A Civil Affair

The individual wants the truth as long as it is comfortable and safe, but if it is inconsequential or harmful he or she is apathetic or hostile towards it. An ideologue will examine other groups relative to his or her own particular group, especially with concern to ideas about language, behavior, customs, and religion.
Ingroup/outgroup identity is about essential identity. Because members of the ingroup are essentially good, the same behavior on the part of the ingroup is good, and the outgroup is evil. The essentially good nature of the ingroup is a "precommitment," meaning it is prior to and protected from discourse—no number of counterexamples will change the person's perception that the ingroup is good.
And it makes no difference if they are liberal or conservative. They believe their way of thinking is the truth because it is comfortable and safe, they fail to give any consideration to others views. Rather, they attack the other side because the ideology of their side is always defensible and must be defended to the end, even if they would (and/or have) engaged in the very same unreasonable behavior they are attacking the other group about. Civility is gone.

Gov't Assistance

The money of the people lent to capital to encourage investment use to have some expectation of return tied to the relationship - now we just hope it trickles down.

Discarded Image

C.S. Lewis writes about how people use images of things and over time discard the image for a new image as the old image no longer provides full and accurate information. The discarding of the image isn't as hard as fitting into the places that still use the old image. It's similar to the problem where the running of a constitution is harder than framing one.

Today's Quote

The sinews of war are infinite money. Marcus Tullius Cicero

To Ponder

Today many government employees feel as unloved as the tax collector. Lets light a candle for St. Matthew.

Creating Public Value by Mark H. Moore

Somewhere between the neutral administrator directing democratically enacted legislation and the Nuremberg directive to resist injustice and corruption lies the modern manager searching for public value. This manager lives on the "razors edge" balancing competing political, ethical, and organizational issues in a daily search to create public value through the organization. The psychological pressure of these complex demands requires a great deal of poise and balance. As a manager you may have the administrative skills, but do you have the moral capacity? It can be a long lonely road to seek justice and oppose corruption.

Annoying and Harassing

More than ever before, I feel pressure to purify politically the "dialogue of public discourse . . . in which we decide, collectively, who we are, what our values are, and what ends we will pursue." There is a religious fervor to the political sides of every issue at all levels.