CFN - You Can’t Take the Risk Out of War

War isn’t a game, video or otherwise. When a person gets shot, stabbed or blown up, it’s not “hearts” they risk losing – it’s their limbs, lives and ongoing quality of life. Winning is no tonic against injury, either; soldiers who come home still bear the physical and psychological scars of combat. If the war happens on a soldier’s home turf, there’s every risk that they won’t have a physical home to return to, either. I will never forget walking around a bombed-out downtown Sarajevo still littered in rubble and “beware of landmines” signs in 2001, six years after the Bosnian War was supposed to be over. The spoils may go to the victor, but when the spoils are in ruins, what has really been won? 

 

This is why military strategists from Sun-tzu on keep developing new ways to mitigate personnel and infrastructure risks at the same time as increasing chances of meaningful victory. The evolution of warfare has seen the development of increasingly complex offensive and defensive technology and tactics, but it has also included the nurturing of warrior codes of conduct like bushido, chivalry or the Geneva conventions. At its core, diplomacy is really a military strategy designed to mitigate the risk of destructive combat and avoid losses on both sides.

 

Of course, we wouldn’t fight in the first place if there weren’t rewards to be had. Land and resources are of definitive value to expanding populations, which is why so many wars are fought over them. A balance of power might encourage a military code of conduct, but when the balance shifts, we can always find wiggle room. Hawaiian Chief Kamehameha seized on the arrival of European weapons and tactics as an opportunity to tip the balance in his favour and conquer all the Hawaiian islands; Spanish conquistadors might have honestly thought they were doing God’s work in bringing Christianity to native heathens, but this noble quest didn’t stop them from slaughtering innocents and stealing their land and gold.

The Predatory Exhaustion of Partisan Politics

 

A very senior Harper-circle thinker recently acknowledged that the Conservatives have, indeed, cooled it on the daily campaign stuff. The reason? Finally securing a parliamentary majority. That, and staffer fatigue. “It was exhausting,” said this fellow, who would know. “But they’ll be back.”

 

Name me one other species that spends so much time in a state of adrenaline-fueled hysteria, fighting or flighting 24/7. 

 

Of course, you can't - because no other species is that stupid.  Energy is precious and is accumulated through enormous challenge.  Most animals spend the majority of their time resting, saving strength for when they need it most.

 

Not us.  We burn the candle at both ends, at all levels, even at all ages - and we're getting worse at this as we go along.  It's not sustainable.  There are consequences that come with this continual level of stress.

 

The question now is, are we smart and motivated enough to do something about it?

It's Never The Crime, But the Coverup That Condemns Us

"Torture is at the very centre of these prosecutions. Unless these trials are moved to a system with traditional due process protections, we face the shameful possibility that Khadr and others will be convicted with statements that were literally beaten out of them."

 

 

Omar Khadr is coming home.

 

There's not a lot of sympathy for Khadr here at home.  The general impression is that he's a bad kid, a soldier-killer from a bad family.  A psychologist has even suggested Khadr is "evil."  All of this, of course, is based on the impressions we have been given by governments, the military and the media.  None of us really know Omar Khadr as a person, not at all.  He hasn't been allowed to be one since 2002, when he was fifteen years old.

 

Once back in Canada, though, all of that landed perception is going to be challenged.  Looking at the evidence, there's already a pretty compelling case to be made that the handling of Khadr was a complete bungle in which many were complicit.  Sadly, this isn't a story without precedent - remember Maher Arar?

It could very well turn out that Khadr didn't kill Christopher Speer, was tortured into admitting he committed the crime while he himself was severely wounded and all this happening while he was 15 years old - a child in the eyes of the law.
 

Of course, the facts won't matter to some.  They've already made up their minds; anything else will be interpreted as spin by sympathizers or the whine of bleeding hearts.  There's a word for this confabulated justification of emotional responses - bigotry.

 

We keep telling ourselves that we are fighting against those who seek to destroy Western Civilization as embodied by freedom of person, freedom of speech and blind justice - yet we're narrowing that definition to exclude those we don't like.

Maybe it's time we start re-evaluating whether the greatest threat comes from troubles lapping at our shores, or from willful ignorance within our borders.

Cognitive Labour in the Classroom

While the board hasn’t specifically instructed teachers not to discuss their labour dispute with students, it has asked principals to make sure teachers don’t let their frustrations rub off on students.

 

 

Now, we're starting to get somewhere! 

 

Education is the front-line of civil life - the equivalent of the working world for adults.  Teachers are front-line managers, ensuring their charges have the tools and training necessary to do their job, which pretty much translates into passing tests and getting good grades, enabling them to get further training and decent jobs.

 

As such, schools are both a springboard and a microcosm of society.  The skills students learn (and don't learn) in school and the examples they see around them will form the tone of their adult lives.  It's really enlightening to watch school-yard shenanigans, because they're a much more honest portrayal of behaviour we see in the rest of the world.  "But he hit me first" is, from a youth's point of view, an acceptable response for bad behaviour.  Bullying is a method of reducing competition for resources and attention.  Kids haven't bought into the notion that they're supposed to have spilt work/life personalities, so they naturally bring stresses from home to school and vice versa.  Office politics, cliques, etc. all exist in the adult world, too - we just deny this and confabulate justifications for behaviour we chastise in our youth.

There are cognitive differences between children and adults (see sensory fusion), key among these is the fact that they are more resilient and adaptable; it's actually adults that have a harder time making distinctions, despite the social pressure to do so.  Kids will move past emotional wounds more quickly; they'll get over colds more quickly, too.  Part of the reason for that - we let them.  When a child's parent dies, we don't tell them they get two days off and then are expected to be back at peak performance.  If they've had a big fight with their parents or best friend, we don't tell them to get over it immediately and focus on their work.  Good teachers will serve as counselors, too, helping their students learn to cope with and manage through personal and familial challenges, helping to build social emotional skills along the way.

Teachers bridge the gap between the emotional honesty of the playground and the suppressed individuals of the working world.  The best ones are deeply involved in the emotional lives of their students, because they have to be.  Understanding their students is the only way to reach them, and it's only through that connection that knowledge can effectively be transferred.  When teachers refer to their students as "my kids," it's less like a boss referring to a team than it is a parent referring to their family.  Yet teachers themselves are being told to leave their personal baggage at home and not let the work-related stresses that weigh on their minds impact their teaching.  It's impossible to switch selves, so what teachers are really being asked to do is repress their cognitive stresses. 

We're asking teachers to shovel water; it simply won't work.  It's not a coincidence that teaching ranks among the top ten stressful careers.  Again, schools are a microcosm of the working world at large - the mental health challenges that we're recognizing in schools also impact teachers.  In fact, we have a growing mental health crisis in all sectors that's burning out Canadians, dragging down economic growth, dominating insurance claims and placing an ever-growing burden on our health system.

 

A key part of addressing the mental health crisis is to stop using the "suck in up" and "separate work and life" memes as excuses for ignoring the social stresses that lead to mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.  Doing so isn't about ignoring problematic behaviour, but about empowering everyone to develop the internal resiliency tools they need to manage stress better and to start designing work and work environments that are conducive to strong cognitive labour performance. 

 

This is going to be a hard lesson for all of us to learn - but like all education, it's going to start in the classroom.

Harper Gangnam Style!

Politics - Gangnam Style!

Kim, 20, shot the video with a couple friends this week and uploaded it to YouTube Tuesday. To their mutual shock, it had more than 90,000 views by Thursday morning.

They shouldn't have really been surprised.  Like #tellviceverything before it, York U Gangam came with a built-in success factor; there is a huge appetite for fun, current and community-relevant online content.  People want to absorb it.  They want to be part of it.  Cool memes like Call Me Maybe are infectious and evolve rapidly - hence the term "viral." 

What's the message in this for political marketing?  The game is rapidly moving beyond the "stories sell" phase - it's time to start letting the audience become the message.  For maximum traction, make it music-video short or a one-sheet like a political cartoon; don't be afraid to put yourself out there; make it fun (light and respectful) and hard-wired into the social zeitgeist.  You can target a specific community, like the McGuinty Bollywood Spectacular did, but leave enough whimsy, variety and sheer coolness to appeal to a broader audience.

Put it simply; make it fresh, inclusive, diverse, fun and topical.  Canada should own this market.

... and it looks like I'm not the only one who feels that way!

My Liberal Values

Both political strategist Warren Kinsella (Fight the Right) and former journalist Paul Adams (Power Trap) have new books exploring what is wrong with the left and how to fix it. Both identify the core weakness of progressives in Canada: They cannot describe their values.

- Strong individuals for a strong society

- Empowerment through education - don't hand fish, teach to fish

- Quality healthcare that's there when you need it, but also the tools and knowledge to keep you healthy

- Strength through diversity

- Economic strength through diversification: we don't put all our eggs in one basket

- Canada's Best Destiny is at the world's moderator. We'll never wield the biggest gun, but we'll ensure those that have them keep them holstered

and most importantly:

Accessible, transparent, collaborative governance.

That's my list.  What's on yours?