Resistance Is Futile

Posted by jlubans on May 24, 2024

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I'd shelved (sort of) my e-copy of the old timey thriller novel WO 2, but the recent brouhaha about a star football player* (Harrison Butker) conservative beliefs about marriage made me return to the novel's last page.
WO 2 by Maurice Drake (1912) would be in the top 10 of early espionage fiction if there were fewer cowboy-kissing-his-horse romantic scenes and less ambiguity about German malign intent.
What's that about kissing a horse?
Back in the day, western B-movies always included a love interest akin to kissing their horses like Trigger, Champion, Silver or Topper.
That was when I'd troop to the candy counter and spend my hard-earned nickels and dimes on snacks and return in time for the real shoot 'em up action.
So, too, there is a bit too much boy-girl conflict in WO 2.
Like the best amateur spy book probably ever, The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers,
(1903) WO 2 has a nautical setting.
And, both have German villains. Riddle limits the love interest, but WO 2 spends the last chapter in conflict over wifely obedience.
Finally, on that last page mentioned above, the lovers (James West, a proud male and Pamily Brand, a fierce suffragette) come to terms. (BTW, UK women got the franchise in 1918)
But, the last words by the heroine, belie submission: "I-I'll promise to say obey in the marriage service if you like. It's only a matter of form. Isn't it?"
Anyway, I found Mr. Butker?s conservative Christian remarks to be quite interesting. The kerfuffle they caused topped out at absurd.
It is what the guy thinks, let him speak his mind.
Certainly don't cancel the man for being honest to himself.
What does this have to do with work? Well, we have the hierarchy in most work places. And all the boxes below the top box are supposed to salute when the boss comes around, right?
Well, there is another hierarchy, an invisible one, in which the real power structure exists.
Just like in marriage.
There are some men who are happy to let the "little woman" "wear the pants" or "rule the roost". There are some women who are happy to have it the other way.
But, to think that the marriage vows indicate one person's submission to another or that your supervisor somehow has full authority over what you do and how you think is silly.
Obey Whom? Or Obey what?
I should have provided much more guidance for a follower willing to submit to me, a leader; that was the problem.
Unlike the know-it all-boss, I expected subordinates to think! To dream. To innovate.
If they did not and expected me to light the way, well, that is where I fell down on my part of the boss/subordinate deal.

*Kickers, by the way, are an odd bunch (loners, superstitious, idiosyncratic and a bit zany). I wrote about Gabe Brkic, the University of Oklahoma football team kicker. Like Mr. Butker, he appeared to march to his own drummer.

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And, for how to bring out the best in every worker, read this book:
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Leading from the Middle, is available at Amazon.

Copyright all text John Lubans 2024

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