plans are either devalued because of the generalized recession (investments gone sour or south), or because the companies responsible for handling them are changing the rules of the funding vesting and collectibility game -- they are leaving plans unfunded (they have used the capital to sustain operations or to increase senior executive salaries) and going out of business; they are extending the age at which benefits can be accessed or paid out; or they are simply firing people and coming up with a myriad of creative excuses not to pay them any pension beyond a "departure package payment."




Those remaining employed have little or no real security. Don't expect the law to protect you. A legislative or judicial victory to coerce some bureaucrat or administrator to pay you your hard-earned, rightfully-vested, guaranteed retirement funds would, if even possible, be: 1) merely symbolic, if, in fact the funds had already been pilfered, diverted or whittled down to nothing at the time of your "win," and 2) post-mortem, if you are past retirement (i.e., deceased). 




My sense of the future is that the federal government in collusion with the Treasury and Congress, can and may dissolve the Social Security Administration's obligation to make payments at will. The same could happen to employers' obligations to segregate and responsibly manage funds and issue payments to retirees.




I don't offer investment, financial, accounting or legal advice...but I can say that we must all look at securing our futures with alternatives, and new approaches.  I am merely a Global Futurist with a responsibility to report or foresee emerging trends and advocating reasonable, timely and effective preparedness. 




The things that we all (especially U.S. - based Futurists) should all be thinking intensely about follow. And after thinking about them, I would like to ask all of you, my friends and readers, to come up with you strategic ideas and share them with other readers, by posting them to the Comment Box at the end of this Article:


1.  How can we gain investment authority over our own funds which are being managed by third-party administrators in 403B, 401K, IRA, and other tax-deferred plans? Alternatively, can we borrow against them, or shut them down (an the minimal possible withdrawal penalty) so that we may gain use of the proceeds? The ultimate effect is to make this money available to us so that we can "self-direct" it.




2.  How can we gain investment authority over pension plans, stock option plans, and retirement funds being managed by trustees and administrators chosen by our employers?




3.  How can we either tap into or otherwise gain use of Social Security proceeds (even if these are paid out to us early, and in installments) accrued and owing to us?




In summary, the unifed and consolidated question is this: How do we gain access to our money now (why there is still some left) in order to take charge of it ourselves based upon our own investment strategies?




Your participation and your comments are welcome indeed. If you are not reading this on my blog at http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com, or on the TNNWC Group website (http://www.TNNWCgroup.com), then please post your comments directly to this discussion group as part of an ongoing discussion thread.




I will provide bi-weekly updates on all of the information gathered from all of the respondents to each and every participating group through a downlink. Your responses may remain anonymous if you wish.




The subject heading of your response in any posting thread to any group should be: "THE GLOBAL FUTURIST: Funding Our Futures."


With Great Appreciation,


Douglas Castle

See Comment Box Below:
Note: If you do not see a comment box below (if you have received this via email or RSS, the box may not appear), just click on the title hyperlinked title of this article (above, at the very top), to be directed to the actual post. The box will appear on the original article.
  


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Douglas Castle
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Monday, August 02, 2010

George Carlin's 3- Minute Rant -- Douglas Castle

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Dear Friends:

I recently noticed this video on Facebook. It is, admittedly, vulgar, angry, insubordinate, irreverent, tasteless, unsuitable for children as well as elderly folks with cardiac problems --- but it is shockingly and disturbingly true, and is honest in the extreme. Even if you hate the messenger, don't ignore the message.

I cannot disagree with the late George Carlin, except on one point -- while I believe that the current "System" is completely corrupt and beyond any repair within its own parameters, I believe that it can be replaced with something far better.

I invest my hours, my money and my emotion in my work as CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC, because I believe that entrepreneurs, working in cooperation, collaboration and united in focus, can create an alternative socio-economic structure. Join us.  http://www.TheNationalNetworker.com .

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. If the link below (George Carlin's Final Words To The World) fails to work, try clicking on either http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=159216125164  or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q



"George Carlin on "The American Dream". The greatest 3 minutes of his career, and I think the final 3 minutes of his career. The PTB are aggressively trying to keep this video off YouTube and Google, so I thought I'd upload it so it can't get deleted as easily. Everyone needs to watch this!"
Length: 3:12


Douglas Castle
Join my TNNWC Group, LLC collaborative business community (GICBC) at no cost by clicking on http://bit.ly/JoinTNNWC.

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