Yesterday morning Joseph A. Stack flew his small plane into an IRS building near Austin, Texas, killing himself and at least one other person, wounding many people, and causing massive property damage.
This caught my attention because of the obvious similarities to 9/11, but soon after some other similarities came to my attention and totally hooked me.
The guy was my age, 53, and he was a software engineer, like me. He had written a manifesto, like Ted Kazinski did, and although the FBI took it off the internet as soon as they found it, the archive copy was already made, and you can find it at the Smoking Gun.
You really should read it, although I figure few people will bother. Still, I plan to copy it into another blog post here, to retain a copy.
The obvious question yesterday, once they figured out who "did it," was "why'd he do it?"
The soundbite answers started to dribble in, and they pissed me off, because they were obviously supplied by law enforcement and they were designed to slant the coverage from the start. I wanted an in-depth answer, and I know that that takes time to discover, but I did not like it that they were shutting off primary sources such as the manifesto. I did not see that as necessary.
I know that I am probably starting to sound like a trouble-maker, perhaps someone who is himself going off the deep end, like Joseph Stack, and I understand that concern. Please bear with me and you will see how I have some similarities to Joseph, but I also have some key differences too.
Also, before I begin, I should say that recently I have been re-reading some of Heinlien, and I am amazed to discover just how much his writings influenced me during my formative years. I think some of this is pertinent in the Joseph Stack case as well.
One key protagonist Heinlein came back to again and again was the everyman who was completely competent, in control, and more or less a rugged individualist with a moral code based on chivalry. This is an extremely attractive character for young men to emulate, especially intelligent men with a scientific or engineering bent, and I think it accounts for much of the popularity of modern libertarianism amongst those men today.
I think Joseph Stack, like me, drank that koolaid long and deep. I can empathize with that part of him. Part of that appeal of that persona is the assumption that we live in a meritocracy, and people like that will be rewarded for their work ethic, ingenuity, and good character. I also used to believe this, down to the core of my being.
Unlike me, who after college entered the safe and warm and sticky and boring embrace of a large multinational corporation, Joseph Stack struck out on his own, forming a one-man corporation in computer consulting. I am sure this suited his character very well, and I am sure he was good at it, but I am equally sure that he found out very quickly that the business world is not a fair jousting competition, that people are out to screw you, that the large corporations are out to exploit you and take everything you have and give as little as possible in return, and that nobody really give a scatological reference about you and about what happens to you.
This is tough stuff, but Joseph Stack faced it head on, and he redoubled his efforts. I think this is a BIG difference between myself and Joseph Stack, and I think this shows a BIG potential problem in being a 'Heinlein hero.' While perseverance is a good trait in general, like every trait, it has a down side. At some point, if one is attempting an impossible task, one needs to acknowledge that, learn from it, let it go, and walk away.
Joseph Stack did not do that. He refused to give up on his dream. Along the way, it seems he did have many nice things - he played bass in a band or bands with some great pals, and he learned to pilot his own small plane.
At the same time, he had tax problems, some of which were created by the multinational corporations to keep guys like him down. This hurt him, badly. Over the years he struggled with that, and it seems that this Spring the tax problems once again sprang up for him in a big way, and enough was enough.
In addition to his personal problems Joseph Stack started looking around and he found out that much of what he had been told when he was growing up was a lie. Specifically, we are NOT living in a meritocracy, we do NOT have a representative government in any meaningful sense of the word, and we ARE not, as a society, rising up, we are falling down. I think Joseph Stack was finally confronting the fact that in a sense he had been living in a fantasy world, and his 'ideal man,' the 'Heinlein hero' does NOT get rewarded in the real world. Our power structure is designed to keep those with power on top, and power corrupts, so we are destined to face corrupt people with power over us, and we are powerless to change that.
There are plenty of examples of that with us today, and I believe the FBI counted that Joseph lashed out at either 27 or 37 examples. The FBI is using that fact to claim that Joseph was a loony who hated everything, but that is not the case. The truth is that we have numerous examples, today, of the injustice and unfairness that is perpetrated by our society, where those on top reap the rewards and can do no wrong, and the rest of us pay the price and can do no right.
Since I agree and have empathy with so much of what Joseph Stack did, how, then, am I different from him, and why do I know that I will not 'snap.'
For one thing, I do not think I am a 'wound collector,' which is how the profiler characterized Joseph. I have had my share of wounds, sure, but to a good degree I think I have learned from them, and I am moving on. I think I am able to do this because, unlike Joseph, I faced my disillusionment with individualism and our modern society awhile ago, and I gave up fighting the impossible fight. I still try to be a 'Heinlein hero,' but now I do it because for me it is 'right,' and not because I expect any external rewards. Also, I am stepping off the money treadmill, and I am seeking my personal fulfillment in living a good life conforming to my moral code, and in some of the simpler and more fulfilling pleasures that life has to offer - the enjoyment of beauty, in nature and in people, the enjoyment of fellowship with like-minded people, and the deep fulfillment that comes from helping others. I think Heinlein would totally agree with my choices. The world I face is different from the world he faced.
But I suspect that there will be more cases like Joseph Stack coming up, and I suspect there is nothing we can do to stop them. At this point nobody other than, perhaps, the ultra-rich, can change our future, and I see no hope for action from the ultra-rich. If those in power do not change things then, eventually, they will be changed by external forces. Perhaps enough people will opt out of the existing system. Perhaps as the power moves elsewhere so will the problems. Perhaps we face revolution. Who knows?
Who knows?
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Should we not all do the 'right thing', simply for what it is, not for the merits that come with it? Perhaps I am naive, but I would like to think that most do the right thing because it feels good and not because they will be rewarded for it. It is, or should be, what we are taught as children. Has this changed since you were a child?
ReplyDeleteYou speak of disillusionment, giving up fighting the good fight, and stepping off the money treadmill; when did it come to your attention that life was not as you thought it should be? Were you looking for personal fulfillment from your job?
Your new plan for personal fulfillment sounds much more reasonable. I hope you are able to achieve these goals, and find yourself being truly happy and fulfilled in every way possible.
I believe that is what we are ALL looking for, we just need to look within to find out what it will take to get there.
Good luck on your journey, and I hope you have someone special to share it with.
Lynda3,
ReplyDeleteThe problem I have with doing things because they 'feel good' and not because they reward us is that it is normal to learn to feel good about the things that reward us. People respond best to positive reinforcement. That is why, for example, sometimes when coaching, I need to nudge my players our of their comfort zone of what 'feels good' to try the proper technique, but then I hope that very soon they will get good results from the proper technique, a reward, so they will stick with it.
So when we teach our kids to do the 'right thing' we also want to give them a reason other than 'because I say so' and that is when we probably teach them some of the common myths.
One big one is that if you stay clean and work hard and obey the law and study as much as you can you will get a good job and you will climb the ladder, perhaps as high as the top!
This myth is VERY important for all of us to believe in the US, because without it much of our society would collapse. We depend on the vast majority of us working hard, and even over-working, despite the fact that we will NOT climb the ladder, and most likely we will stagnate or fall instead of climb.
Was I looking for personal fulfillment from my job? No, I was looking for personal fulfillment from my career at IBM. I was seduced into it, although I went willingly.
When I started at IBM I was told, by IBM, that my work was important, and that they greatly valued my work. They gave each of us a survey, every year, asking how they could be a better company to work for. They told us our work was important, helping medical technology, saving lives. Did I get personal fulfillment from that career? Oh yes, very much. That is why I worked extra hours with no overtime pay. That is why I accepted lower pay to build a bigger pension. That is why I went out, in the middle of the night, at times, to give our customers the best service I could give.
My father, working at IBM his whole life, was VERY fulfilled by his career, and I grew up expecting the same. I was misled, although it was based on the best info my parents had at the time.
So now, of course, like all parent's, I teach my kids to do the 'right' thing, but what used to be the right thing is not now the right thing. Working hard and sacrificing for a corporation is not the right thing. When dealing with corporations, the right thing is to approach them as they approach you, in an adversarial relationship where each party is looking to get as much as possible while giving the least in return.
Will this hurt the corporations, and the workers, and society in general? Yeah, probably, but that is not my problem anymore.
I am teaching my kids to avoid multi-national corporations and, when possible, work for smaller companies. The problem with that, though, is the quality of smaller companies is all over the board.
Sadly, many small businesses are owned by people who do not have the temperament to work under supervision, and many of them are owned by low level tyrants.
Oh, and when did I have my epiphany? Years ago, when IBM tried to forcibly take my pension from me, and I faught back. My yahoo userid at the time was called "Never_trust_IBM," because I had trusted IBM prior to that, and I was GREATLY disillusioned to discover the truth. After that I was the normal corporate worker, no longer dedicated, simply giving the least I had to. As they used to say in Russia - "I pretend to work and they pretend to pay me."