Rush to War 2 - Soldier Gathering

[link to urbansurvival.com]

From UrbanSurvival.com

With the economy heading into a meltdown, slowdown, or recession in months ahead, we're not surprised to see the US drawing up proposed sanctions against Iran and running 'em up the flag pole to see who will buy it. War helps the economy - as an excuse for more deficit spending. We're into about Year Three of the Second Great Depression, and the Iraq/Afghan Wars have been a fine modern analog to the 1930's Civilian Conservation Corp and Works Progress Administration of the last one. Better: The appearance (or invention?) of terrorism has kept most people from recognizing Depression 2's arrival.


However, I'm a little confused on something. Russian media reports the "US has rejected the idea of direct talks between the US and Iran again." Now, if you and I were having a serious difference of opinion about something, I'd suggest that a direct face-to-face meeting would be the way to proceed, not trying to go out and "soldier gather" as the organizational development term might be - would be one way of getting to a solution.


"Soldier Gathering" is an interesting concept in personnel/ organizational development. The way it works is someone who is seeking power (or an outcome) in a group of people starts militant conversation. They judge who will "side with them" and who will not. They build up a following ["soldiers"], and then confront [management or the issue] with their "army of supporters."

So it appears, we have the same kind of "soldier gathering" going on in international affairs - not the same kind you hear around the water cooler when a new manager comes in who is not immediately popular - but the kind where the Bush administration goes out and tries to cobble together another "coalition of the willing." (England, Israel, Australia, Canada, etc.) Same "soldier gathering" technique, just on a grander scale.


By the way, the technique, which I first ran across in some obscure b-school organizational development text, is not widely written about on the web, so I can't point you to a reference. But it's out there in texts. Occasionally as a prelude to the storming, norming, and conforming meetings.





My 2¢: The only thing 'wrong' with this traditional approach is the scale and devastation of the armaments these days.