DaveShearon

PsyCap - An Integrative Approach and a New Tool

My book note on Psychological Capital by Luthans, Youssef, and Avolio is up over at Positive Psychology Daily News.

Presence

Based on Synchronicity, I've just ordered this book.  I don't know exactly what I'm pursuing here, but I'm going to follow my instinct to read more in this vein.

Everything Bad Is Good for You - Examples

This post references blog posts that demonstrate what Everything Bad Is Good for You argues:

9/30/2004 Ambivablog on "Rescue Me."  I bet if the book had been published, she would have known about it.

Everything Bad Is Good for You

This is a book note about Everything Bad Is Good for You by Stephen Johnson.  Very intersting.  Argues that popular culture has become more intellectually challenging over the past 30 years, and has made us smarter.  Click "Continue readying" to read the note.

New books listed

I've been doing some recreational reading in my preferred genre, science fiction.  Two new entries listed on the side.

Shadow Warriors

I am almost finished listening to Shadow Warriors:  Inside the Special Forces by Tom Clancy, with Carl Stiner and Tony Koltz.  A few observations:

• Given time to plan, the US Military will accomplish the military objectives of the political goals set by civilian leaders with a minimum loss of American and opposition lives.
• Given insufficient time to plan, the US deaths will go up some, the opposition deaths will go up exponentially.
• US military leaders are the smartest, most educated, best trained, and most disciplined ever.  So are the soldiers they lead. 
• In the Special Forces, this translates to a 120 minimum IQ, fluency in languages and culture of target areas, multiple masters degree, and a psy-ops unit that, in the first Gulf War, included more than 50 Ph.D.'s. 
• In Panama, when it was learned Noriega was a practitioner of witchcraft, a warrant officer with a masters in the subject was available to explain and interpret the displays found in his homes and offices.
• Shwartskoff wasn't a  big fan of SF, and may have underutilized them in the liberation of Kuwait.  However, the teams attached to all coalition forces provided a bridge for language and communications technology, as well as operational and tactical expertise.
• Logistics, logistics, logistics.
• We need to worry about a gap between a culture of discipline, responsibility, respect and relgious faith in the military and one of license, "rights", self-promotion, and secularism in significant parts of the rest of society.

Book Blogging

I've caught up a little on the left on books I've read or listened to recently. None will get a full book note -- not because they aren't great, but because they're not in areas I'm thinking through that deeply -- but here are a few quick comments:

Founding Brothers As noted, Joseph Ellis got into trouble after this book came out for having fabricated and embellished stories of his Viet Nam service over the years. I find such behavior troubling in a presidential candidate, but less so in an author/historian -- not as close to the core of what I'm looking to that person for. I guess the biggest three insights for me were:

1. Jefferson was fuzzy-thinking when it came to matters of liberty, and self-deceiving about his own behavior. Disappointing for a UVA alumnus. He apparently believed in the power of ideas and philosophies to change human nature. I wouldn't want a son to be like him in these ways.

2. Washington is shown as having an ability to find and then cling to key principles such as winning the war by keeping the Continental Army in existence, or neutrality in foreign affairs. Although not particularly good tactically, especially early on, he seems to have been the first military strategist to master the key principles of insurgency warfare against a foreign power. It was also amazing that the press in the 1790's accused Washington of planning to betray the United States to Britain! (And this apparently hurt him deeply, although he also grasped the key principle of political life that some attacks just cannot be granted a response.)

3. John Adams was far more brilliant and influential than I had realized. Just looking at his term as president, he managed to end an undeclared war with France, scotched a plan by Hamilton to create a standing army then use it to make himself something of a King and annex Mexico and South America, and urged and began the development of naval forces -- a move that proved prescient during the War of 1812. He managed to forgive Jefferson's betrayal in later years and allow the re-establishment of their friendship. His integrity and passion are to be admired.

Wolfe at Quebec

Just finished listening to Wolfe at Quebec by Christopher Hibbert. I pulled it from the shelves at the library because, during my recent business trip to Quebec, I had the opportunity to take the tour of the citadel that the British built some years after Wolfe's victory to protect Quebec from the Americans.

The interesting thing is this: the story I was told there of the battle bears no resemblance to the story told in this book. The guide said that the French defenders expected an attach from east (north?) of the city and, when the British landed west (south?) and set up on the plains of Abraham, the French had to run for two hours and arrived exhausted to face a rested British force that had had time to "put two bullets in their muskets."

From the book, I learned that the French forces guarding Quebec far out-numbered the British and held a naturally defensible position that had been reinforced up and down the river at every key landing place. They were totally confident of preventing any major landing. Although neither side was exemplary in military management, only incompetence and corruption possible extending to outright treachery allowed the British to land. Then, incompetence and lack of trust caused the French to engage with less than their full force, but with a number approximately equalling the opposing British.

The British, after several days of being packed into boats and floating or being towed up and down the St. Lawrence, had landed the evening before to little or no resistance, then spent the night getting themselves, cannon and supplies up the cliffs. Then they spent the morning standing in the rain. Rested? Hardly.

Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

SFM opened June 18. A Paul Allen endeavor. And he gets to play with Flipstart, too! (Latest here.) I could be jealous, but really I've got more of an Ayn Rand-ish reaction: I'm glad he's out there working to make my life more fun.

1864

1864 was my year yesterday from two directions. First, I listened to most of The Dahlgren Affair on tape as I drove back from Memphis. Very interesting, and well done. Many similarities to today. Pundits and editorialists raving like lunatics on both sides. Peace Democrats in the North ready for the country to lose in order to beat a Republican President. The New York Times resorting to making things up when mere embellishment proved insufficient. Letters and diaries serve as the blogs of that day, recording the contemporaneous thoughts of individuals in different circumstances and from varying walks of life. Then, last night, T, Tyler & i watched Cold Mountain.

From The Dahlgren Affair: mystery, intrigue, corruption North and South, a rich man's war, and wonderful "What if's?" For example, what if Gen. Kilpatrick (a/k/a "Kill Cavalry") hadn't lost his nerve after his plan succeeded in putting his force of 3000+ cavalry on the outskirts of a virtually undefended Richmond on March 1, 1864. What if he'd ordered a charge instead of cautious approach on foot that allowed home guard defenders to gather and put up enough resistance to make him lose his nerve completely and order a retreat? What if he'd liberated the prisoners at Liddy Prison and Belle Island? Seems likely he could have, even with Colonel Dahlgren's mischance of a guide who got lost keeping him from entering Richmond from the South. I'm hoping to get some answers to the Dahlgren mystery. Highly recommended.

From Cold Mountain: Gripping movie. The opening scenes of the sapping of the Confederate lines during the seige of Petersburg reminded me of The Guns of the South, whch references that event. What a destructive, brutal, costly war. What a price this country has paid because of slavery. How is it that we can even question the need to confront depraved domination and subjugation of human beings, whether in Iraq or Darfur?  No, we can't fight every battle that needs fighting all at once. But, the civilized world should no longer consider it acceptable to stand by while criminal gangs loot and rape a country or an ethnic group simply because they have been able to cloak themselves in the trappings of a "government."

P.S. Amazing what the internet provides. I did catch the anti-war slant of Cold Mountain, but I missed the anti-male bias. An Amazon reviewer didn't. He writes: