| Interesting thought. Could there also be the gradual evaporation of the old culture of fear? The 1940s through the 1960s fear of other countries, races, and ideologies? I wonder if the fear suppressed the natural behavior of Jim McNerney and others, keeping them from sowing division within the company because of the perceived danger from outside? Here are some other examples, where today these might sound like an excuse for aggressive business behavior, instead of a unifying mantra -- Andy Grove, "Only the paranoid survive" Dick Cheney, "Principle is okay up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose." (Yes, yes, he's outing himself as unprincipled; I'm quoting him intentionally since people were still being people all throughout; does this show the larger populace wide zeitgeist?) John F. Kennedy, "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." I think it's interesting how the same thought can sound different when my mind is set in different contexts. |