Tag: Red states and blue states

Least resistance

Organizations and people in them tend to take this path.

Status quo. Business as usual. The comfort of routine. The predictable, mechanical rhythm. Makes the world go round. Until we drop out. One person at a time. Dust comes to dust. But the morgue still sends the bills. Please pay by a certain date, or else, interests will be applied. Routine red tape again.

Beyond death, even our own, the system goes on, to claim its next subject (victim), from birth to burial, from cradle to the grave. Have you noticed that we all got wrapped in those institutional blankets when we first arrived, and the same when we exit. They may even wrap a wrist band around us for ID. Try to enjoy sunshine, because the beginning and the end, are all lighted by fluorescent lights.

Path of least resistance. Fight not against the system. Especially Health care.

When you need its services, you are not in a bargaining position. We saw the shake up of the banking system over the last few years. Those shiny lobbies and marble floors, silk ties and slick suits. They jut paid the fine, and moved on . Now, it’s business as usual.

Shake not the system. Follow the path of least resistance. Start here, end there.

We have always done it this way. Get back to the bottom of the totem pole.

Shake not the pole.  We just pay lip services like “the more the merrier”, but the reality is Earth’s 7 billion are not welcome. We are not resource-rich enough to welcome all (you would think with the vast expanse we call the United States, people would do away with Up Stairs Down Stairs, as in crowded Britain. Yet, still “no room in the inn”, and the map got divided into Red States and Blue States. Geography of the mind, more than of the map.) Tighten the border and the security. Status quo reigns. Until death claims one at a time. Just read the NYT‘s obituary page. You’ll see. When faced with the fork along the way, take the road less travel, not the path of least resistance.

Sudden Dream

If you dropped everything and listened to all the casual remarks, you would be paralyzed.

The current economy is like an elephant, perceived by four blind men: it’s going to get better, it’s like a wave form, a V-shape, a downward cyclical.

They could illustrate and demonstrate. They could even persuade. But who is to hold their feet to the fire months from now.

When the going gets rough, the tough takes a vacation. A long one. They said comes January, the electoral body will be in the same state it was at the beginning.

Just reflective of the country as a whole, i.e. divided we stand.

I don’t know where this is going. I have blogged mostly about technology and cultures.

I don’t see much choices in tech trending, nor about how cultures express themselves.

Yet I  live within the Red and Blue States, where Asian and Hispanic demographics are growing more than 150%.

Do we have equal representation who look after our interests up on the Hill?

Are companies putting in place a plan to capture and service this growing trend?

Culture groups know it when you reach out to them. Localization, as they call it, nowadays.

A banner here, a face there, in-language.

I can never forget my first exposure to advertisement. It was the face of a African man, smiling. The product: toothpaste. Hynos. Making and keeping your smile white. My second was about a rice cooker. A 60-second spot, before the movie starts. It’s branded National. So I was introduced to white smile and white rice.

Hynos and National. Brands that reached out to folks like me. Caring for my teeth and my taste.

They understood a thing or two about CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). They were there early, in your face.

They care, or at least, pretend that they do.

If only politicians learned a thing or two from marketers. Both try to serve the public goods. One regulates the other.

But only after the fact. Only when it’s too late (food poisoning, or automobile recall).

We need leaders that can rally, unite and inspire.

We need role models that can take us to new heights, to sacrifice the here and now for a better tomorrow.

We need someone to show us the road ahead, that future generation will benefit from our today’s sacrifice.

Yes. We need to move beyond the pragmatic, to the romantic. Again, Ask Not.

Again, Be all you can be. One more time, Stand up. It’s mind-blogging how we have fought two wars out there, and all along, got into a quagmire here at home. The only cease-fire is when Congress take off for 5 weeks. At least there is some quiet, though not peace, on the Hill.No news is good news even at Chick–fil-A on any given Sunday.