[FRIAM] Few of you ...

[uǝlƃ ☣]

As usual, embedded in your story lies our group identity which we might call "applied complexity". Well done!

On 1/15/19 9:29 AM, Steven A Smith wrote:
> Glen claims "antisocial" and I think Dave has mentioned his own "tendency to withdraw from society" (my paraphrase, I welcome correction or elaboration.    I hypothosize that *many* who are significantly engaged in online discussion/community may well fit one of the myriad positions on (and near?) the anti-social spectrum?
> 
> I personally prefer to consider myself to have "asocial tendencies".  I'm not entirely uncomfortable in social groups, but I know I tend to prefer smaller groups or sub-groups within a larger group, to the extreme of engaging mostly in serial one-on-one conversations at dinner parties.  I tend to reserve the term "anti-social" for something a bit more active in the sense of not only avoiding engaging in social groups/activities, but being hostile (openly or not) toward such groups.   I can admit to being somewhat judgemental about large-group activities (attending pop culture events en-masse, including political rallies and street protests), but more in the sense of "I wouldn't be caught dead doing that!" rather than "anyone who participates in such things are mindless idiots!"   I even accept that under the right circumstances I have been known to participate.  I do attend small gathering performances/readings/events and in most cases find their downside more about the
> tedium than the actual content/experience itself.
> 
> My father (1927-2014) was a bit of a paradox on this topic.  He was born and raised amongst his hillbilly relatives.  His father (my grandfather (1898-1975) and grandmother(1899-1950) were the first of their generation to get an advanced education (MS/BS degrees vs typically 8th grade) and escape the day to day circumstances of their otherwise humble origins.   My grandmother, despite education and living in a small city through her adult life, never left her "mountain origins" while my grandfather fashioned himself much more of a "modern man".   My own father spent his self aware life in one of three uniforms, two in the service of the US Government.   The first was in the Boy Scouts of America for his teen years.  The Second as a recruit in the US Navy at the very end of WWII, not leaving dock until after VJ day, spending his 3 years helping to clean up after the war in the Pacific. The third was as an employee of the US Forest Service. His roots and instincts were those of
> a very independent person who felt by some measure that every man was an island, yet his practice was to find his place as an island as a member of an Archipelago.    Half the allure of the Boy Scouts and of the US Forest Service was his draw to spend time in the wilds... the other half seems to have been to *also* have the sanction of the authority of a uniform and a set of rules.   His stint in the Navy may have been the same.
> 
> Many of his anecdotes about both the USN and USFS involved him recognizing/discovering/exercising  the distinction between blind observance of rules and the recognition and pursuit of the spirit of the rules, and him having ultimately prevailed over strict interpretations with common sense actions in the spirit when not the letter of the regulations.  His proudest moment may have been when his court martial was dismissed abruptly after being charged for deriliction/AWOL during the Port Chicago disaster in 1944 where 320 Navy men were killed and a similar number were injured. He was a medical aide/assistant on his ship which was docked near the disaster and when the injured personnel began arriving, he reported for duty without being called.  After several shifts of non-stop desperate work to do triage and save the lives (and often limbs) of those harmed, he returned to his berth only to be arrested for having not been available when they came to collect him for duty in the
> emergency.  They apparently ignored or didn't believe his "alibi" and he went through the whole formal process of being held for a court marshal which fortunately was quite prompt and at least there, when he gave his account, the "judge" recognized his earnest honesty and apparently he was not the first or only one to be mis-charged/handled in this way.    There were at least another dozen altercations of this style (if not gravity) in his career in the USFS.  He seemed to trust implicitely that the system would ultimately "do the right thing" and it didn't seem to bother him much that he could-be mishandled while the "sheels of justice" turned. His USFS career involved a huge amount of time in the field (forest), even during his mid-career stint in middle management (District Ranger). It was as if he was simultaneously addicted and allergic to the basic nature of organized systems of authority.
> 
> In the shadow of his addiction/allergy, I avoided uniforms entirely excepting a few months in the BSA at his insistence.  I gave over to the shirt and necktie but it all felt too much like being a member of the "hitler youth" to me.  I was /institutionalized/ at LANL for 27 years with (too) many of the same features.  In place of a uniform, I had a security clearance, a Z-number and a Badge which came with their own egregious rule-sets and implied authority and paradoxes.  During that time, my best work was done as the de-facto leader of small teams (3-10).  Each time that de-facto leadership lead to a formal leadership position, it eventually went bad, requiring me to move on to fresh pastures. I made a couple of lame attempts at rising to middle management but couldn't hold a straight face during the interview process, knowing that I didn't respect many (if any?) of my would-be peers and fearing that I was about to join them by way of the "Peter Principle".  My 27 year
> career at LANL consisted of patchwork of jobs like this ranging from 3-7 years in duration.  I was very relieved the day I decided to leave LANL (2008) and shocked at how much MORE relieved I was the day I surrendered my clearances (2010).
> 
> Outside of my institutionalization in BS (big science), I have often been self-employed and entrepreneurial and generally fairly independent in my work.   I always saw the benefits of working within an organizational context to be "convenient" but suspect.


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