Grandpa

This time I want to be very personal. My mother was born on November 27 in 1903. No, she is not alive. She passed away in 1980. But this year, on November 27, I got a grandson. I am very happy. My daughter and her very nice boyfriend are also very happy. This is one of the delicious moments in life, the dessert of the grand dinner of life. I am now hurrying to see my grandson. I am already looking forward to all moments that we will share in the future. I will teach him from my life experiences and he will teach me about his way to look at things. Together we will be the exploring team of great world events.

From where comes the music?

The late world famous movie and theatre director Ingmar Bergman quite often put the question to his public: “Can anyone give me an answer to the question: From where comes the music?” As far as I know he did not ever get a good enough answer. For Mr. Bergman the music was divine, especially the music composed by the giant classical composers: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert. His question is very interesting. From where comes the music? In the amazing movie called Amadeus, the Royal composer Antonio Salieri reads the music written by the young Mozart saying loudly to himself: “This is the voice of God!”.
I do not think that it is necessary to involve God in this matter unless you are a true believer in the sense that God is living in the inside of all Human Beings (a view which I, regrettably, am not able to share). But I am quite assured that all of us have a greater reportoire of internal resources than we imagine. No, I do not think that all of us are able, or will be able, to compose good music, but I think that there are hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of people, who have never looked upon themselves as possible artists or authors or composers or performers of high skilled behaviours, but who could develop wonderful talents if they got the right environmental support for different kinds of activities.
There are no ghosts or any other mystical incarnated beings from former years. There are just lots of possible resources in our brains. The trick is to try to steer all those resources into forms of constructive and enjoyable outcomes, and to prevent and stop them from becoming destructive and ill willing behaviours. This is a matter for all of us, our professional politicians included.

We all live in a yellow submarine

Well, as a matter of fact, I do not know if it is yellow or not. I can not see the outside. But as in a submarine we are captured in quite a closed world. Just some very tiny windows through which we can catch glimpses of how it is out there, in the universe. Well, we see a lot, but we could so far just see very constrained parts of what is really going on.
In some small rooms on board our sub-ship there are always TV screens and video screens and computer screens uplighted, telling us fabulous horror – and some, few, love – stories. Some people onboard say that there are very big differences in between facts and fiction and that we are able to differentiate between those two areas. But I am definitely not so sure about that. Our present closed world is filled by media of all sorts and I do not think that we are able to find out what is just imaginations and what is not. I fear that the younger generation, especially those who prefer to stay in the internal screen rooms, will come out and behave as if everything is …. is …. is what? Facts, fiction, games, sports, business, theatre, cinema….what? What is this thing called reality? And then some of them are lost, behave like lost, dress like lost, and they will face a very hard future.

Leader of the pack

“Leader of the pack” alludes to a popular TV show, where a dog trainer teaches dog owners of how to behave and relate to their dogs. The dog trainer is very clear: the dogs relate always to a leader and lacking any Human leader one of the dogs takes automatically the leadership. If you want to have a relaxed and soft and steady relationship with your dog you have to continuosly and clearly show the dog that you, and not he or she, is the obvious leader.
It is of course interesting to try to find out if it is possible to draw conclusions to Human groups and organizations. Yes, I know that there are clear and several differences between Humans and dogs. But I know also that within Human groups and organizations there are very often dynamic movements going on that reflect underlying worries if the leadership is not clear enough. Silence and withdrawal are examples of growing empty spaces calling for someone to stand up and to climb forward to act decisive, taking the command. If this is not done the group (organization) reacts by worries, sometimes by bewilderment and uncontrolled actions.
Yes, I believe in leadership, well settled and well adjusted, wise and well conducted, meaning that “the pack” always could trust that there is at least one that is in posession of some good thoughts and is ready to state that he or she is prepared to carry the final responsibility of what is going on. This is equally valid for small groups, big organizations – and the complex society.

Effects of lack of communication

There are two effects of lack of communication between the top management in an organization and the single co-worker. Silence acts in two ways:
1) as a silencer, meaning that silence could very well cut out, or anyhow decrease, important brain activities. When you want to fall asleep you turn out the light and the radio and you ask your partner or your spouse (if you got one) to be quiet. Zzzzzz…
2) as a phantasy opener, meaning that lacking important information your brain starts to create as if-solutions, constructing fiction stories about what is going on, many times mixturing suspicions with fragments of facts.
I happen to have lots of experiences of both those two events as I have been, and still am, now and then standing in the center of the circle where the silence is one of the most dominating louds.
This is of course an annoying experience, far from democratic values. So – wake up there at the top level. We are a lot of people down here longing for clear cut information.
But I would not be completely surprised if you wanted me to go to sleep….

Beyond the corner

There are certain scientific, evolutionary proofs to state that for each special animal and for each special plant that you could find today living on our planet there have previously been at least 100 other animals and plants. We, who belong to the “hominides” and are called Homo Sapiens, would most probably not have found any good enough life spaces for our development if the gigantic geological catastrophies had not occured some 65 million years ago. All those happenings wiped out lots and lots of animals and plants, among those the dinosaurs.
Some people are really true believers. They believe that Homo Sapiens is the ultimate and final “crown in the tree”, being created by God-the-engineer. We are truly the best, made to look like God himself.
From a more simple, not so very romantic, bio-evolutionary point of view we will one day also face something that will lead to our extinction. And after us….the even more intelligent designed creature, living in even a better harmony with the future biological world on our planet…

Retirement?

I have reached an age where most of my colleagues have retired completely from work. They have closed their doors to their workshops completely and it seems as if they will never try to reopen them again. They have turned to their comfortable chairs, their libraries and their gardens (if such things exist for them). From one point of view I envy them. From another point of view I do not. I have always liked most parts of my work engagements. I have always liked to go on, deepening in the professional investigations of people, groups and organisations, trying my best to find new ideas and new perspectives of the jobs to be done. And I have a lot to write. I am priviledged, having the opportunity to write articles for a couple of Swedish magazines, also writing books.
No, I am not retired, at least not completely. But I like to honour myself by not rushing up early every morning (even though I wake up early), and I like to satisfy my increasing needs of slowing down my pace in the evenings and during the weekends. But otherwise – I am still there, in my workshop.

On the question of climate change

Researchers all over the world are united in their conclusions – with some, very few exceptions. We are heading towards a gigantic disaster if we do not change our way of living. We have a choice – either to go on as nothing has happened or take immediate forceful actions to stop and turn the development, where the enormous productions of energy sources create gigatons of carbon dioxide in the samt time as we cut down our rainforests and most of all other important green savers. Daring and courageous politicians and other leaders ought to make definite decisions to turn all of us to enter new courses, changing our attitudes and behaviours. But this is quite easy to say and almost hopless to do. Just imagine this scenario: From January 1, 2008 it will become strictly forbidden to drive any gasoline private car within all cities where the inhabitants are more than 100 000 people. Only electrical cars will be allowed for private driving within the cities.
I am afraid that such a decision would cause lots of angry demonstrations and lots of counter attacks of different kinds. The problem is that the majority of people will not accept any steps at all that will radically hamper their way of living. Why? Well, I am quite pessimistic about how far and how well the majority looks at everything that is going on around them. I am afraid that most Swedes, just as an example, nod when they listen to or read about the climate threat, and people probably tell their friends that this is really a serious matter, and then they look out through the windows, and all they see is the November darkness, and all they feel is that it is chilly outside, hopeless weather conditions, and then they are starting to long for a climate change that hopefully could bring some warmth. And that is that. And that is the end of the story. Sad to say.

All these psychometric tests

There are industries out there, industries created by smart business guys in grey or black suites and matching ties. There is nothing odd about that. We have built communities and societies in which the centre points are commercial projects. Very long time ago those areas were dominated by churches or temples.
One of the present commercial ideas is founded upon the idea that the Human mind is possible to measure – from top to bottom, from left to right, from front to back – by psychological measurement tools, so called tests. The business idea is that you, and all of us, are hiding some very interesting and very well covered attitudes, feelings and thoughts, and that all those areas could become detected – and sold on the market! Market?
Yes, market, meaning that there are a lot of people that are willing to pay quite a lot to know what is going on inside your brain. It is almost as finding stuff from aliens out there in the space somewhere, but in this case the aliens are alien thoughts and attitudes within each person. And it is worth money to catch what is going on behind the curtains of social smiles and all the bla-bla-bla talking.
You´d better watch out! The psychoengineers are on their hunt, and the victim could become – you!

Paying taxes – to whom and why?

There is an open debate going on in my country about the evil of hiring craftsmen and cleaning people to your private home, paying them “black money”, meaning that you do not follow the laws that say that someone has to pay tax to the community when you hire someone to do some work for you. The newspapers in Sweden have now focused that there are leading politicians and leading executive officers that have broken the law in these matters. It is very bad.
I think that one of the main reasons is that the concept “tax” or “taxes” is affected by negative feelings and thoughts to most people, which leads to some strategies made up by those, who want to act smart, to try to avoid paying taxes. Taxes are something that is stolen from you by the government (of course it is not a theft, but I think that a lot of people think in these directions). I know that some people (and those are not just a few ones) make it to a sort of a hobby to find ways to hide money from the authorities in the society. It is a sort of a game. If you hide big money enough you “win”.
The game would perhaps not be so very funny if we could exchange the concept “tax” to “fee for community services” (such as schools and other educational areas, cultural events, technical infra-structures, care of all those who are entitled to become taken care of, police forces, rescue workers, and much, much more).
I think that a lot of people do not know why it is of importance to pay tax, but I think that all could easier understand and accept to pay a fee for community services. It is time for the government to educate the people in these matters – and to change, or anyhow to explain, the tax concept.