Thang Nguyen 555

I am a product of rote learning, of nudging, bending, pressuring, conforming, imitating, group thinking, “the apple cannot fall far from the tree”, social engineering, IBM clones etc…

No wonder. After a while, I came to believe, as Patty Hearst once did, that the Stockholm Syndrome is the Law of the Land, like physics and biology (empathizing with your abductors and their causes, the end justifies the means etc…)

I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to be somebody else, to live somewhere else. ” You can have any model T’s you’d like, as long as it’s black”. I’d rather go along, unquestioning and …oh well, conforming: ” oh, you want me to rob a bank for Our cause?” No problem.

Instead of upward mobility in the hope that the trickle-down economy somehow will spare some chunk of change, past the next to the top level, I sunk, slowly. Enjoying the view from the Titanic. First by acknowledging and confessing that I am a sinner. Then slowly I have become one, by appropriating the sin of my fathers (and theirs), acting out a pre-set, propensity and impetus to fail.

So does it mean , I am doomed from the get go?

Always I am in between, the Alpha and the Omega, striving and stumbling with no upward trend (have you paired the dollar of 50 years ago vs today’s! I was shocked at New Yorker’s sticker price of 8.99). When does this (quality of life) downward trend end!

Without affirmation, validation and award, the world needs assurance that it’s OK with its soul.

Machine learning, but men are not. Men sleeping, but machine are not. Who is going to liberate whom? Want a fruit juice? (Ken Kesey).

We exist, live a little, love a little and lose a little. We’re all different yet all the same (destiny, misunderstood and misunderstanding – born the wrong way, bought in the wrong cause and subscribed to wrong method). Always on the outside, not in the know. Forgot password?

Religions have been counter-productive if they seek the end to justify the means.

By itself, it is a path, a means, yet out of sheer insecurity, it compromises and shows its true color (Priest abuse, indigenous school children ab/inducted up North in Canada, private-jet preachers ).

We no longer examine cause and consequences, raison d’etre as to why we exist and how much we’re needed ( if at all, beyond election year, when solicitation from both parties die down).

Until someone with “authority” tells us who we are and could become. Nudged, pressured, pushed and pulled. To become They, the abductors, the Jim Jones and Jim Bakker. In short, we’re finally de-individualized; no longer the person whose name was on the birth certificate. We no longer are with our names. We’ve become numbers. Assigned and slotted into a verticalized and structured algorithm like soldiers with dog tags for convenient identification, just in case.

Born this way, died that way. A completely different, inauthentic and unrecognizable version. If life is a Xerox machine, it certainly has ran out of ink, thus, makes poor copies. Just click “Accept” on all the terms of use.

The saddest thing in life is to live someone else’s life but one’s own.

Dutiful, obedient and without authenticity. Parents are guilty in this respect as much as Priests, Teachers, Politicians and Philosophers (those who tackle the “why’s” ). How many gay men and women died without ever given a chance to “come out”. How many soldiers died in “friendly fires”, whose death certificates did not reflect the reality of war (perhaps to protect pension). Those who suffer silently, without an internet connection, to vent, post and share their grievances (today’s Patty Hearst would be deprived of her access to a phone).

Last week, we had a moment of joy: prisoner swap. Patty Hearst comes home, so to speak.

Now, the hard part: de-briefing and de-programming. Our “Spartan” have done his job – hostage rescue. Now as a society, we must ride this momentum (of “one is free, all are free”), and reexamine who we are and who we want to become.

As Sec of State says it all ” given the choice between a society that does everything to bring its innocent citizens home, and the one who went the distance for its terrorist, I would choose ours any day”.

Becoming You, I’d say, is the hardest of all, in a society and social media that say otherwise. Your mission and mine, is to become ourselves, from cradle to the grave, owning our idiocy and idiosyncrasy; that way, while we are around, the world could exhibit its flavorful whole.

Our world is wonderful not without you and I in our fullest (of nuances).

So drop the facade, the pretense, unlearn those rote learning, stop saying the expected and for once, release that weight (stress) someone has outsourced onto us. Fly free, face the Sun, and feel the warmth of free air and freedom. I’d take that over any Stockholm S** any day, since we all eventually die alone as part of the package we didn’t sign on.

The Olympics reinforce healthy competition: win/lose by the rules. It’s been said our happiness depends largely on our relationships to one another e.g. Tennis Champions McEnroe later picked his rival for Best Man at his wedding.

In life, it’s who we associate with at clubs (analog) on LinkedIn (digital) that matters. I was fortunate having a string of personal and professional endorsement: from graduate-school study-mate to corporate colleagues, from bosses to partners.

My 360-degrees reputational currency are intentionally diverse e.g. female, bi-continental, homosexual, multi-cultural and direct report etc. to self-stamp and “self-verified” in our age of AI, with un-doctored profile and non-photoshopped photo.

Over time, we extract wisdom from digital “social nutrient”, a connection of our connection often influences us more per some study (six-degrees of separation). Thank you, Glenn Arnold of Wheaton Journalism school, for mentioning Zinserr. Influencers come in all shapes and sizes: teachers, families and friends.

The Internet offers nuggets of wisdom from crowd: people we probably will never meet (Wikipedia contributors). We’re kids in the candy store: overwhelmed by colorful choices, with untrained capacity to absorb (sugar high) or filter for use. We become digital chipmunks, storing food for fear of famine (pre-internet times).

How to inoculate ourselves against bad information? Just like how to know which foods are best for brain. We have become hoarder and sorter of data as they pour out of the firehose. Tangents stuff wears us out: information-fatigue.

The future belongs to data scientists. Neil Postman made similar comment about Television in ” Amuse ourselves to death”; little did he know the Internet and streaming usher in a biblical deluge.

The art of unsubscribing and deleting are our new lessons. Reply by Texting STOP. Non=permissible marketing (not that AI ever cares or feels rejected) just for self-preservation and sanity.

The internet and the individual, crowd wisdom and personal (paced) enlightenment, zeta bites vs mouthful bites.

People trade goods and services. This time, it’s data trading. As if we are lab rats, brokers and posers of untested wisdom. as trial-error Yelpers. Since we cannot “try them all”, we become superficial rankers, a human last touch over machine SEO.

From local village to global village, frequent face-to-face to virtual communication (with complete strangers), we experience unprecedented geographical shift and generational shift. No Fisher Temperament Index can help.

In short, “the gods must be crazy”. At times, we wish that “coke bottle” had never fallen off the sky.

Let’s go off-grid (you wish!). Per NYU study, we need a digital New Year resolution. A Sabbath break.

Wise council might come from people of different color, younger generation or past generation. Where are the Medicine men, the Chiefs and the Astrologers? In the 80’s we had Shirley MacLaine’s New Age, and Nancy Reagan’s Fortune Tellers – to schedule our State-Affairs meetings.

It baffles me in our jet age and Internet age, people still are doubling down on and self-medicated in the confinement of their own rabbit hole, finding comfort in well, comfortable (prejudicial) data set. Never setting foot outside of the bubble or talk to anyone besides their Dunbar circle (our digital security blanket). The more advanced we are, the deeper our longing for a selective past, and since we cannot recall the past, we become angry and self-destructive. 19th-century America without tax? Gilded Age without the Great Depression?

At the end of all travel, as they say, we arrive back at the same place, only to know it better (e.g. at Kennedy times, post-Bay of Pigs, 11,000 “advisors” sent to China Beach, then peaked at half a million before finally dwindling down to 11 Marines on the last chopper out. America knowing itself – every time we read aloud the 52,880 names on the marble wall). To travel means to experience not only places, but also ideas (Montaigne).

Changes from within comes after changes (often defeat) from without. The world works slowly inward as we are more receptive one layer and one generation at a time. It takes courage and loss of face, mostly shame and guilt, to course correct.

To admit we were wrong e.g. Social Media – a systemic failure – is to give ourselves much needed realignment. Self-projection are products of self-delusion. Advertisers always print two versions of mass-producing bumper stickers and T-shirts, mini-flags and presidential portraits. We might as well print ours, on Self photo-day. Not to mention, our friends are saved from feeling cheated for having formed false perception based on data we sent out.

“I look at life from both sides now” (from the long 60’s). My parents and half of my siblings have recently gone. Life transitions jolted me, as an unaccompanied adult (abandoned, as kids often say “my dad went for milk”). Vividly, I can still recall getting lost, while the adults were frantically searching for me (Tet festival at the park.) I circled back, stood on the roof of the car, holding a red balloon high up, like that French movie of the same name.

Getting lost in the crowd now repeats itself on the web. The unknown future is full of virtual strangers from strange shores, at the urge and nudge of AI (executive search anyone). Algorithm recommended. Unregulated and “self-censored” ” wisdom of crowd become our new PG -13 guardrails (Congress won’t budge beyond Section 230).

It’s frightening and uplifting.

Melinda Gates in her Stanford Commencement talks about “small waves” that lent perspectives to “big waves’” doomsday’s scenario (remember, we’re water, not waves). In the end, that’s what happened, that we become ourselves (I borrow a title).

Our core humanity looks up to the sky and soars. Every generation wants to be better and outperform previous. Graduates want immediate entry into the workforce. French citizens want earlier retirement. The piece of the pie vs the percentage of GDP is what one wants.

Our career ladder might or might not lean against the right building, either way prepaid with hefty price e.g. neglecting families and/or health, not to mention your real self and its limitations – BTW, watch “Instinct” toward the end, where Cuba Gooding confesses how deep he had sunken for playing hard and bought deep into the “game”.

It’s relationship that fulfills our lives. Things money can’t buy e.g. 360=degree reputation, self-respect (the right version of self), integrity, taste, class, memories, decency, dignity, empathy, humanity and loyalty.

Keep your authentic self. In the end, what we are most fearful to lose is what counts the most. To test this, just go out of your way and be selfless for a day.

At funerals, no one misses dead wood. What counts is the deceased’s kind personhood, cherished warm memories and “de-classified” hidden selves, wide linkage and love. How we make others feel (be-little or uplift them). To paraphrase Hemmingway” we are strong in broken places and it’s through those cracks that light can shine through”.

On your mark, get set, go! Get some personal and reputational rehab- this side of Paradise.

While in Paris, the Olympic reminds us competition is good. But it doesn’t have to be demeaning.

Competition – rules based – doesn’t just happen only in that summer. It’s in our heart, Notre Coeur not Notre-Dame. We compete against the clock…”how many potatoes can you eat in your lifetime” albeit time itself is contained within eternity.

Keep paying forward, share some fries. Go get milk and return dad! Let’s do so in hopes future generations connect and comprehend better without self-destruct. Grace and humility in defeat, but in competition, courage.

P.S. check out “Full Time” the movies – re: a single mom during the strike

” If I had two heads, one would have rolled away, outside the gate of Pier 5 on the day before the Fall of Saigon.” (my Sliding Doors/when it’s worst)

At times, on reflection, I wonder what would have become of me, of that other abandoned head – like our abandoned car – grafted on someone else’s body. Would I be riding a motorcycle, taking my time with those Round-About to shop for an affordable cup of coffee? Definitely I would be pondering “what-if” I could have left on the last chopper out.

We do have a capacity for imagination, for getting outside of ourselves, for empathy. In doing so, tone and tame down our self-delusion.

Live one’s life so as to have no regrets, revision or recrimination. From Marcus (Aurelius) to Montaigne, Chardin to Chaplin.

Of course we fell short (of our own expectations). Who doesn’t! (BTW, it’s the indisputable foundation and pre-supposition for redemption ” all men are fallen short of God’s KPI”. )

People are rated and run on their records, reputation and revised revelation.

We forget our past transgression in order to look ourselves in the mirror, then “self-talk” or self-congratulate. In sales, they even taught you: ” I like myself” X 1,000 to brace against rejection.

The first person I need to convince each day is myself: am I OK? can “we” get a move-on? what’s next! what is to be hoarded, salvaged, discarded and improved? Getting things done. Yelping yourself. The rating, the ranking, like your FICO scores, change from day to day.

If you’re energetic, restless and with above-average self-exhibition, the long-term chart shows high peaks and low valleys. If you’re an introvert, and a contemplating type (who often take the less traveled off-ramp), your path runs past fewer crises (risks and rewards well proportionated and measured).

We live and die (socially) by our reputation (others’ perception). Personal polling.

The other day, I went over my endorsement page and noted one of my colleagues, now deceased, said some nice things about me (should I keep it? delete it?) It touched me deeply. Online, you live forever, by your record, reputation painted by feedbacks from people dead or alive.

It’s both scary and privileged. Since when could our entire population afford to live in a glass house! Every key-stroke, every utterance, every text is to be stored/retrieved and shown as evidence of your attempt, aspiration or missteps (in the 60’s, they have to hire people to listen in the “Conversation”).

I have always loved lighthouses. It’s one of the best icons. positioned on high ground, brightly lit and spins around 360 degrees. It warns seafarers and sojourners not to proceed too close. Danger signal: Don’t live as I do … sort of legacy-campaign. At least, we exist to be of use.

In the end, we are all like Columbus, throwing up sea waters, exploring and exploiting nearest environment for own gain. Along the way, we hid from ourselves from evidence of yesterday’s shame: people who hurt us, people who we in turn hurt back, not by nature, but out of self-preservation. Like a Thomas Wolfe’s line ” each of us is all the sums he has not counted..” Look homeward, Angel. (Do visit the village of Ba Tri near the Southern tip of Vietnam, where mass-skulls museum is still open).

As human, we need a healthy self-image – self-edited version of our little and short history; all the while, we preserve and perpetuate selective memory. It’s a dilemma and a drama trying to balance the yin and the yang, the moody inner self interacting with fluctuating social. Our record, reputation and self-revelation are all there. People (and programmatic ads) know us better than we do ourselves (I viewed a Hollywood page, only to be so informed about dead actors.

It’s like white-washing our personal history, our Holocaust and Hiroshima, Watergate and Lewinsky-gate, Y2K and J6 and George Floyd. It’s all there on Alphabet (who is better known as Google) and other search engine.

Forget not who we were and still could be. Often times, on reflections, I wonder what would become of me, the other head that rolled. Would I still be riding an old scooter, wearing a helmet, and a poncho, circling those Colonial French Roundabouts, in search of God-knows-what just to finish out my “shift”.

To completely “delete” someone, you would have to wipe clean his/her paper trail, digital record, dental record, EMR, court filing, tax filing, educational and social documents after dumping without exhuming the decomposed body (I happen to see “the talented Mr Ripley” and earlier French version played by Alain Delon) and even then, the best detective in Lawrence Block tradition can still follow those bread crumbs to reassemble and reconfigure what had actually transpired.

For the past 15 years, I have been toying with the Internet as an user. I just want to see where the distributed nodes take me. It’s been a wild ride without a single ticket (except to pay for Spectrum Internet). Endless and boundaryless. Fun and fearful. Educational and entertaining. To death.

Any ride would take you outside of your confine, lift you up high so you can see (and be seen, like lighthouses). In the end, with wishful thinking, I would love to retrieve that other head for proper burial, as I once read about that lost whale in the South China Sea. Like a Clint Eastwood line in Josey Wales, ” I guess we all died a little in that war”.

Then, I will be at peace, knowing my non-judgmental lost twin was finally found. I am OK, no I am OK. I like my (other) self. I like myself! You will only know what I chose to reveal, tip of the iceberg. The rest might be known to you and AI, but unbeknown to me. Then, there is unknown unknown, but we won’t get into that.

Beware of those who throw stones, if you lived in a glass house ( anti-social media). All this btw was triggered by a review of my professional endorsement, ironically, from a now deceased colleague. God rest her soul.

The Eclipse, Y2K, Powerball, 777, flat lining.

Those are events. Infrequent ones. But randomly, there exist “perfect storm” scenarios. Black swan.

In short, it’s the category of One. Can’t compare them with “peers”, can’t “clone” them, can’t be reproduced.

Unlike in the East, past or present. People still explain the unknown world with the cycle of 12 animals (the Year of the Cat). Unlike in the West, where witches still fly using broom instead of supersonic jet fuel.

We don’t want to be surprised, to expect miracles, or to go through changes.

It’s unsettling. It’s rattling.

Yet in order to move forward, we need to rid off some baggage. To stay lean.

We use cattle, human, and machine. To extract nutrients (banana juice, wine) and sustain life.

Out of the many One. Pedaling those two wheels forward (Life, as defined by Einstein). Only to go in full circle, back to beginning. Compete to lose. Failure is mother of success, so they say.

How about doping? Tour de France. The Olympics. Just a noose head. And the winner is…

So proud, so humbly accept the prize, the reward of hard work.

All derivative. All beneficiaries of Life itself. At one time, we define ourselves via acres (agrarian society), then by horsepower (industrial society), and now the speed of chips (AI age).

My apps are better than yours: Viber, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, TikTok, X, Youtube, Google, Messenger, Meta etc…

Long ago, it was “I was born in the year of the Pig” (laying around with food, while the buffalo, work the field for someone else’s food).

How we view the world and ourselves have slowly evolved with times and geography.

From naming (Barrack to Barry, for instance), to claiming (I am an US-born citizen, purportedly, one cut above naturalized ones).

Ivy League soared higher above “Cow College” etc… the 80/20 rule dictates that those at the top produce more (and of course, never trickle down to the bottom of the pyramid).

BUT…we need to scale, numbers on the board, we need volume to negotiate rates.

And so it goes. Eye balls, fingers on the keyboard, Likes, feedback, enumeration and billing.

Reality set in. The business of America is business. Send me the bills, tax and interests included.

Are you a veteran? Have you ever committed crime, bankruptcy, divorce, shoplifting? Negative points. Higher loan-shark interest. Up front fees. Secure card.

From being born in the year of the Monkey, to being slotted as responsible card holder, customer (Prime) and Costco member. It’s a long way baby. You’ve arrived. It’s the post-Yuppies world.

It’s a wide world. We know you better than you yourself. We remember, remind you of your selection, preferences and inclination (intent to purchase).

Our choices are unlimited. Yours limited. After all, you are locked in per genetic codes (you’re Black) culture codes (12 choices of animal) and linguistic code (Parlez-vous Francais?).

To move forward, we need to take a look in the rearview mirror. For safety, change one lane at a time. Evolution is slow, but sure. Technology moves at a speed we can hardly cope with.

At some point, all will be aligned. Once in a lifetime event. Perfect storm. Like a line by Bread, ” then you and I will simply fly away”.

Dust back to dust. But before that, we pout, shout, laugh, rant and rave (about born this way, born that way) and then, even run for President. All aligned. Hail to the Chief. Just make sure the released photos were doctored or photoshopped. It’s the age of AI, not agrarian.

An on-screen giant – Donald Sutherland – has just lied down. Age 88.

Watching M*A*S*H* the movie with him in a leading role, one finds ample instances of disregard for human frailty, but not for human life, more camaraderie than canon, laughter than profanity.

Post-60’s era was a time of “Je ne sais quoi”; what can you do; I now turn the attention to myself. You’re OK, I’ m Ok. Can’t sit in, teach in or dance to the tune of Hari Krishna forever. Student loan was coming due. Got to graduate, sign up for on-campus job interviews and raise a family. Carly Simon loved her refrain ” and that’s the way I have always heard it should be”… only to later put on belly fat (All in the family lazy chair) which Jane Fonda’s aerobic craze was glad to help.

But only after the malaise of Watergate and the M.I.A. mess from Vietnam were completely exorcised. McCain and band came home. Wait here, please – lines at the VA after skipping the Welcome-Home party as in the Deer Hunter.

Sutherland found himself in war-movies roles such as “The Eagle Has Landed” (Robert Duvall as a zealous German Colonel with an eye patch and a Churchill-kidnapping plan – Sutherland, a professor who infiltrated at a secluded English-coast town). His on-screen role varied from spy to surgeon ( Hawkeye Pierce), who was drafted to Korea.

Sutherland’s vulnerability ( a spy who left love letter behind) pierced through both screen and shades – not even a John Lennon’s 60’s orange-tint can hide – penetrating without self-justification (that he was of the upper class sensibility ) e.g. professor/spy (Devlin), surgeon (Hawkeye), Counsel to the President (Clark Gifford), Oil Tycoon (Fierce People).

There was nothing “ordinary” about him ( even in Redford’s directorial debut Ordinary People), dealing with family tragedy (his favorite other son was drowned in a boating accident). Self-recrimination was so severe that any ordinary thinking Dad would have to face up to it, to mob up. To his other son played by Timothy Hutton “ I will arrange for you to see someone “ that is after swim practice. A rational solution to an emotional problem.

In Fierce People, he befriended Diane Lane, his masseur, to thank her for saving his life. An oil tycoon with ill-gotten wealth, he lived out his last days in full display e.g. hot-air balloon Birthday Party. Meanwhile single mom and her coming-of-age son (played by the late Anton Yelchin), lived on-prem in close proximity hence bred intimacy e.g. the young man was in same-cut blazer at the party thus signaled to all he might someday be heir to the throne.

To dispel a downstair rumor, our dying tycoon – still as vulnerable as Hawkeye in M*A*S*H* ( when mistaken for a driver ) – dropped his pants ( you believe me now? ). By all indication, he visibly (not to the audience) wasn’t capable of sleeping with the boy’s Good-Samaritan mom even if he had wanted to.

How can someone achieve that much? By studying and play-acting multiple lives, while emptying his own. Glibly and fluidly at ease in various roles – he came across relatable but not without a darker shadow i.e. to gamely play along where the acting leads e.g. holding up a chest X-ray to the sun as one would when viewing an eclipse through a pair of 3D glasses: Gould’s set-up : ” Oh, I will need an assistant “- at the operating table in Japan and as a golf buddy while in-country.

In the opening scene he just took off in an Army jeep (stolen) ” Yes Sir”. In the end, Robert Altman closed Hawkeye’s in-country tour with ” Did he just steal our Jeep?” ” No sir, that’s the one he came in with” ( false license plate screwed on during the entire war-weary stay).

The scores of “Suicide is painless” define M*A*S*H*. On UHF channel, watching its rerun late at night, with my father – after a decade of being apart- on the couch next to me, I put self recrimination behind and myself to sleep. That sound, thwap thwap thwap, soothed my soul and stayed with me – bridging the Pacific oceans mixing pain and pleasure in the mid-80’s (Do you want to hurt me? Do you want to make me cry? oh boy, Boy George, Sweet dreams are made of this).

In Altman’s hands, comedy are made out of tragedy, a scene out of a shower where the whole medic mob turned out in anticipation of the “lynching” – in this case, a complete collapse of an Army unisex tent to unveil our soaking wet Hot Lips in full hormonal rage.

That much irreverence (well aligned with One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest) wrapped up that era’s articulated and calculated protest against: the Cambodia bombing, Kent State shooting, monk burning and high-profile assassination. From “Ask Not what your country can do for you” to – to fold or to flee (via the up State lakes to Canada)- in Hayden’s words: “it’s the isms that caused the schisms”.

Before ” that’s the way I have always heard it should be”, we found malaise, crisis of confidence, the eroding trust in institution and mis-direction of leaders who got followers into the jungle of Vietnam and the jungle of Guyana (Jim Jones).

I have been on the trail to Tustin, I been to Austin just like Neil Young’s “ been to Redwood, been to Hollywood….looking for a heart of gold, and I am getting old.”

There is nothing “ordinary” in those post-VN Cold-war decades except for tragedy in high frequency.

But occasionally, some shooting star, from Canada – to where draft-dodgers used to flee- graced us with light-hearted medic pranks (injecting morphine to the opposing team’s running back or the suicidal black pill for company dentist’s “Last Supper”) – fierce and fun – as if one could remain forever young as a permanent student in Animal House.

R.I.P. Donald Sutherland, so “ordinary” a human being yet lived life in full-range. His passing makes us wonder how many lives we could’ve had yet remain unlived.

“Did he just steal our Jeep?” ” No Sir, it’s the one he came in with”.

When living and working near death, what does one have to fear and loose!

“Suicide is painless” on A- track and on B-track, the thwap thwap thwap of medivac alert ( I really really miss you Dad, not just during our 75-85 unfortunate absence – we certainly were no ” Ordinary People” whose ending shows Sutherland hugging Timothy Hutton, saying “I love you”).

Kiefer, know how you feel

Neither Hippies nor Yuppies, I just wanted to skip some Maslow Hierarchy steps and get to the meat (self-actualizing) of things. Thanks to student-loan deferred years, I volunteered in Asia and Africa – front-ending my giving – energy, time and com-passion (as opposed to wait and accumulate spare change and spare time to donate “stale” leisure seeking years to charity work overseas). It’s my self-funded version of Peace Corps “ask not” – what the suffering world can do for you…

Upon re-entry, I had to start over i.e. $100-suit $50-car, hitting the pavement: Sales, then Alternate Sales Channel, Multi-Cultural Direct Sales, Revenue Assurance and Train the trainers in Long-Distance Telephony and Voice-mail system with front-desk folks gave me the look.

As the looming Y2K scare approached, heralding the imminent death of long distance, we were all pumped with adrenaline: even elevators and microwave ovens seemed way too slow. Wall Street was rumbled as robber barons prowled, scouted and land-grabed the Next Big Thing: WorldCom bought MCI number 2 with hyper stocks, ATT and British Telecom joined in a Concert, Time-Warner ” got email” from AOL; all the while MCI held on to Vint Cerf of Distributed Architecture – still is in and of full use today in Ashburn, VA (Money – still – Coming In). Information and data pipe.

Everyone tried to connect the world via whatever communication technology: Telephony, VoIP and Dial Around. The same mission and model of Meta and Big Tech today, albeit under the shadow of globalization and its discontent. The more technology (the way), the more reluctant we call on our fellow human being (the will). Instead, we become test subjects for the new “distributed” experiment, with robot-calls, bot-mail and rabbit holes. Permission and subscription marketing. I agree.

People are different yet universal in their love for families, respect for the elderly and an uncompromising commitment to educating younger generations. They may say change is the only constant but actually, it’s human nature that is: reciprocity for small acts of kindness, shared tips for mutual survival, say one thing and do another, hence hope of an eternity with more fairness and fulfillment.

At MCI, our group (International Market Direct) was rolled under Direct Sales (US). Quarterly meetings held all over the country. By design, I was cross-trained deep and wide: even with company shirt in a 4K run, covering all the bases with micro targeting: Little Tokyo, Little Saigon, Little Havana despite their undercurrent universality e.g. traditional diet, spiritual ties and clan loyalty, albeit scattered and extended family with ocean apart.

So ingrained and ingratiated that on my vacation to London, I drifted unconsciously towards its Chinatown out of curiosity (even Chinatown NYC is different from Chinatown SF per regional adaptation and accent).

Quite an occupational hazard!

It is lucky to belong to a sub-culture group let alone a multi ones.

Cultures mastery requires deep diving and broad strokes, context and nuances. Even today, Shadows in Paradise and Netherland are required reading for me. Kindness can be found in unlikely places, in different people and their view of sports and heroes. Homo sapiens to homo sapiens.

Despite its high wall of steel (and papers) – I owe this to Remarque, the United States, for one reason or another, has been graced and enriched with long-distance strivers, When Corporate comes knocking, small ethnic business owners took notice. A wide range of them, embedded in their community with native mastery.

On a typical “sales call”, I walked them through the “indemnity clause”, explained “Acts of God” and made sure their sales reps don’t wear MCI uniforms (since they were another layer away from a W-9 outsourcing contract). We provided the backhauling and backbone switching capabilities; they on-the-ground mouthpieces. Most were leaders in their respective community, operated out of makeshift “embassies” of rumors and gossips: Pakistanis, Eastern European, Chinese/Vietnamese and a garden-variety of Latinos under the Hispanic umbrella.

Often clustered along coastal cities, foreign folks turned sales agents were more at home in warmer weather and thrived better in urban face-to-face culture (port of entry), unlike European emigrant counterparts who at first had crowded in Northeast tenements.

By getting to know these beautiful strangers, I learned not just geography and demography, but also psychology – underneath their tough bearded facade – a soft longing for their homeland, roots and soul cuisine. Long-distance telephony serves as a bridge, reconnecting hearts across the pond (very much as depicted by Michael Corleone who went into hiding in Sicily, leveraging his father’s hide-away from the pursuit of rival gangs and the long arms of justice).

You may say the US is a melting pot or a salad bowl. You may say it’s a synthetic country or a syncretistic society. Yes, indeed, but you got to “serve somebody” like in a Dylan line.

People called themselves “American communication agency” to mask their foreignness or P.J (initial-only) to abbreviate extremely long un-Anglicized last names; all to avoid erecting unneeded barriers to buying. Once I visited an office in the now-no-more Twin Towers and guess what: outside the door: s/t s/t American, but inside it’s a Chinese outfit seeking outsourcing contracts.

Broadband excess breeds splintered off channels and nodes, and gave rise to narrow casting, just as once predicted by the likes of Alvin Toffler we all read in college (and now, infinite numbers of creators and publishers called yout-Ubers and Ubers).

It’s hard for newcomers to frictionlessly and fluidly fit into our socially opened slots – members only society – (even at the DMV, with updated software, one is lucky to obtain a driver license within a month). Now, with available bandwidth, the melting pot slowly dissolves to make place for a digital salad bowl – Hollywood and Bollywood, TikTok and Twitter.

Their journey to Paradise was paved not with gold, but with more paperwork. We, the agent recruiter, was of no exception. More filing e.g. FCC 214, like corporate lawyers hustling for pre-paid legal contracts. With a Telecommunication license, they could privately brand their bills (without knowing on this side of the Internet, everybody can be an Alex Jones).

The so-called “others”: unspoken, invisible and dismissed as irrelevant, have conveniently been cast in shady light. Villains used to be white bounty hunters – De Niro’s Midnight Train (or of mixed-race gangsters e.g. Jeff Goldblum in Death Wish before Big Chill).

Immigration (trailing theaters of war which moved around the globe) evolves to include and induct more folks from different countries of origin. Then Hollywood took notice. In the name of realism, casting agencies (follow the vein of clinical trial trail) add a tat of darker-skin tone for antagonist (just crank up the dolly to make them look small and devious), e.g. in Trading Places, John Landis upended this stereotype by placing Eddie Murphy way low, as Eddie pulled an “Eddie” on two beat cops – by pretending to be a blind and crippled VN vet.

Go ahead, make my day. Just “a few dollars more”.

Lately that pendulum swings back with “Everything Everywhere all at once”… whose nominated Oscar best support actor says” Don’t give up on your dream” (the American dream i.e. better FDA, school and traffic safety). Netflix certainly cast a wider net (as of this edit, they cross-package w/ Hulu and others).

While get-away cars get smaller, bad guys grow darker. Back in “Dog Day afternoon”, or The Chase, robbers used to ask for a bus (to transport banking hostages to the airport). Now a days, they upgrade to a chopper.

People in the field (back to sales agent) behave differently: less formal. No appointment necessary. Just drop in unannounced. One agent even doubled up as a pizza man, while another sold lavender perfumes for supplemental income. While crossing a street of San Francisco, I was flanked by two tall Croatians: one with no hair, the other lots of it. All three of us at different times, refugees of a distant conflict; yet none with “flowers in their hair “. Wall Street whiz met Main Street smart (just follow Mike Douglas filmography from Summer Tree to Wall Street to Falling Down).

Between corporate (Wall St) expectations and market (multicultural marketing) demand, we strived. Pull and push. Riding two horses everywhere all at once.

Our group grew stronger, smarter and swifter. During the Chinese/Vietnamese New Year season of events, I did not sleep for a month, knowing the revenue base acquired per rule 78, will balloon to a hefty fiscal year (while co-existed with a nagging fear that tech ride itself per Wall Street greed would not last long).

We also had a “charge the bunker “mentality, to take down the incumbent (only to see its grass grow back) like a David against the Goliath (ATT). BTW, MCI “Jack the Giant slayer” used to tape the sole of his shoes so they wouldn’t flap. Microwave Communications Inc had its start with installing “microwave equipment” to connect Chicago-St Louis-route truckers. In a published story, he was reportedly shivering in Windy-City cold – without a coat – hence easily blended in as “one of us” (when trying to make copies of ATT documents for court filing) I could relate to this, schooling and shivering near Joliet for two years.

Telephony (grandfathered by Telegraph) itself has been replaced by the Internet, which in turn, bows down to generative AI and Chat GPT, Nvidia and Intel (fintech, biotech and infotech), Amazon & Apple chips and TSMC chips.

Back then, Microsoft bought out everybody yet missed out the rise of TCP/IP (instead, it bought out Skype and Nokia). Everybody is into AI now. With Anglicized names, preferably feminine to mask the more “male” hardware behind it. At the cost of our taxpayers and past invention (OSI model which enabled physical and network layers, to make app one possible).

I learned then and now, that Karma run across cultures and times while people strive and sacrifice for next generations (law-abiding, tax-paying high achievers), in movies as in real life (Michael’s line:” just as I thought I am ready to…”mainstream”…they pull me right back in ” i.e. gunning down his little girl outside on the steps of the concert hall, Coppola’s own real life daughter.)

I also know first-generation businessmen cheated and evaded tax, all cash under-the-table. Supermarkets of exotic foods with no Superman’s watching eyes – often opened the back doors to long-distance callers and cash suppliers at night (time difference, cash and carry). Since we were in the possession of call details: date, duration and destination, we just factored them in as promotional cost of doing business – necessary to grease our day-time deals (to secure good locations). Data rich versus data poor, East West, North and South shores.

People cried, argued and screamed, broke up and made up over the phone as if higher octave and louder voice will better solve problems at home while full-timing abroad (imagine the same with the Pentagon and that Colonel with a bullhorn played by Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now) or the way protective mothers (Claudine) yelling at their kids over the ocean waves.

By running agents in the field, I crisscrossed the invisible line, with English as my sling shot; knowing full well across the table sat prospects who had been conditioned to self-editorialize per harsh upbringing. It takes one to know one. Those social tests can only be overcome with time and trust. Some scholars call this “weapons of the weak” e.g. time, patience, tolerance and endurance.

In looking forward, I hope you do visit an ethnic restaurant (Afghan or Somalian) or travel to a foreign port (like the Fonz currently in Dublin, straight out of the AARP cover page) or locally get to know a Syrian family (with a young girl volunteering at nearby community health center in hopes of getting on its medical payroll) – As long as the lemon trees still grow.

Watch Bill Murray’s Rock the Kasbah and put yourself in the shoes of that brave girl who secretly rehearses:” Oh baby baby it’s wide world”.

The road from Main Street to Wall Street, from back door to front door, from obtaining an alien number to getting a Social Security number, lay myriads of obstacles. Both corporate and small business want to thrive, both recognize the 2-thousand-pound gorilla: the new robotic reality and an army of W-9 sellers on eBay and Amazon.

AI works the alley, providing “ghost work” to extract human expertise on behalf of its Wall Street lords. We’re transitioning from face2face, one-on-one conversation to a many-to-many society, with AWS and the likes, exploiting and extracting every venue every minute of every day. Prime or non-prime, from OPM to Other People’s Time (sharing economy’s prosumers e.g. self-service in the name of taming inflation, yet helping behemoths build their towers of Babel – w/ Mechanical Turk – ever green, ever learning and improving).

It (technological society) prides on being efficient and infallible, in hopes of helping helpless human connect; by bits and bi-nary data, while analog human- in all colors, shapes and penchants for irrationality drift further apart as hidden costs and unintended consequense.. Miscommunication and its discontent (when will wealth ever trickle down – except only for the rung just below the top 1 per cent per some studies e.g. the original Chef at Apple HQ). Modernity always plays to win, cultures of the West, and cut-throat labor/raw resources of the Rest.

Not long ago, kids from East Europe drove Beamers after hours on their keyboards, pretending to be someone else to influence election in the US. An in-place, reverse assault without a need to get in line to fill out tons of forms and paperwork as early immigrants.

I could have enjoyed a longer telephony life (unlike my predecessors of Baby Bells). But then, the journey is the reward. Despite our differences and no matter what some may say to self-elevate at someone else’s expenses, America will always reach for the stars, seek new heights and retain decent standards, while not trying to solve crisis abroad in cookie approach and hopes that problems at home somehow self- dissipate.

America has nursed its wound, has been “torn between two lovers” since LBJ. Now, more aids, no boots to Ukraine. Time has un-cubed and uncuffed people this side of the Atomic Bomb. Have you noticed both Zelensky and Zuckerberg are always in their T-shirts? Quite an optic contrast to Yalta conference (where three leaders posed in coat for Peace messaging).

The long-tail nature of our Internet allows initial divisive social media. While data over the distance reaches near zero cost (given ample broadband connectivity) students of cross-cultures know the hardest gap to bridge is the last few inches between people. Judy Woodruff has been following this story across America, in the tradition of Charles Kuralt and Studs Terkel.

That’s how I felt working as an agent runner in pre-internet era: breathless and sleepless, juggling multiple balls in the air and stressed out in LA traffic. Multi-cultural markets don’t congregate conveniently downtown with paid parking. We could not “text” our agents to delay an appointment since no one at the time had an I-phone or an App.

I often wonder what kind of a penniless masochist it would take to volunteer in Asia and Africa only to come home working for Corporate America (paid off student loan debt by spreading in all four). Between two irreconcilable and irritating worlds lie shadows and stones on which strange names finally are spelled out in full and in original forms.

Names once abbreviated to not hinder the flow and fluidity of technology, commerce and progress. Hippies, Yuppies, Luddites or plain-old-telephone (POT) strivers from a different shore. Bye Alexa.

Whatever the problem was e.g. spiritual, emotional, physical or social, the answer has been to buy more stuff. From design and style change to new drug for newly uncovered “disease”. Scale, scale and scale. From supply side, the faster the machine, the more profit. On demand side, people do not want to be reminded that we are in a post-materialist phase, albeit life is still short even with longer longevity. It insults their intelligence if you keep mentioning the Happiness Curve, or the Law of Diminishing Return e.g. 1 steak, 2nd steak, 3rd steak…as quantity peaks, quality and satisfaction decreases every time.

Traveling gives us a break and a fresh perspective. With new horizon to expand our vision and new curve to jump (like a kid tossing a quarter over the surface of the water to see it glides); our conundrum gets new perspective from a different angle (space tour anyone?).

Growth and decline are facts of life. Yet out of immaturity or in denial (we’re an exception to the rules): Rome, the Empire. America, the Persian, India and China Empire beg to differ: “No it’s us who possess the ancient text and formula” Mummifying?).

The US and Western Allies: we knocked down the Atlantic Wall 80 years ago.

Justice in the American (West) way (6 bullets) and some – hid in boots only to be drawn out at last resort “shot fired!”. The spoil of war well-earned. Multiplication is better. Supersize and Superman, the best. “Supersize Me” author has died at age 56. Hit me.

Batman and Bond franchise live on forever, thanks to Hollywood branding.

I am invincible. Tomorrow never dies.

Look, who is the most beautiful/handsome of all. Cinderella without a curfew. Materialist = Exceptionalist. Spiritualist? Philosopher? Artist? Losers! (stolen arts = forbidden fruits, taste better). Let them get dirty with paint and brushes, grammar and conjugation, aperture and white balance. We steal from the art thieves, Thief in Chief.

Everybody wants to be me, worships me and adores me. Mirror mirror, screen screen (Apple or Android) who is the fairest of all?

A materialistic solution is to be applied to every problem, cosmetic surgery or pharmaceutical dosage (a medicine cabinet and a mackintosh in every home).

It seems to work every time, albeit short-term. Until the next trip. Next call of the mall.

Consumption cannot keep up with over-supply (want free Prime?). Not when overseas labor gets multi-layer-outsourcing (to the Cambodian then their kids), while multi-level marketing cannot keep pace. Not when machine multiplies itself – AI designing AI (see Our Modern Times) and Amazon Everything Store AWS keeps scaling and ballooning.

We used to report UFO sightings. Now the table turns. Martians perhaps have been stalking us. To them, we must seem very weird: lots of outfits yet nothing to wear. Lots of phones, yet no one to talk to.

We keep doing the same thing i.e. applying materialistic solutions to non-materialistic problems, instead of “to Be” we switch to “to Have”. A miracle without a prayer. Hitting the jackpot without a Quick Pick. At this rate, miracles might have already occurred, and we did not even know it. Why stop the conveyor belt to enjoy old dreams already realized (to be content) when the world keeps pushing on for more, more, more….

Kids are lonely. Buy him/her a second phone (I phone, I pad and Mac book, screen protectors, visors, headset, microphones, keyboard, audio panel, blue tooth, sweet tooth and Costco-size pizza. If you got good grades, then we’ll talk: thousand-dollars gaming CPUs – pre=paid per tariffs. HDMI, USB, USBC etc… first it’s wireless, then we need the connector to connect the laptop re-purposed as desktop etc….

Back to School? It’s barely summer recess. Yet school supplies are at the ready. Middle School to High School transition? Why not double up college pathways while at it. Easter? All the Easter eggs you can find (this time, unlike the model T’s, you can have any color you want). Again, the Law of Diminishing Return. There was a cartoonish character, bell out with benevolence:” Here, take some more. They are all stale”. TAKE It!

Long ago, it’s not a factory strike that rattled management. It’s boycott.

Then things resume, like an un-Pause, movies extras start getting busy: chatting and walking for ambient noise, the huddle mass. Buy more, consume faster, sniff quicker. No one tastes foods. Just consume. Just slurp. Just move about in space as in time (the hunger of the past is no more. It’s the age of abundance, but polarizing abundance). Even Facebook will have to slow down as it reaches its peak.

Our Nighthawk guy (no one ever saw his face, just his back – over the diner’s counter) meanwhile, just sits. Letting life go by. Nursing a stale cup of coffee. Then a top up. By the third refill, he would realize the Law of Diminishing Return does apply (unless the coffee shop owner himself is lonely on night shift).

Keep pushing for more engineering solution, bio-chemical solution and logistic solution (service fee and tax). It’s the credit card and interest rates. It’s other’s People Money, Time, Vehicle, housing, Energy and buying habits (permission and permissive marketing predicts perception/definition of happiness – behavior-modified as time goes on by Madison Avenue and Hollywood). The way we never were. Even if it’s selective past, dementia will do us in (like pre-diabetes, pre-clinical Alzheimer self-generated a need for pre-treat drug assuming your children and grandchildren cherish your “once upon a time” bed-time stories.

Occasionally someone reports an UFO sighting. It makes for interesting “out of space” conversation. Or else, life would be so boring, doing the same (consuming) without obtaining a different (tasty) result. 1st steak, 2nd steak, 3rd steak…How about a pie-eating contest? How about more ribs, more wings, more fries and more soda (up the ladder, same totem pole).

Super-size me. Scarcity is no more. What matters is the tangible. The materialistic solution to everyday non-materialistic problem (BMI is showing me pre-obese). Non-stop. Just going, going, going. Except when the grid is down for repair, due to Climate change, or energy over-Consumption. Most time, it’s the supply side that wins (with more tax incentives for re-shoring).

Long game, short attention-span. Money can buy a lot. As in the Cat on the hot tin roof:” keep buying things in the hope that one of these might bring you eternal life”. Scrap shoot. What happens on Earth stays on Earth. Unless you can afford space travel. Foreign trips won’t cut it.

A lot of problems can be solved by the Materialist. Especially so when it’s time and its spousal urge to respond to the call of the mall. We are what we have. Then have some more, since it’s quite often, what we have turns out obsolete, hence “we had”…. Happiness curves along the bell shape, a high then a low way low.

A closet full, nothing to wear.

It’s everywhere.

Yet we are behavior-modified to put weight on the scale, to measure and quantify in nano second urgency.

McKinsey and Morgan, Central Bank and the FED. The interest rates and rewards (FICO) of lower loan rates.

On this 80th D-Day commemoration, we salute the courage (manifested quality) of those who jumped out of airplanes or waded in knees-deep waters carrying 70 lbs. of gear (there’s your penchant to count) with near zero chance of survival.

That one was for keeps. Honoring. Saluting.

The intangible around us: ordinary heroes, love in action (soup kitchen), act of kindness, words of encouragement and enablement.

It’s summer. Kids are out of school. Time drags on, at the beach or by the pool. Many are wondering what the future may hold. Love, beauty, truth and eternality no longer occupy the day. The brain bandwidth is reserved for student loan, credit card debt, mortgage and car payments.

We’re plagued with social media feed which left us with little time for what’s behind and beyond us. Only the measurable at hand (agree to amount?) and the visible up front (traffic signs). How heavy, how much, how loud and how long?

Not long.

Soon enough.

You’ll see. Are we there yet? Mirage after mirage, then forgetfulness and dementia. Meanwhile, the bodies laid waste, many bled to death. Still “future-forwarding” disclaimer.

In Storm of Steel, readers come across situations like even the dead (buried in cemetery) got killed twice. Or on one occasion, Junger, the author, went for a chat at his neighboring trench only upon return to find his own bunker bombed to oblivion.

How long? Not long. The invisible and intangible are always with us.

We just can’t see and still don’t care. Just what others e.g. Meta’s engineers and Amazon algorithms “recommend “as urgent (only one left). Sensational SEO and highest Page-ranked brought to you by Alphabet e.g. the cover-up decades ago in England…

Until and unless the prison bars slammed shut (audibly) and handcuffs removed that the mob are satisfied…for now until its next bloodthirsty bout. “Go home everybody” “hug your inter-racial wives”. The problem with our modern society is news cycle, that which used to be at 6PM, now is anytime, 24/7, so urgent and sensational, so tribal and trivial, with production music and large fonts “Breaking News”.

We are what we pay attention to. Always. Those who measure, will never cease to count costs vs benefits. Those who by nature givers will always give – without any mental reservation or remorse, who will never treat each encounter as a transaction (this happened often through a bullet-proof window at pawnshops for a quick cash-and-carry.)

Can’t live on while discounting all the beauties in the world e.g. le soleil (the warmth of each morning’s Sun), le vent (free wind to soothe the heat wave) and la plage (wave after wave of salty sea to soothe a restless summer) which happen to be all free. As in “the wedding” (poem from Doctor Zhivago) the morning after:

“in the endlessness of sky, in a whirl of feathers, flocks of pigeons fly on high, from their night long shelter. As if someone had sent them, to the new young couple, to catch up and give them their wishes to be happy. Life is also such a flash, such an effervescence, of a soul in human mass, Offered as a present” pg. 28 Selected writings and letters by Boris Pasternak.

From parent of parent on down, we were told what’s important and urgent: hands that manipulate the lever, drop the bombs, carry out an execution without stay, spray and release chemicals into the stream. My life and yours are definitely affected and afflicted by strayed bullets that took down Heads of State (WWI, 1963 etc..) or near-missed (Ford’s twice in SF).

No longer do we “have a dream” (for fear “history might repeat itself”). It’s not safe anywhere, like a line uttered by Robert Redford in “3 Days of the Condor”: “I just read books” (yet he was about to make a run for his life, turning his 10-minutes office lunch run into a three-days fugitive- with Faye Dunaway reluctant compliance while assassin was played by Max von Sydow.

Oil price went up, interest rates go down, missiles launched, and flights took off (Seattle to Istanbul, with emergency stop in JFK due to sudden death of pilot). All computerized and measured in nano seconds. Precision guided Military Industrial Complex, delivered swiftly and stealthily, so brainless that even a monkey can pull the lever. Ironically, our peace time leisure is financed by current advertisers and past defense budget (tax dollars).

Born to duck, to run, this way and that way. No home or bunker to come back to. Even the dead got killed twice. Private Ryan might get saved, since his enlisted brothers were not. At this kill ratio rate, we might as well die twice, only to live on in the Cloud until those databases get scrubbed periodically. Even the dead might get solicited twice (ironically for life insurance). There was a word for it back in 1517-time frame. It’s called indulgence.

The intangible, though not visible and touchable, are all around us: love, the warm caress of the Sun and the gentle touch of the surf. Thank goodness for our multi-facet existence. If everything is visible and urgent, to be held tangibly in the palm of one’s hand (Jobs incarnated would roll over to see how his I phone has evolved for the worst i.e. no more time for calligraphy, for a walk in neighborhood apple or prune orchard) life would be short- changed albeit convenient: fast food nation, fast lane highway, and fast-pace existence. Quickly, “just ahead, a few more miles”. Auto-complete text…then press “send” before the light turns green.

Where is my bunker? My sanctuary? My last stop on this journey of mixed blessing and curse, both measurable and intangible. It’s quality that counts. As David Brooks said about D-Day dads” when history called, they came”.

Per Almanac readers’ feedback, it’s those lists that hit the spot (similar to US News and World Report college ranking or Forbes billionaires list).

Here is my list:

• It’s zero interest, use it or “lose it”. This is puppy-dog sales. How much are the balance-transfer fees? they hope no one read those winding fine-print disclaimers
• You owe it to yourself to have a prosperous life (Crystal Cathedral – Health and Wealth Gospel – ends up in Vietnamese Catholics’ hands). Who wouldn’t want to be prospered and multiplied! Curse the day Job was born. Jesus died for you, in return you owe Him an unpayable debt including your life i.e. time, money, energy and vote. Everything doesn’t belong to you (who was supposedly and already dead, hence, whatever time left from here on out, is ours. We got a direct line on that Red Phone: e.g. “we need babies”, “we need arranged marriages” e.g. the church of the Moonies’ mass wedding, keeping and replenishing “sheep”, Louisiana Jet-hopping pastor, Miami laying-of-hands on the Anointed…)
• Instead of testament, they touted testosterone, instead of humility victory (winning), Jesus John Wayne, Good Friday Palm Sunday, Theo-crats Techno-crats (seniors’ gullibility…weekly automatic withdrawal way past their deaths – classic multi-step close i.e. talk tough (big) but collect/hook tolls (small) from many (scale) with increasing voltage (look at the instigating groupies, they gave billions)
• The majority of the people think this or that, hence you should follow those with most “Like”; proof positive, quantity over quality, conformity push e.g. NYC conformity experiment – planted actor looks up to the top of skyline to form critical mass (free samples to early-adopters to create momentum), the lines experiment, the shock treatment by professor Stanley Milgram. After all, we’re social animals (a pillow for a vote). We sleep like sheep. Conformity leads to deformity.
• Cognitive dissonance: your hero, your teacher, your idol endorsed this, hence, you MUST follow in their footsteps (parent, teacher themselves had bad influencers to begin with – hand-me-down sub-standard wisdom e.g. survival of the strongest, richest, fastest). More on Factfulness by Hans Rosling)
• The machine (GPS) told you to drive straight … over and down to the cliff. Machine is always right. Way to go Waymo. Follow its instructions for directions. You must obey it (then why do we need to update the software version? What’s the release year and version?) More computing power, hence, more accurate, not absolute (singularity is here? or near?). Again, cognitive dissonance if we’re to “question” the machine. BTW, we do get punished (by accrued interest) or pulled over by the cops when ignoring traffic signs (traffic school or electric shock, Skinner behavior modification in Stanford prison.)
• People of color are lazy, underdeveloped countries don’t speak English, hence, are “underdeveloped”, if not less intelligent – let’s exploit and optimize the exchange rates via BPO, or in-shoring FOB cheap labor and borrowed OPM. This is a colonial variable, dressed up in new clothes, with new “non-white” supervisors (Crossing Over) people-machine hybrid to evade racist charges
• Take those online classes (short-term vocational degrees) with promises of low investment/ high return: ITT, Art Institute etc… while burying the complexity of human behavior, labor market and career flux that baffle even the FED who are in possession of more accurate data (social proof – our alumni were hired at … similar profile suggested automatically per recommending software) on this very Linkedin platform to enrich Hoffman.
• The US always wins. Well, look at yours truly, who barely got here; It’s the “house” – the system- that always wins per deep capitalization and technological industrial complex
• Garage start-ups want to change the world (do no evil, organize the world’s information, think different, connecting the mass), Silicon Unicorn …only to end up caving and catering to Wall Street instinct and interest e.g. “Greed is good”; meanwhile, dead to those pronounced world-changing passion i.e. the greater good and noble cause
• Half-truths, State-sponsored funneling techniques (Yes, Yes, yes until they are least resistant) “yes”. The ill-thought-out final “yes”, has been planned out with machine=precision and patience all along by grifters (principle of consistency).
• Con men and cultic figures rely on crowd-chanting, anticipate weak personalities and exhaustion (which leads to de-individuation) to drive herd instinct. BTW, on re-watching “To Kill a Mockingbird”, I found a heroine in “Scout” who averted a mob lynching at the county jail (“I go to school with your son” etc… the mob man as if awoke from a trance, decided to turn everyone around). It’s easier to cash in on mass hysteria (the Law of the Average). They manipulate and massage their audience (FUD) i.e. fear, uncertainty and doubt: ” they – the others – are coming for you”. A page ripped out of Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist. BTW, a high percentage of poor people seeking sanctuary have been children of destitute, our modern-day Ann Franks (Biden’s latest border policies). Haitian speak French. Do you? on this edit, government shutdown is forcing kids to eat trick-or-treat candies for lunch. What a society that touts its nobility and high=church.
• The list goes on and on. Check out “Influence” (view his TED talk on pre-suasion), often redressed with new spokesperson, varied combination of psychological manipulation techniques (authority figure clad in uniform…. In current Engineering Age, High Priest = the computer. A classic Bait and Switch: Sales sign indicates price reduction (I have just been had by Southwest one-way from $49 click bait) but at the cash register” the machine says here, it’s not on sale”
• Like a network rerun for a new demographic segment: “Insanity in individuals is somewhat rare. But in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule” Nietzsche. How should we then live? “Only the paranoid will survive” per Andy Grove (Intel finally gets its plants re-shored, in time to join the throng behind Nvidia. BTW, where is GE (that used to Bring Good Things to Life).
• This Memorial Day, we remember those who died for the ideal of a free people and free thoughts. May they rest, unencumbered and unaffected by those re-incarnated dust-off deceit, smoke and mirror, dazzling props and wardrobe, incense and snake-oil chameleon and con men who are always on the lookout for fresh converts with “voluntary servitude” (stimuli-responses) “respond to the call”, “ask not”…as they are lured in to the trap of the Law of Average. It’s the institution stupid.
• Remember to Pause (between stimulus and share) before Post (Response).

If the Sun were warrior male, then Moon, nurturing female: soft, strong and enduring.

On this side of World War II, we celebrate women who stepped up to the plate (” You Can Do It”) only to take bandannas off, put aprons back on once victory was secured. Voila, the baby boomer generation.

In our highly competitive society, we need a resting place. A Sabbath, a cave even a womb.

Often times, it’s our mom. Mine said: “Who wouldn’t root for a face like that” when seeing me down.

I once took a nap (jet lag) while visiting her in Assisted Living. She saw through me, what I needed. Certainly not food. The result? Best reboot.

Life will offer mobility, speed, victory (at a price), penalty and reward, but nap? What’s that! Only the lazy! Joe versus the volcano (that neon light was too bright!).

To shelter from the beating Sun, people in SE Asia and S America often have siestas. The night is long, cool and things/work can wait. Western world had an early-mover advantage with cooling tech (compressor and capacitor) hence an 8-hour workday, like clockwork, before feeling like a train wreck.

The culture contrast might not be just in degrees (of hard working) but in kind (technology adoption rate and diffusion of innovation this side of the Industrial Revolution).

In Asia you are the sum of all selves i.e. someone’s cousin, grandpa’s grandchild, your friend’s friend and neighbor. All in a web of relationships (Everything All at Once). Tribes which held periodic power got the most followers (the Nguyen, the Tran etc..). Individualism, what’s that! Narcissism, hum!

There is no place for self-compassion, self-indulgence (my brother once felt guilty lunching out when my mom walked by on her way to the market for raw ingredients) – or in arranged marriage via a matchmaker – individual cold-calling for a date? what’s that. The nail that sticks up gets hammered or humbled down – vast data set that reach back centuries. One is named in the order in which he/she was born: “anh Ba, chi Tu” (brother 3 sister 4) in rigid structure: King-Monk-Teacher-Parent, with long loyal line way beyond the grave (shaming and shunning, more immediate when one doesn’t adhere to the code). One of our classmates, deceased, but still known as son of the Geography/History teacher. His son showed up at our 50th Reunion.

While DO NOT ENTER hung outside kid’s room in Western society, poorer Asian counterparts sleep on the floor in groups. (My cousin finally rebuilt her meager house, with separate rooms for her grown up kids. She expressed “post-partum” syndrome, as if century-old womb was finally vacant psychologically per spacious availability.) Kids in the US, when intervention is needed, get sent to “see someone” (school social worker/analyst) or else, like lately, a MN church kid, consulting a “gun show” sales specialist; again, in my cousin’s narrative, she is always with people around to listen to and/or to spread the blame – listening at an emotional level tends to de-escalate and diffuse tension.

To this day, we still can’t put the finger on who is responsible for the demise of Vietnam (just to make a point). Since everyone were responsible, hence no one (via declassified materials, one finds at best some plausible what-if scenarios – alternate history e.g. what if Kennedy had been alive (Promises to Keep) he would have withdrawn, or if Westmoreland just stayed put as a schoolmaster or Kissinger definitely etc..).

The war eclipsed and replaced previous convention (Command and Control). Most telling was from the front e.g. “shoot first, ask later” at Son Thang or My lai; or tormented by conflicting loyalties e.g. Convoy of Tears (3/75) – disobeying order (to stay and hold) or to take care of fleeing families (again, what do you expect to find in extended-family culture).

So syrupy was the sentiment:” This Tet, I won’t be coming home to you, mom” …Vietnam-war version of Take me Home, Country Roads. One might be a General but back home, with cap off, just a G.I. Joe who craves corn dogs or soul foods – after sweating and fixing up mom’s thatched roof (nursing home, what’s that?). Circling back to my best nap.

What is your last name, nick name and rank? Except for rank, the other two were branded from the start. When rank became irrelevant, one had to cope with post-war identity crisis amidst culture collision and compromise. Veterans-prisoners-immigrants were baffled when arriving at plum Orange County in the 90’s.

Back home and back then, in the North (of VN), people lived off coal mines while the South, rice fields and fisheries. At present, both are urbanized e.g. pollution, traffic and inflation – both honor their mothers – alive or deceased – with thoughts, prayers and flowers.

Life in the East alternates between creation and creative destruction (Faulkner’s” the past is not dead, it’s not even past”). We repeat the same mistakes slowly then suddenly, only with new actors.

My recently deceased sister told tales of sleeping at the bottom of an US Navy ship next to someone with an open wound (her words). Up on the deck, a Navy man wrote home to his wife:” wow, they dropped babies like basketballs” (from hovering out of fuel chopper). Yet, my sister’s four children are getting on well, adapted and adjusted to capitalist United States of “wild” America. Those were the days when dollars got burned by the bushel and Vietnam currency (piasters) tossed by the handful to the four winds.

We are the sum of all selves.

No wonder the Old Testament often refers to so and so, son of so and so who came from so and so. Each was mentioned as part of a long genealogical chain.

Thanks to Big Data, social media afford us “customized” recommendation based on our profile (which was prerequisite verification for using the site). This is not to celebrate our uniqueness, but more for programmatic segmentation and targeted billing (before that, it’s often a tossup to spend ads dollar).

For years, we lived among groups (for survival in an agricultural society), seeing ourselves as seen. All of a sudden, with broadband and apps, we experience “freedom” to “tweet” (140 characters limit) and shout, anonymously, to take and post selected/then-deleted selfies across the pond.

Of course, we are aware of the nature/nurture debate (80/20). But how many of us were taken at an early age to be raised by a different set of parents (as in Trading Places) i.e. what’s the percentage of gene (75 or 85) that significantly affect and alter future outcome. How about interracial marriages (Obama via way of Kenya and Kansas).

I flipped through an Oakland Museum coffee-table book (What’s going on). On one page, it shows G.I.’s sleeping on cots in a hangar waiting to be shipped out (67 to Nam). Later, it’s a punch line in-country “so? they are going to ship me to Nam!”. Our own Kieu Chinh (actress in Hamburger Hill) scolded her brothel clientele: “You! GIs! Beaucoup dien cai dau” crazy!).

The next page shows supposedly interracial war-orphans in buckled-up bassinets (upper deck bunch survived the crash) during Operation Babylift, April 4, 1975.

We are not the Know-Nothing. We know Something, though not Everything. However incomplete, we know enough: honor Thy mothers – a rare treat of a nap and needed unconditional love.

This past Mother’s Day, that siesta resurfaced, at long-loss. It’s as if the umbilical cord were reattached for my sanity. Positive reinforcement.

Individualism of the West vs communal connections of the East. Son of Sam vs Sum of Selves. Individual vs communal self.

At odds and falling through the cracks are those test-tube babies – origin and destiny unknown – belonging to neither world, surviving orphans of one of the last flights out (or Telegram founder’s sperm babies) while awaiting a genetically-modified upgrade (e.g. White Christian nationalism – it’s not enough to live on the promise of going somewhere – in the hereafter- it has to appease immediate self-gratification – in the here and now via legislation – an ambitious Civil Religious plan hatched by Mitch and the Majority which, per “Sleepwalking through history” gives us our first in a series of divorced Presidents.)

Those who know where they are from (source) will more likely know who they are (identity) and where they are going (destiny). Besides, it’s still unknowable and debatable whether there was a definite endpoint (Omega).

Each Millenium historically bleeds to another in endless flow of history (albeit people in years past had longer attention span and shorter lifespan). If anything, it’s quality of life that counts e.g. comfort made possible by technology like jet plane, air-conditioning and computer (hard and software).

We are nearing an AI age with robots (Klara in the Sun) that/who keep us company, boasting a 24/7 productivity (never take naps, always well-alert and willing to serve), remember and recall better (search and autofill), and reply in Yes and No answer only. We will all be “the English patient” with Klara, our 24/7 nurse (always-learning with if-then readiness).

Even so, it will evolve superficially (artificial tears) however speedily and efficiently (Nvidia and chips manufacturers like Intel). “Ok, you’re not hungry, I see”. “How about a nap?”).

You can trade your phone in, but real- life mom will never let go of her children. In my sister’s case – at sea for days without foods (except for an orange), she somehow managed to take care of herself, while served as a human “buckle”, ensuring safety for her kids against “undesirable” neighbors in topsy turvy sea. Then decades later, sleeping alone, postpartum, as a widow in a western-standard empty house, near West Virginia (Take me home, Country Roads).

We’re the Sum of all Selves, admit it or not.