On Realism - Well, My Kind of Realism.

 I want to pontificate on a few things, though to be fair it's the sort of thing that should probably have proper studies done, so take it with a grain of salt.

I have heard people say that whoever spends the most money tends to win elections, but I wonder if that's mixing up correlation and causation. 

I say that, first of all because once I've made up my mind about a candidate it really doesn't matter how many ads I see or hear... it's not changing my mind. I also vaguely recall someone saying all the out-of-state money going to help with the Georgia run-offs may actually do more harm than good. (I did not get any details on how or why that may be, so definitely take it with a grain of salt.)

So if money is associated with winning elections, but ads and the like may have only a marginal effect, how are they related?

I think a case could be made that money is a marker of enthusiasm and support for a candidate, though I'd want to see studies done on that. And on whether the source of the money makes much of a difference. If I recall correctly, Obama raised a great deal of money because a lot of people donated small amounts. He was charismatic and people were enthusiastic. Would someone who raised the same amount of money, but mostly from large donors, show the same sort of results?  Does enthusiasm among the people who can afford the large donations matter the same as enthusiasm among the vast majority who can't? Idk, that's the sort of stuff you'd need to have studies for. 

I brought that up because I was thinking about realism. Or rather, about people who believe that underneath everything (sometimes very well hidden) decisions are made by the ones who can control brute force. The monopoly on violence that a state must hold, as just one example. This is the type of analysis that focuses mostly on hard power and military strength. 

But here's the thing - does a correlation between controlling brute force and being able to achieve your goals necessarily mean causation?

Bear with me here. There was an episode in the anime Samurai Champloo where our wanderers end up in a town that was mostly controlled by the mafia. There was an 'old school' mafia leader. A criminal, yes... but he also believed in taking care of his villagers. He was mostly supplanted by a newer, rougher, more violent leader. What was interesting, to me at least, was that at the end of the show one of the men switched loyalties. Even though the old leader seemed to lose everything (and iirc even died, so really it was switching loyalty to his son), during the course of the show his former follower realized that he valued the old ways more. That he didn't like this newer, more brutal leadership. 

That's what I get at, when I talk about how leaders can only lead where people want to follow. Where the relationship between leader and led is complicated, and not a one-way street. And it's also how we choose the world we want to live in.

It's easy to think that the hardass, the one willing to brutally put down any resistance, is the one who 'faces reality' and will win. And people will join up because they like being on the winning side, or they're afraid of being targeted, or for whatever reason. It's 'realism', and in that view the 'strongest' (which often means most brutal) wins.

But we are cooperative and social creatures, and the pack of wolves is often capable of taking down a larger opponent. Whoever draws the most people generally is more powerful.

And as Seth Godin says, "Through your actions as a leader, you attract a tribe that wants to follow you."

People want to follow people that give them a sense of purpose, an idea that they are helping create something better. Following power for power's sake is, in many ways, depressing. What does it matter whether this bully or that one takes over? What vision of a better future are they offering? 

If you think that only someone willing to be forceful can get things done, and you choose to follow that forceful leader... you create a world where that is exactly what happens. 

If you think things like justice, honesty, and truthfulness matter and you follow a leader who supports that... then those are the people with the largest pack of wolves and they have a better chance of making it happen. You create a world where it really does matter. 

You, me, all of our decisions together collectively make that happen.

It's way more complicated than that of course, and there are constraints that come when you decide these 'soft' things matter. Like expecting justice to be blind, and nobody should be above the rule of law.

I brought all that up because of all this talk about a 'coup' that's been going on ever since Election Day. I don't want to go into all the political and legal things going on right now, or all the court cases and failed evidence.

I wanted to discuss that so-called 'realist' way of analyzing a situation that looks at the crude basics - brute force. 

In most countries that would be the military, which is why whoever controls the military can often succeed at taking over a country. Also why history is littered with military dictatorships (and also dynasties that were overthrown by their military class. Like the Mamluks.) Luckily for us we have a very strong tradition of an apolitical military. One that swears an oath to uphold the Constitution, and values our citizen soldiers as citizens as well as soldiers.

In other words, various figures in our military have consistently sent quiet signals over the last few months that they're not going to get involved in any sort of dispute. Like one over the election. (And so much of this has wound up in court, which makes it rather esoteric and hard to follow for those of us who aren't lawyers.)

If someone wanted to take over our country and couldn't use the military, there's not actually a lot of other choices left. You might get somewhere with the various militias (and although I know there's been some debate over whether they should be called that, but I'm thinking about how we called Muqtada al-Sadr's armed supporters a militia. They're not terrorists unless they're actually using terrorist tactics. A bunch of people carrying weapons and with some sort of structure for command and control is more like a militia. Unless you want to go with 'gang', I suppose.) 

Anyways, you might get somewhere with militias and armed supporters, but you'd still need some sort of coordination and communication. After all, what should they target? Where? Who? (and how would they pull anything off in time, considering the levers of state power that would be coming at them.)

Somewhat the same, but not, would be private security forces. I've heard people say that companies like Academi are actually somewhat similar to the professional mercenaries of medieval ages, though our current use of the term 'mercenary' gives that a connotation that isn't meant by the comparison. Seems like a stretch that they'd be used like that, though. And it would still require communication and coordination (or rather, command and control?).

There's also the possibility of outside forces, I suppose. I mean, you'd have to get our existing military to stand aside while you brought them in. And you'd have to have absolutely no morals whatsoever, and be a traitor to the country... but if you had all of that you could probably invite in foreign support. (I'm not talking about advisors and forces requested through official channels. Like the Germans and French that helped our revolutionary forces fight the British. There's a difference between asking aid to help fight off another foreign power and asking for aid to take over your own government against all it's laws and traditions.)

Anyways, all of those should have pretty obvious warning signs if you know what to look for. The gist of all of that is that our current troubles will probably be decided in a court of law. Courts which have rather consistently thrown out most of the Trump team's cases for a rather shocking lack of evidence.

Oh, the Humanity

Pokemon Go recently released a new version, where superpowered pokemon appear at certain locations and you can work together to defeat them.  For the truly high powered ones, you have to have a team...if the team is at a fairly high level you might be able to take one down with as few as five, though it depends a great deal on the type of pokemon and just how much of a boss it is.

I was thinking about how difficult it was to know where to go, since the game only lets you see appearances 'nearby'.  It sort of forces us to communicate with each other (I joined a Facebook group, where people regularly let everyone know when the most difficult Pokemon show up.)

Initially, I was wishing that Niantic allowed us to know what was going on throughout our entire city, rather than just the places we can see from our current location.  Yet, in a way, if they did that it would defeat their intent.  And it would make the game less fun.

See, their mission statement is this:

"Niantic’s mission is to use emerging technology to enrich our experiences as human beings in the physical world. We seek to build products that inspire movement, exploration, and face-to-face social interaction."

That face-to-face social interaction?  It happens a LOT more when you have to work with each other to figure out where to go in the first place, as well as teaming up to take down a boss.

In a way, it reminded me of something else I've learned over the years.  I read the book Band of Brothers a long time ago, part of my professional development as an Army officer.  Anyways, I found it interesting that Herbert Sobel, hated by many in his company, in a way forced them to be a better team.  I don't think it was deliberate, I generally don't think people being petty and vindictive are deliberately fostering a good team.  Yet the soldiers basically had to come together in order to deal with him.  To give each other warnings if he was in the area, or protect each other if Sobel was targeting them.  (The link above shows some of the complexity of his character, he apparently was a good trainer, after all.)

In a more positive fashion - something similar was mentioned in another professional development assignment.  Gates of Fire, about the Spartans at Thermopylae.  I don't really know if it's accurate or not, but I remember that they chose to mix veterans with newer citizen-soldiers.  That having veterans train newer citizen-soldiers helps both.  The veterans don't get too complacent, since they know not everyone is experienced.  And teaching someone else is a great way of making sure you know it, as well.

In a less military vein  - the same thing can happen when we come together to protect the weakest among us.  I have an uncle who is mentally handicapped, for example.  And we all made the effort to make his 50th birthday special, in a way that we didn't do for any of my other aunts and uncles.  Something so simple can mean the world to him, and his face lights up as he tries to tell people how excited he is (he doesn't speak very well, mostly tries to use sign language and will grab whichever relative knows what he's actually talking about to clarify.)

I remember standing at the site of one of the work camps in Germany, during World War II.  Thinking about the urge for 'perfection'.  To get rid of all the ugly, imperfect people.  Disabled.  Gay.  Jewish.  Once you go down that path, it's kind of hard to say where you draw the line.  In addition to the ugliness and immorality of what the Nazis did, they also missed something important.  Missed the way people can be at their greatest when they are working to protect and take care of those who are...

imperfect.

We have this sense that the 'best of the best' would be the most effective team.  An all-star group of people who are experts in their field, and who know each other well and work together seamlessly.  I won't say their wrong.  There's something to be said for having an elite group of experts working together.

But our strength doesn't come from being perfect.  In some ways, our imperfections actually create our strengths.  Working together to weaken a hated officer, or to take care of someone less able, or to defeat a raid boss we have no hope of defeating on our own...

That's when people are at their best.