The Belarus solution
Yeah, another of those old FBI radio shows, and another of those moralisms....

In the story of an extortion racket run against a rich stockbroker type:

A man who works with his hands can sometimes take care of business on the day after he has lived through such a nightmare. But not a man who sits behind a desk.

Rare wisdom. I don't recall reading it or hearing it elsewhere.

Also applies to nightmares from sources besides blackmail.

When part of his life crashes to the ground, or one of his expectations for life, a man who works with his hands can get through the day and conquer it.

I've seen this in my own life. When I was building electronic crap, I could get over a crashed expectation. When I was bookkeeping or teaching, not so easy. (Programming is sort of in between.)

Above all, a man who works with his hands is less likely to form unrealistic expectations.

Seeing the physical product of your own labor at the end of each DAY is deeply nourishing food for the soul.

Seeing no product leaves the soul panting and thirsting for something it doesn't fully apprehend.

A thirsty soul plus a crashed expectation = disaster.

America didn't have nearly as many disasters of this type in 1950. We had plenty of guns then, as we do now. Guns are a constant. The variable is WORKING WITH YOUR HANDS. We had more factory jobs, more radio repair jobs, more auto repair jobs. We also had less of the Superstar expectation syndrome. Even though the idiot "You can do anything" myth was spreading verbally, we didn't really believe it. We were mainly satisfied to do what our father and grandfather did, and we were right. Genes count.

When grandpa's job moved to India and we expected to become the next President or the next Oprah, everything went wrong. Now that grandpa's job is an unnameable heresy requiring inquisition and torture, and now that we expect to become the next BruceCaitlyn Jenner, more than everything is wrong.

Labels: Make or break, Гром победы

  ¶ 6:02 AM