Third Rate Managers

Starting somewhere in the middle of the last century, American corporations decided that they needed to invest in developing their managers. Historically, American business relied on nature and the tools of society to cultivate their workforce. The workers would get a basic education in the public schools. Natural talent and upbringing would sort the workforce the rest of the way. The best and brightest would naturally rise through the ranks to populate the management layer.

This was slowly replaced in the 20th century with a new model where senior management implemented programs to train their people, but also cultivate the sorts of people who would become managers. In the back quarter of the 20th century leadership training became popular in corporate America. Managers would receive the same sorts of leadership training officers in the military receive. Developing the next generation of corporate leaders is now a hundred billion dollar industry.

Because it has been normalized over several generations, no one notices the contradiction in these programs. All of the people subject to this training are in positions where no one would want leadership. These are administrative jobs filled with people tasked with following the rules. They may be required to supervise others who are also tasked with following rules. These are not positions that demand leadership, but rather roles that demand obedience.

Of course, the military has solved this contradiction. A squad leader is trained to use the materials at his disposal, including his men, to achieve the assigned objective within the rules of the operations. He is not allowed to question the rules of engagement or the objectives of his squad, but he is free to utilize the resources made available to him, plus what he can find on his own. In other words, it is leadership within the artificial construct of the military system.

Corporations borrow this general idea. The want their managers to be goal oriented and use the resources available to them to achieve the goal. The shipping manager does not select the shippers or what gets shipped, but he is given a crew, tools to box and ship items and certain goals to meet. He gets to select within a limited number of options how best to get the assigned items shipped out and the incoming items received into the shipping department.

Another way this is put is they want the shipping manager to take ownership of his department like it is his business. It is not his business and will never be his business, but they seek to trick him into acting as if it is his business. That way he will sacrifice, and perhaps encourage his people to sacrifice, in order to meet the goals laid out for him by his superiors. Like the actual owner of a business, he will act as if there is no separation between him and his work.

All of this leadership training sounds good in theory, even if it contains a central contradiction, but there is another problem. The nature of management and the nature of man tell us that the last thing a manager will want is a natural leader as one of his direct reports. That hotshot in shipping could get noticed by the big bosses and be promoted up the ladder, perhaps at the expense of his boss. Systemic pressure will always reward obedience over leadership.

It is the old line about leadership. First rate men attract first rate men, while second rate men attract third rate men. To a great degree, this is the problem that leadership training is trying to address. The people at the top, the senior managers, want to keep the pot bubbling so that they can spot the managers with potential and promote them into middle management. They do not want the natural talent boiling off because it is blocked by a ceiling of mediocrity.

The military has always suffered from this problem. Peacetime armies tend to develop a leadership class that is good at politics, but not war fighting. Wars always result in changes at the top and a restructuring of the officer class. We have seen this in the Ukraine war where both sides have changed their command structure in response to the reality on the ground. Corporations suffer the same phenomenon; except they lack war to force a pruning of the system.

The exception to this is the private company. The owner is there and he has every reason to find the best people to populate his ranks. Elon Musk has fired half the Twitter staff because they were there to serve the goals of managers, not owners, so as far as he was concerned, they were useless. The owner of the business does not need leadership training in the corporate sense, because he does not have to be trained to take ownership, as he is the owner.

This is the dilemma facing America. It is a society run by managers who have turned the owners into passive share holders. This is managerialism. Like a publicly traded company, the owners care only about returns. The overall management of society is left to a class of managers. Those managers, in addition to making sure the owners think they are getting a positive return, have the additional goal of making sure they remain the senior managers of the system.

Like senior management in a corporation or the senior officers in a peacetime army, the management class of America is primarily concerned with preserving their position at the top of the system. That requires them to always be on the lookout for people down the ranks who could be a threat. The solution to that is the solution all second rate men find and that is to promote third rate men. The managerial system that runs America selects for decreasingly talented managers out of necessity.

You see this with the Twitter situation. Elon Musk replaced a collection of ridiculous people with himself and a small team of his people. When you examine the titles of the people wiped out in the first wave of layoffs, it is clear they played no role in the profitability of the company, other than as an expense. They and their roles existed to serve the narrow interests of management. They were of no use to a genuine owner taking an active role in the running of the company.

Managerialism was on display in the past election. Mitch McConnell diverted tens of millions of dollars to safe Senate races, but starved out many contested ones, because that served his interests as the senior manager of the party. It is better for him that a third rate zombie like Murkowski returns to the Senate than a potential threat like Blake Masters gets promoted into the Senate. Instinctively, Mitch McConnell selects third rate people because it serves his interest.

That is the key to understanding the current crisis. The system selects for the sorts of people who naturally become Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi. Even the richest people are forced to select between two narrowing options. The second rate men select third rate men who in time take their place at the top, selecting for people who will be non-threatening to their position. Managerialism always ends with incompetence at the top and that fosters a culture of paranoia.

This is the inherent contradiction in managerialism. It is supposed to check the power of the ownership class, but it ends up replacing it with an increasingly incompetent management class. That management class, sensing its own vulnerability, selects for increasing incompetent people up and down the system. It is how we have a political system run by octogenarians promoting brain damaged zombies and obsequious sycophants into the highest offices in the system.

This always ends one way. In the corporate sphere, companies like Twitter either go bust or they get taken over by ownership. In the military sphere the rulers are forced to replace the politicians in the officer ranks with genuine wartime leaders. For the managerial society, the result is systemic collapse and replacement with a modified form of private rule. This is what happened with the Soviet Union. Communism was replaced with a form of oligarchy.


If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!


Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Above Time Coffee Roasters are a small, dissident friendly company that makes coffee. They actually roast the beans themselves based on their own secret coffee magic. If you like coffee, buy it from these folks as they are great people who deserve your support.

Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.

The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.

Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb.  Just email them directly to book at

sa***@mi*********************.com











.


129 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Steve (retired/recovering lawyer)
Steve (retired/recovering lawyer)
2 years ago

I did not see anyone recommending the “Stalin Method” ™ of managerial renewal. Purging around 70% of anyone and everyone rising above the rank of corporal seemed to do wonders for the war effort against Nazi Germany. At least in the long run. From what I can tell, Elon seems to have adopted it with Twitter. Or so I can hope,

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout

You’ve touched on a more, er “proactive” form of the dysfunciton Z’s essay discusses. War or not, it’s also common of ultra despotic regimes (Soviet Communism being a prime example) to be very paranoid. The Communists were quite ruthless in culling even their own founders. The famous riverside stroll of Stalin with (“before”) and then suddenly without Trotsky (“after”) is a popular meme today, perhaps the most famous case of a man literally airbrushed out of history. To be sure, at times the culling was to root out genuine or at least accused enemies of the state. But a perennial… Read more »

Whiskey
Whiskey
2 years ago

Speaking of managerialism, Sam Bankster Fraud, is a useful example. Where did he get his money to found FTX ? His parents were both college professors, his mother at Columbia also tied to the WEF. Fraud himself was a “leader” in “effective altruism” and FTX seems to have unexplained funding (where did the money come from) with Fraud himself not seemingly to be liquid per Elon Musk’s enquiries when Fraud wanted in on the Twitter deal. Supposedly FTX was one giant money washing scheme pushing money to Ukraine and back into Democratic coffers. The FTC and SEC played footsie with… Read more »

Anonymous Fake
Anonymous Fake
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

King Lear should be required reading. Family businesses (or kingdoms) get destroyed by disputed inheritance and replaced by managerial corporations. Primogeniture never should have been abandoned.

Maybe it wasn’t, for those who actually run things, whoever they are. Nepotism emerges when there is an imperfect system of transferring wealth over time and generations, in contrast to both managed corporations and traditional primogeniture estates.

Maybe it’s an uncanny valley, but such a thing makes for a strong distraction by nature…

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

Any straight white male who submits to the draft deserves what they get. I’m too old now, but even if I wasn’t I’d rather die than defend this dump. This country hates me so I hate it back. Send the joggers and trannies since they’re more worthy.

Anonymous Fake
Anonymous Fake
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Based on the vaccine and the public schools, the draft looks to be just fine with most white men.

It’s the best time in history to be learning Chinese, and China has a lot of history.

James J O'Meara
James J O'Meara
2 years ago

IIRC, “management” was invented or at least dominated by one Peter Drucker. According to Wiki, “Drucker grew up in what he referred to as a “liberal” Lutheran Protestant household in Austria-Hungary. Both of his parents were of Jewish origin.’

Anonymous Fake
Anonymous Fake
Reply to  James J O'Meara
2 years ago

Fundamentalist Protestants indirectly invented managerialism. After the 30 years war (1618-1648), the majority of Germans got themselves killed, mostly by other Germans, and the population was replenished by mass immigration and an authoritarian schooling system, Prussian schooling, designed to assimilate these immigrants into the lowest common denominator. America adopted the same system after the abolition of slavery, substituting mass immigration of cheap labor instead, and Prussian style schooling was used to make these immigrants into generic whites, as opposed to liberty loving Anglo Saxons. The process continues, except now the generic browns replace the generic whites. The managers are the… Read more »

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Anonymous Fake
2 years ago

As someone on this blog says;

Every. Damn. Time.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

Protestant conversos everywhere you look.

Some of these groups look to be nothing but cover for this very behavior.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  James J O'Meara
2 years ago

I see that the Kellogg School of Management, a top rated business school at Northwestern, is waving the requirement of having test scores for all laid off tech workers. Now, grad school is going to waive test score requirements for people who just got a fat severance package from a large tech company. Meanwhile someone who has been burning the candle at both ends, studied their butt off and got a great test score maybe working a menial job or taking an income hit living off of a spouses’ income, can’t differentiate themselves. Meanwhile someone with the fat severance package… Read more »

procrastinator
procrastinator
Reply to  James J O'Meara
2 years ago

Francis Fukuyama, the dean of liberal globalists, credits the Catholic church with the rise of managerialism. Replacement of clans with a separated, celibate (i.e. no inheritance) class of men with special standardized training. I believe the book is called “The Invention of the State” or some such.

John Flynt
John Flynt
2 years ago

It’s no coincidence that the deepest red districts and states are filled with the most boring and mindless cogs of politicians. Party leadership in the GOP is very cognizant to put the biggest shills in the most conservative districts, neutralizing those places and exerting their control over the party. These moderates go on to have decades long tenures and help slowly liberalize their regions.

Why are moderate Republican yes men like Wicker, Guest, and Graham untouchable in places far to there right. Why are the SC, MS, OK state GOPs the abominations that they are.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
2 years ago

Some disorganized thoughts, maybe connectable; People seek a state of culture to solve the problems of living in a state of nature. Culture has its own problems that eventually return them to a state of nature. The middle never seems to hold. Lots of blood goes into civ: uniting people, bringing them to the yoke, making them obedient. Hobbes said the state of nature is war of all against all. Maybe he mistook the process of civilization for the state of nature, or maybe nature inevitably leads to civilization. God created Eden for man. The garden. Created woman to give… Read more »

ArthurinCali
2 years ago

OT

It looks like they hit their target amount of laundered cash and contracts for defense companies to start attempting to wind down the proxy war against Russia. Now WaPo has begun publishing articles in favor of a diplomacy.

“It’s time to end the war in Ukraine”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/15/ukraine-war-end-diplomacy-negotiations/

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  ArthurinCali
2 years ago

The self sanctions on energy are now all in place for the west for the great reset so its now just remains to finish up the remaining allocated bribe money and compensation payoffs that were worked out beforehand.

The mighty wurlitzer of fake events continues.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Yep. If Russia agrees to *anything*, it was all fake (and wore a distinct hat).

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Hemid
2 years ago

Indeed.

It difficult for most to accept such a thing, despite the now obvious evidence, in the same way that normies struggle to accept that there is a uniparty with 2 pretend factions.

The evidence is all around if you are to examine it.
I would have thought Sean Penn rocking up to take the piss of presenting a best actor oscar to the midget would have made some people realize its been a production, but apparently not.

They like a good laugh at how stupid the cattle are,

Gunner Q
2 years ago

Now that Z mentions it, the managerialism trend coincided with the government’s early efforts to thwart small business ownership. It’s not that America changed how it trained managers; it’s that in a small-business-driven economy, there was little need for managers. Promoting the most senior/skilled was easily done when the owner knew everybody.

trackback
2 years ago

[…] ZMan peers behind the curtain. […]

Stephen Flemmi
Stephen Flemmi
2 years ago

“So no, the military has a spotty record for selecting leadership excellence. A lot of our best and brightest recognize this, and usually decline re-enlisting to head on to the private sector.”

They have a TERRIBLE record of advancing leadership. Combined with the fact that they are process oriented and not results oriented. There is very little difference now between the military and public school functions and administration.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  Stephen Flemmi
2 years ago

General Milley (Mealy Mouth) isn’t a top-tier leader?!

Mr. House
Mr. House
2 years ago

“He gets to select within a limited number of options how best to get the assigned items shipped out and the incoming items received into the shipping department.” In other words, they have no power. A friend of mine managed a Sherwin Williams. He wasn’t allowed to hire or fire, that was all done by corporate. If somebody called off he had to fill in, essentially none of the perks and all of the crap. At least in your own business after some time of getting yourself established you don’t have to deal with that crap anymore. This is why… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Mr. House
2 years ago

Yep. In my Globohomo factory, the hiring process was partially stripped from the local facility about a decade ago. To get into the plant for an interview, one first has to jump through lots of hoops over the phone with the corporate HR/DIE wardens. It will shock no one to learn that the quality of our hires has slid noticeably.

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

Sounds like your company needs to hire more HR/DIE professionals. Or perhaps some “Talent management professionals”.

Compsci
Compsci
2 years ago

“ In the military sphere the rulers are forced to replace the politicians in the officer ranks with genuine wartime leaders. “ This seems dangerous/difficult in modern wars, at least between first rate powers, which can be quick, deadly, and decisive. In the Civil War, Lincoln could piss around for years until he found a Grant. In WWII we could afford a Pearl Harbor or a Kasserine Pass, until we found a Patton or a Nimitz. Even Russia can afford a few failed attempts to rein in Ukraine but at a great cost since it gives time to Ukraine and… Read more »

Milestone D
Milestone D
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

I can assure you that this condition has been observed more times than I can count in the war colleges and military-adjacent academic journals. It hasn’t produced any changes – at all. But there are definitely smart people noting that we won’t have time to identify/replace the McClellans with the Grants in a modern war, and fearing the results. The solution, if there is one, has been the bureaucratization of warfare. I quipped at the end of my Navy career that Warfighting Capability is the Happy Accident of Administrative Exactitude – the conceit being that strong management processes will produce… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Milestone D
2 years ago

Milestone D: Women are process oriented; men are results oriented.

Why feminized oligarchy supports and runs Clown World.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Milestone D
2 years ago

“ The solution, if there is one, has been the bureaucratization of warfare. “

I concede to your expertise as a former military person with knowledge acquired. I have no such experience in the military—having avoided the draft in my youth.

I would simply note that the word “bureaucratization” to me implies where we started, “managerialism”.

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

The only purpose of the military after a nuclear war would be to seize food from civilians for themselves. You don’t want them to be competent.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

The CSA was lucky that men like Stonewall Jackson stepped to the fore right out of the gate, when their survival, short-lived that it was, depended on it. Jackson is a great example of today’s essay as it applies to the real world. He was an uninspiring teacher prior to the war, the kind of man no one in today’s managerial class would have given a second thought. But in the blink of an eye he became one of history’s greatest generals. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

btp
Member
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

Same is true for Sherman and Grant, for that matter. Weird. Even Patton was not really considered a top-tier guy.

theRussians
theRussians
Member
2 years ago

“These are administrative jobs filled with people tasked with following the rules. They may be required to supervise others who are also tasked with following rules. These are not positions that demand leadership, but rather roles that demand obedience.”
the managerial class has its checklist too, ESG. ESG may not be fully weighted yet but we all know that day is coming. Competency is completely avoided.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Thanks to Z for an unusually insightful essay today. If it’s any consolation, I see no reason why our enemies are not prey to the same problem of promoting the incompetent, which in so many words is just another method of weakening one’s organization. That brings to mind a fascinating question: Are there any real world examples of organizations that do in fact, reward the truly competent, powerful, the talented, with promotion in a hierarchy? The best examples I can think of are what I’d term lawless gangs where jungle law (cunning, deception and physical prowess) are dominant factors. I… Read more »

ArthurinCali
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

“Are there any real world examples of organizations that do in fact, reward the truly competent, powerful, the talented, with promotion in a hierarchy?” IMO, the heavy industries appear to still run this way. When I say heavy industries I am referring to the sector of the economy that still creates and/or maintains society. Lots of these jobs have been highlighted on Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs series. Plumbers, welders, oil rig workers, and so forth. I can see these organizations being on the lookout for individuals who stand out above the rest, and promoting accordingly. I believe an important factor… Read more »

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
Reply to  ArthurinCali
2 years ago

Question is for how long. One of my kids is an engineer in the LNG shipping business. Competency still counts when you are fooling around with ships full of super-cooled liquid with the BTU equivalent of a small fission weapon. But even in these firms the HR termites are busily at work insisting on “DIE initiatives” to increase “diversity”. Oddly, this industry is about at diverse as you can get. Finnish/Belgian captains, Filipino engineering officers and crews, Venezuelan engineers (all the good ones came to US). Middle Eastern port managers….

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  SamlAdams
2 years ago

they want to be inclusive of the Somali pirates.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  SamlAdams
2 years ago

Oh man. This is getting bleak. Thank your son for providing such a valuable service to our civilization. I almost feel like physical force is becoming justified. The DIE commissar can use the force of the organization to create the quotas, and the force of the state to certify and/or train the, “diverse talent.” The injustice of making a person who used their free will to choose a career and to invest time and money in developing a skill that made them employable/valuable un-employable by dictat is monumental. It is so immoral as to be better described as depraved. Changing… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

The Boer option always seems out of reach, even for the Boers themselves.

I wonder what the threshold actually is?

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Apparently it took 1 in 3 or so Europeans dying off to wake them up.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  ArthurinCali
2 years ago

The same is true in the companies or orgs within companies that create the technology, (physical and digital machinery), that these real world industries rely upon. You just can’t hide the incompetence when those machines must be relied upon. That will only grow as additive manufacturing and other robotics and computing machinery integrates with physical machinery. When I investigate investments, I typically prefer real/physical-world investments. Those companies web sites are littered with DIE statements and initiatives and have hired commissars presumably to carry them out. Companies that operate in South Africa seem to have two different executive teams. There is… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

I’m not seeing any updates on the “noose” that was found at the site of the Obama Library and Bath House. I think it’s safe to say that law enforcement understood right from the get-go that it was yet another anti-white hoax. I’m just surprised that they haven’t come up with a way to punish a sacrificial white guy anyway.

Reply
Reply
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Take a look at the US Navy. Top-heavy, filled with managers instead of leaders. Some of that is due to Congress, perennial resource allocation and inertia. Some of that is due to the Iron Law of Institutions.
Now expand that to the rest of the armed forces.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Ben the Layabout: “In contrast, the natural world (ex-Man) consistently selects for competence. It’s called evolution or natural selection and it’s operative in all times and all places.” Today’s Z essay is all about Passive Aggression and the Passive Aggressive Industrial Complex. The darwinists [if they were fully sentient] would declare that, once civilization began to arise, not only were the Passive Aggressives selected for their Passive Aggressive competence [at stabbing their competition in the back], but that, to this day, Passive Aggression continues to intensify and purify itself [via assortative mating between Passive Aggressive males & Passive Aggressive females],… Read more »

Alzaebo
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

You’re talking about a group that would prefer directing the scenes from behind the throne.

As if camoflague or stealth were used in nature. Or as if numbers themselves would be exploited as the background camoflague, a human shield.

Can’t imagine. Such a group would shriek in outrage when exposed, like women whose competency is questioned.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

Alzaebo: “As if camoflague or stealth were used in nature.” But here, we’re talking about not only physical Darwinism [literal assortative mating, between Passive Aggressive males and Passive Aggressive females, at all the very best and toniest and most expensive prep-schools & colleges & universities], but we’re also talking about META-Darwinism, in that disingenuousness & half-truths & lies & propaganda & mesmerization & hypnotization & treachery & treason are not physical attributes, but rather are psychological & emotional & anti-spiritual & anti-intellectual attributes. So now we’ve devolved to the point that we’re tasked with fighting Darwinism both physically and abstractly… Read more »

PrimiPilus
PrimiPilus
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

Beta-plus males?? Aping female coping and success mechanisms?

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

I upvoted you but solely for your rhetorical skills. Your jibe at Darwinists is very articulate. Alas, your other comments aren’t very persuasive. You don’t know the first thing about passive aggressive disorder and it has absolutely no bearing on what Z discussed in today’s essay.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Perhaps I was too hard on Bourbon. I re-read his post and found detail I’d missed the first time. As I understood him, he lays too much (all?) blame on Passive-Aggressive behavior. To correct his metaphor, a P-A will never stab his target in the back. P-A by definition is indirect. A beginner P-A would hire an assassin to do the knife work. An expert P-A would skillfully manipulate a willing dupe into the act. P-A behavior is found in nearly all organizations. It was formally identified around WW II in the military. Its salient feature is defiance of authority,… Read more »

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

The topic of this essay is dense. We are so far beyond the basic problems this essay describes, it makes me pine for this as the problem. I’ve been at leadership and team building training. They are repulsive. You want to find out who the leaders are at those things? Find some sensor that measures the internal discomfort and loathing toward the, “trainers”, in the participants and you have identified the people with the emotional intelligence, self respect and sense of self worth required to be a leader. Have that sensor measure the level of joy and ecstasy at being… Read more »

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Centurion Ventu! Are you and your men leaders? Don’t answer me now. Answer the Gods and your fellow Romans on the battlefield today!

I meant to say.

Alzaebo
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

I’ve heard such seminars are invariably led by a dindu in dreads and a hatchet-faced lesbian.

The hunting band. White men excel at the hunting band, that would be the natural size to organize along for men, rather than the women’s camp of managerialism.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

> I am going to close with one last idea. Management itself is a failed idea. Any enterprise that wants management or is filled with it is in some stage of entropic rot. This is where culture is more important than even the vaunted marketplace. For example, Bell Labs and The Manhattan Project were monopolies, one government and one private, and they both succeeded by giving their brilliant people broad swath to accomplish their goals. Modern managers want to believe the skill differential in employees is plus of minus 20%, when in truth employee skill sets are orders of magnitude… Read more »

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Agreed! It seems to me the purpose of the scrum has devolved into a way to ensure that some person doesn’t get stuck for too long by public shaming and accountability. Any even decent engineer doesn’t need this – he holds himself accountable. There is also the dimension of character. Even the those who are not that rare brilliant person, but very skilled people, are hamstrung by these formalities. Then there is the useless form of management of asking great people and teams, “is it done yet?”, “how long will it take? how much longer will it take?” To your… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

The problem is another NPC/human divide. NPCs being most women and a proportion men have zero, and I mean zero, ability to understand what leadership in a hierarchy actually is as a concept due to their biology. The men are generally those who have an academia or government mindset. For them the leadership position is a credential. Credentials and process, not anything else, are substituted in their mind for ability and product. You are not even having the same conversation, as the same words do not tie into the same concepts in their heads. Its why all industries and knowledge… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Fantastic comment, especially the observation about the relative abilities of those who chafe at and those who embrace leadership training.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

PeriheliusLux: I still remember how surprised I was in high school when a bunch of my AP classmates were talking about the ‘leadership retreat’ they had been chosen – by teachers and counselors – to attend. These were not the brightest nor the most competent nor the most popular kids in the class (let alone in the school). These were the kids with the highest self esteem and best self promotion. Taught me an important lesson. Fwiw, I have no idea what any of them ended up doing with their lives – I’ve had zero contact with anyone I went… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

“Some are mathemeticians,
Some are carpenter’s wives,
Don’t know how it all got started,
I don’t know what they do with their lives…”

Bob Dylan
Tangled Up In Blue

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

Some are fake songwriters that got Leonard Cohen to write their songs.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Careful, you are sounding like Ayn Rand… 😉

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
2 years ago

Lloyd Fredenhall—-George Patton. Been in this world for years. Pretty early in my career got a reputation as a “fixer” and frankly never had the “rule the world” ambition. But did like to fix broken things. And figured out which C-level folks had a tolerance for someone would tell the truth (quietly) but wade in to correct the fuck-ups. The trade off is, in military parlance, you never rise above “full bird” colonel. But it is interesting and you can retire with a clean conscience. The one class you leave out is the “consultant” class that make their living appealing… Read more »

joeyjünger
joeyjünger
2 years ago

There’s a big “Yes, but…” here, which is that we have a system of corporate fascism, in which the state and private interests are part of one hideous blob. Granted, the managers are part of what keeps the cancer metastasizing so that healthy cells (the rest of us) have our growth inhibited, but Musk is part of the problem, not the solution. Alright, he slashed half the useless workforce of a totally useless company, but if he really wanted to slash the nonproductive, he could start by slicing his own throat. He’s gotten tons of money to basically clutter the… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  joeyjünger
2 years ago

joey-

Their control of the printing press and the ability to run it until it glows white hot is one of the key issues.

The petrodollar’s ability to retain some perception of value is an equally important issue.

Thus, they will be able to do this until the printing press is taken away from them or the dollar’s value collapses.

Trouble is, either of those scenarios is going to result in a wide variety of terrible outcomes for almost everyone, even many of the Cloud People.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

You can’t have a petro dollar if you remove oil from your economy.

They are lighting themselves on fire with a joyous exultation and taking you with them.

Maybe they get more points, the more misery and souls they destroy.

Xman
Xman
2 years ago

“First rate men attract first rate men, while second rate men attract third rate men.”

Now add women into the equation. The LAST thing any female manager wants is men who can act independently, think creatively and debate the available options.

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  Xman
2 years ago

For even more fun try managing a group of mostly third rate women. Nothing but cliques, infighting and personal agendas. That the business has to be successful in order for them to keep their jobs is lost on at least 75% of them.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

Then they can get a sex change and start all over again.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  Xman
2 years ago

“I don’t want to understand women. Women understand women, and they all hate each other.” – A Bundy

KGB
KGB
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

And yet, how many will pause from their cat fights to proclaim, “If women ran the world there would be no more wars”?

Xman
Xman
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

Ask the Serbs how they felt about Madeline Albright and ask the Libyans how they felt about Hillary…

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

They would be right because women will obliterate the human race by nuking the entire world over some perceived slight, trivial dissent or for likes on social media.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
2 years ago

Is this not the Peter Principle writ large? At least on a national level McConnell, Pelosi, ad nausea are poster children for confirmation, expect in their case they’ve arisen several levels above their competency.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  Stranger in a Strange Land
2 years ago

That’s exactly what I was thinking as I read the post.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Semi-related:

Is it me or did the Duran botch their analysis of the purported peace overtures between the CIA managers and the Russians?

The entire point of that exercise is to buy time for the collective West to rest, refit, and rearm the Polish, Romanian, and Bulgarian forces they plan to fold into Western Ukraine, probably fighting under the Uke flag.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

The democommies here are busy burrying the skin suit of FTX so they can blame Trump and the Russians.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  Hoagie
2 years ago

God, calling the Dems “commies” would be a sincere compliment at this point.

B125
B125
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

I don’t think Russia wants the war to end anytime soon. They’re doing just fine selling their resources to Asia, and are working to re-order the Middle Eastern & Asian world away from Western (American) dominance. It’s the West that’s in trouble at the moment.

Maybe that’s what Western leaders want too, who knows. They seem to work to destroy our Western countries. But either way, Russia is benefitting from this war.

TomA
TomA
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

The Kherson withdrawal is all about the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam which is located upriver to the NE. Ukraine has been trying to destroy this dam for weeks now because it would seriously flood a huge region downstream, including inundate Kherson under 3 meters of water. No military force can withstand that kind of impact and still be viable to fight. And the infamous Ukrainian offensive was awaiting that flood to trap and immobilize the Russian forces before going on the attack. Not anymore. Russia has withdrawn to safer ground and allowed the UFA to occupy this region and be at… Read more »

Auld MArk
Auld MArk
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

I think you’ve hit the nail the head. Good analysis.

Anson Rhodes
Anson Rhodes
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

Somewhat fanciful. Russia took Kherson opportunistically at the start of the war – they didn’t fight for it. They don’t need it and they don’t want it. It might have served as a bargaining chip, but Ukraine are not bargaining, so Kherson is a pointless drain on Russian resources. There is no defensible border north of Kherson so Russia has pulled back to the other side of the river. That’s all. This war is going pretty much how I predicted it from the beginning so I don’t even think I’m sticking my neck out here.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Whatever the reasoning behind certain moves and posturing, it seems to me that the war has reached a point of high stakes—existential for *both* sides. That’s not good. Doubtful we’ll see immediate collapse of either side, but one side or the other will lose world credibility if we don’t reach a negotiated stalemate.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

They are working from the wrong assumptions.

They appear to still be under the impression it is real rather than a predefined dance so will always come up with the wrong analysis.

usNthem
usNthem
2 years ago

Not only are third rate men and women being promoted (or “selected” not elected), but also joggers and joggerettes, who are largely sub-third rate as a whole. One would not be wrong thinking a collapse of some magnitude can’t be too far off.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

usNthem: For various reasons the term ‘collapse’ scares people, or sounds too apocalyptic or tin-foil hat. But what we’re already living, in daily life, is a collapse of order and competency in countless ways. Navigating through an endless phone tree (after having exhausted all online ‘help’ and ‘faq’ information) only to finally get to speak with a live person . . . from Bangladesh. Who has no idea what your issue is and just further screws things up. Being informed online that store ‘x’ has item ‘y’ in stock, calling ahead to confirm this, and arriving to find the item… Read more »

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

3g4me –
That normalcy bias seems a force almost as strong as gravity – very difficult to deny or overcome.
Spot on about our living in an historic anomaly. Here’s hoping we do not see a reversion to the norm of, as Hobbes put it: life is nasty, brutish, and short.

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

South Africa still has a power grid, water and sanitation. Ditto for Detroit.
Maybe not 100% of the time, but they exist.
Rome never “fell” and the US and The West have a LONG way to decline before hitting Mexican or even Indian levels.
My young sons may never fly on the The Concord or live to see white men walk on other worlds, but my dozens of yet to be born grandchildren will be like unto gods to the brown hordes of this earth.

MartyEv
MartyEv
2 years ago

Elon Musk made some pretty on-point comments about MBAs and leadership in an company about a year and a half ago. “The path to leadership should be through doing useful things and working your way up. The path should not be through going to MBA business school and parachuting your way into being the boss. There are more people who know how to make PowerPoints then there are people who know how things work and how to make useful stuff”. https://youtu.be/YAtLTLiqNwg?t=2393 I know he is not one of your favorites, Z-Man, but he definitely is very goal-oriented and knows what… Read more »

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  MartyEv
2 years ago

I love the guy (Elon). My favorite African-American.

He may very well go out in a blaze of glory, but my god, what a way to live one’s life.

The happy warrior.

(Purportedly gave SBF from FTX a hard pass when looking for $$$ to buy Twitter. Seems blazingly obvious in hindsight, but plenty of “smart” people took the bait. Or they just wanted to steal.)

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  MartyEv
2 years ago

Ah, yes. As I was reading today’s post discussing these topics, and their manifestations in the business world, the well nigh omnipresence of MBAs came foremost to my mind. People parachuted into businesses about which they very likely have almost no knowledge, yet thinking themselves well-fitted to tackle any business challenge? And just like the Edumacation Racket, arising when third raters agglomerate into teaching MBA programs, and just like in schools of Edumacation, sure that they are Masters of All Trades while often not even being Jacks of Any Trades, being mere idealogues. These trade schools take as their prime… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

JerseyJeffersonian: My husband often shares with me his work travails – usually involving someone who brings zero income or profit to the employer. Some new diversity hire in the IT or accounting field, who has no idea how the business actually works, or who actually generates the money that pays their salaries. There seems to be at least a 10:1 ratio of the useless/support staff to the actual business creators/earners – and this is a relatively small private company. No danger to my husband’s job – the company owner knows who’s bringing in the big bucks and all the sales/transactions… Read more »

Whitney
Member
2 years ago

“These are not positions that demand leadership, but rather roles that demand obedience.”

I feel a Tom Petty song coming on

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
2 years ago

Regarding big business: the talent deficit in upper management is simply a function of the agency effect. The gap/misalignment between owner/shareholders and management explains most of the dysfunction. When owners like Musk run businesses, they usually run them better. This will be a controversial assertion on my part, but having spent over 35 years analyzing public companies in various capacities, I can tell you they are in general better run today than 40 years ago. This is a complex topic worth exploring more in future Zman essays. Regarding politics: the incompetence is a feature, not a bug. The Oligarchs are… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 years ago

“I can tell you they are in general better run today than 40 years ago.”

I agree. There was more slack 40 years ago. Those companies that didn’t or couldn’t adapt went to the wall. Which was a large chunk of US manufacturing.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

No, many of those companies, who actually hewed to their business missions, were put up against a wall and shot by the Smartest Guys in the Room who profited from leveraged buyouts and labor arbitrage, flourishing in the engineered legal and financial environment envisioned by globalist forces, our people’s national and social well-being be damned.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

Yes, that also true. The Gordon Gekkos and Mitt Romneys did their bit in destroying US manufacturing.

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

That’s going to change very quickly with the retirement of the competent baby boomers and their replacement with the diversity, equity, and inclusion generation.
There are going to be just too few competent people left to keep companies functioning at top performance levels.
Companies decided long ago not to spend money on apprenticeship programs for competent white men and their skills,
Now they will reap the reward.

Gespenst
Gespenst
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 years ago

“I can tell you they are in general better run today than 40 years ago.”

What do you mean by “better”? It would take a pretty good argument to convince me you’re right, but I’d enjoy an essay supporting your contention.

Mr. Generic
Mr. Generic
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 years ago

> DeSantis who really does pose a threat to the WEF crowd.

Citation needed.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Mr. Generic
2 years ago

Agreed. Nothing against DeSantis, but he really seems like a new comer riding a black swan event, Covid.

He’s well educated, as in attending Ivy League schools. Did his time in military as a lawyer. Then ran for political office and never looked back. This is a resume of so many pol’s, that I can’t name them all. A man who decided that law, politics, and power are laudable career goals.

I’m not there yet. Too much experience with those types locally.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Supposedly there is at least one DeSantis interview where he reports being revolted by the anti-American attitudes he encountered at Yale.

Trouble is, that was about 20 years ago. That’s plenty of time for people to change.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Howard, I’m surprise at your response. Don’t you know that the term we now use is “grow”? I’m certain DeSantis has grown over 20 years.

But you point as to which direction remains solid.

Dennis Roe
Dennis Roe
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

He loves isreal, that should help him.

Woodpecker
Woodpecker
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

He kept his head when all about him
We’re losing theirs and blaming it on him

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 years ago

A rare exception in the capitalist world: When Berkshire Hathaway (Buffet & Munger) acquired a company, they tended to do no more than become its new owners. They tried to keep the existing management in place, thinking that they were the very people who had built a highly successful business and it would make zero sense to be rid of them.

At least, the above is the story told in books by/about Buffet in the 1990s.

Stephen Flemmi
Stephen Flemmi
2 years ago

Military “Leadership” is a contradiction in terms. They are bed to be future bureacrats. That’s how you get promoted, especially on the Commission Officer side. Less so as NCOs and probably the least with Warrant Officers. Good article from a Boomer Libertarian: https://johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-blog-about-military-matters/69791811-is-the-u-s-military-as-good-at-producing-leaders-as-it-says * Z, we ALL know Massachusetts sucks. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine are the great white North. The only three states that claim they want diversity more than Massachusetts. Except of course people living in Lewiston. It’s fun busting your balls on it. You try to hide it but it’s clear that a big portion of your… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Stephen Flemmi
2 years ago

“Bred,” although a bed no doubt is a factor in some promotions. 😀

Stephen Flemmi
Stephen Flemmi
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Thank you, Captain Spelling-Grammar.

Yes. There is a great deal of Brown nosing and fellating that goes in once you make it to a field grade rank (O4 or above) of Major.

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
Reply to  Stephen Flemmi
2 years ago

I’ve held for a long time (and based on conversations with retired ones) that the most fatal mistake in prosecuting the Twenty Years War is that we simply wore out the class of competent war fighting NCOs in all branches. They’re broken and retired(ing) in droves. Not helped by the fact that the tooth to tail ratio in the modern armed forces is so out of balance. Have met guys that did 8-9-10 combat tours—some in the big sandboxes, some in the little unheard of ones. But it wore them out and they never really managed to create a new… Read more »

ArthurinCali
Reply to  Stephen Flemmi
2 years ago

From watching firsthand during my time in the military, the belief that the best leaders are promoted is a myth. Politics is central to upper management’s decision-making process. Here is one example: Ranking boards are very important to a sailors advancement to the next rank/pay grade. The goal is to have an evaluation marked “Early Promote” (EP) and to be ranked in the top 5. Selection boards for E-7 and above look for these key markers when deciding who is promoted. At the E-5 ranking board, all 1st Class Petty Officers (E-6s) vouch and push for their best E-5 sailors… Read more »

TomA
TomA
2 years ago

All true, and most importantly, it defines the problem narrowly and specifically. That information has great value. In addition, even bloated managerial ranks are few in number compared to the workforce or population-at-large, so it’s a relative small problem in magnitude. Last, second or third rate managers are not natural leaders nor even the up-by-your-bootstraps variety. This means that they are essentially cowards and will flee when the going gets existentially tough. In this respect, emergent behavior is a powerful thing. It doesn’t take much to start a stampede for the exit. This means that a focused remedy can be… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
2 years ago

Z: “Mitch McConnell diverted tens of millions of dollars to safe Senate races, but starved out many contested ones, because that served his interests as the senior manager of the party. It is better for him that a third rate zombie like Murkowski returns to the Senate than a potential threat like Blake Masters gets promoted into the Senate.”

There’s a story which is starting to break this morning, which claims that Mitch McConnell took $2.5 Million from “FTX DIGITAL MARKETS”.

This is the purported Schedule A:

https://tinyurl.com/mvdfw9w2

This is a Twitter thread about it:

https://tinyurl.com/4rpxpwhe

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

I went back and looked at that Twitter thread – I kept wondering, how could some random miscegenating black dude have stumbled upon that particular “Schedule A” – and then it hit me.

If that “Schedule A” is legit, and if it was intentionally leaked to miscegenating black dude, then I’ll betcha dollars to donuts that it was the work of Ginni Thomas.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

Wait until the Dems and Repubs join up to keep Pelosi as speaker as an act of “bi-partisan” standing together (against you).

Now the obvious rigging is cemented they are going to openly piss in everyone’s face to make sure you understand the humiliation.

btp
Member
2 years ago

Private rule could be good, so long as there are some sort of limitations. In general, there have always been these limitations because even strongmen need the support of their vassals. Everyone complains about serfdom, but one thing the lord could not do was disenfranchise his serfs. Yeah, they were tied to the land, but the land was also tied to them. Consider that next time the Fortune 500 firm decides it needs to right-size itself.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
2 years ago

> The solution to that is the solution all second rate men find and that is to promote third rate men. One of my favorite examples of elevating non-threatening third rate men was an all-employee meeting we had where our new president introduced everyone to her new lackey. The guy started at self-deprecation (“I really don’t know much about this industry”), always a bad sign. Somehow, it got even worse when an employee asked the innocuous question of when he and his family were moving the our location permanently, and he meekly explained how he was currently going through a… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Chet Rollins: “We’re seeing murmurings of revolution against old Mitch, so it will be interesting if it goes anywhere.”

That was Rick Scott’s 24-hour initiative, but he had already been cut off at the knees before I went to bed last night [although, admittedly, I stayed up pretty late last night, ’til about 2AM].

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

This was the story about Rick Scott getting stabbed in the back yesterday:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4109220/posts

The Hill posted it at 7:02 PM.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
2 years ago

“The people at the top, the senior managers, want to keep the pot bubbling so that they can spot the managers with potential and promote them into middle management. They do not want the natural talent boiling off because it is blocked by a ceiling of mediocrity. “The military has always suffered from this problem. Peacetime armies tend to develop a leadership class that is good at politics, but not war fighting. Wars always result in changes at the top and a restructuring of the officer class.” As you point out later in your essay, the people at the top… Read more »

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

> Western societies are ossified from top to bottom. The natural consequence of this is a Joe Biden, a Liz Truss, and an Emmanuel Macron.

The classic solution to this was a man who came along through force of will and completely wiped the slate clean. The current apparatus is explicitly designed to not allow this to happen, but a top-heavy and sclerotic institution slowly loses its ability to keep out outsiders, which, along with its inability to lock the masses in support of them, usually spells doom long-term.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Chet Rollins: “The classic solution to this was a man who came along through force of will and completely wiped the slate clean.”

God Emperor Trump certainly fulfilled the ‘force of will’ role in 2015 & 2016.

But then he got cold feet when he dipped his toe in the Rubicon, and never summoned up the nads necessary to ‘wipe the slate clean’ [i.e. drain the swamp].

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

I don’t think that was ever really in the cards. Even if Trump governed twice as good as he campaigned, this was just out of the realm of possibility.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

Trump didn’t understand politics—at least not to the level of today’s typical duplicitous pol. He understood private power as the owner/operator of a private company, Tump Inc. He assumed he could tell folks what to do and if they didn’t do it, “fire” them. He didn’t dip his toe into the Rubicon, he jumped with both feet into a snake pit called Washington, DC. He learned slowly, too slowly (and that’s his fault I agree) and was struck down before he could fully put to work his new knowledge. However, those attempting to walk in his shadow—Trumpists—seem to have taken… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

I wouldn’t trust DeSantis if he said the sky was blue and the grass was green.

That dude’s resume has “Deep State” written all over it.

Alzaebo
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

The great Padraig Martin on Gab says DeSantis and Trump are playing a game, called:

Don’t be afraid of lying to liars.

Desantis kissed the Wall, sure. And then proceeded to deftly break up the J**ish and black power centers in his state, using their own greed against them.

When threatened with the usual accusations, he could point to the Wall and a toothless “law”.

I’ll bet Heavy D and Red Skull T are baiting the Beltway with a pretend catfight.

Member
2 years ago

In the military sphere the rulers are forced to replace the politicians in the officer ranks with genuine wartime leaders.

Oh, there’s a popular and effective alternative to that method. The enemy mounts the heads of the incompetent leaders — political and military — on pikes around the city they’ve conquered. Incompetence problem solved!

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
Reply to  Vizzini
2 years ago

…and then they make a giant pyramid of the heads of the rest of the population.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Götterdamn-it-all
2 years ago

Götterdamn-it-all: “they make a giant pyramid of the heads of the rest of the population…”

The skulls of males, at least, and maybe the skulls of some of the uglier/nastier/harpier of the females.

But the comely females tend to become concubines.

The big question for the comely females is what happens to them when they hit peri-menopause, and they’re no longer of any use to anyone?

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

They are declared witches and hanged, dunked or burnt.