The Littlest Hobo
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Part XII
The GENERAL CRITIQUE of LINCHPIN:
Seth Godin’s Paradox ie. the Functionaries Dilemma. Seth Godin is a pop-culture synthesizer, who repeats himself over and over again as if his audience is truly “lizard brained.” Everyone knows he is deducing these arguments based on his macro-observations. He has limited experience in successful business management having created a mediocre enterprise like Squidoo.com. His primary goal is to convince the reader that you can be the linchpin without his giving substantive advice on how to be one in a practical context. His advice is “to be an artist,” along with a series of similar “be different” slogans. Linchpin is a marketing pep-talk designed to suggest that his target market is ANYONE who is working today. In reality, he is talking about entrepreneurs because most entrepreneurs espouse exactly what he is saying, and Godin wants to convince others to join in the innovative. By pretending that the pie is unlimited, he can argue that his readership can all participate in this linchpin ethos. But framing his book in the way he does, Godin is able to build a larger target market of book purchasers (to use his marketing-think). The trick is that functionaries are very useful for entrepreneurs because those workers never realize that they could do what the entrepreneur is doing. It is difficult to occupy that same space as the leader/entrepreneur/artist inhabit. As with much of his marketing-think, Godin is preaching to the converted who already understand his points, or preaching to the lizard brained who are not going to apply his advice anyway.
Margaret Thatcher on Union Negotations and Kinnock
Union negotiations had the disadvantage of naturally discouraging a return to work: few would risk going back if a settlement seemed to be in the offing. Pit closures were assessed to see if it was possible to not close ‘any based on being beneficially developed’. Such a scenario would be a victory for Scargill. A sign of the militants’ frustration was an increase in violence against working miners and their families. There was a ‘Miner’s Wives Back to Work’ Campaign. There were legal battles against the NUM by two Yorkshire miners. There were fines placed on Scargill. The NUM visited Libya and made a personal appeal to Colonel Gaddafi for his support. Gaddafi made a donation to the NUM. There was an offer of a Christmas bonus. People began to return to work in November and December. Some miners were killed by the union. Thatcher makes no mention of police brutality.
NUM funds were being transferred abroad. The NUM board of trustees underwent legal action. In February the resumption of talks slowed the returning of workers. The NUM leadership were trying to evade the misery they had caused. Large numbers of miners began to head back to work. The strike finally had ended. British coal industry was not immune to economic forces, which applied elsewhere in both the public and private sectors. In spite of heavy investment, British coal has proved unable to compete on world markets and as a result the British cola industry. Marxists want to defy the laws of the land and the laws of economics…they failed as usual, according to Thatcher.
On Neil Kinnock
Became Labour Party Leader in October of 1983. He was a gifted orator but he was verbose, failed to master facts and technical arguments and lacked intellectual clarity. He used speeches designed to hide his Leftist union agenda.