Most of my life, I have heard the adage that it's more who you know than what you know. While that has not necessarily been my experience, I can certainly say that I see plenty of people who advance more on their connections than on their merit. This means that I work very hard and struggle just to stay competitive with these people, and they are rewarded for doing their job whilst I am expected to go above and beyond just to keep the status quo. Far too much of our world in my opinion operates on principles of quid pro quo, which is to say that favors beget other favors. That's not what I was taught, and it's not how I live, so I expect to struggle for most of my life.
I have several students this term who think I am pretty amazing. Even if that is true, I know that there are better people and better professors than I am. Sometimes, when they sing my praises, mostly because I know my own shortcomings, I warn them about brown on their noses. I will be humble, for I know my weaknesses. I know some people earnestly and honestly mean the praise, and I appreciate it. I want others to know that I don't have a GOBNet or a set of MyFaves who get special privileges. In my class, you advance on merit.
One concern I have with any kind of appeal to authority is that once you start, it's almost impossible to stop. When Thomas Jefferson became President, he was appalled to find out that we were paying the Barbary Pirates millions annually in tribute. Even in our own time, the descendants of these pirates still ply their trade on American ships, as recently as before Obama was first elected. As far as appeasement goes, this is a Kobiashi Maru. Most people who want you to appease them and compromise are bullies, and once you once you start, it's almost impossible to stop because they know they bent you once. During the Korean conflict, many people called for the USA to capitulate to the demands of the Chinese just as many today want Obama to bend to Syria/Russia to avoid war. Douglas MacArthur would tell them as he told the people in 1950: "Appeasement almost always leads to more and bloodier war."
Sometimes the GOBNet will throw you a bone that you can use as a chip in the big game, as leverage against them to your own ends. Rather than elevate people based on virtue, they threaten to expose people for their weaknesses, even if those weaknesses are only human or single events. Give me all the cards you like, because I don't dance. I am unashamed of my past and unafraid for my future. I know I'm human, and I own it. You can play all the games you like because that's what you do. Leave me to do what I do. Beware the temptation to judge me for an inability to live a moral code you are unwilling even to attempt.
I got my jobs and keep them on merit. Granted, the appointments have always come when the employer was in desperate need, but I was hired even to teach based on my resume. My interview was a formality just to make sure they knew who I was before they threw me into the classroom. When I went to work for UPS, I was hired during peak season, and I was given extra opportunities to be a relief deliverer based on my merits once I got going. At Walmart, I was hired because they needed people to open a new warehouse, and since we always operated at below full staffing while there, I was often offered overtime whenever I liked because I was worth time and a half. My primary job in Nevada came because the woman I replaced was having triplets and resigning, and they needed someone to fill the position. After the first two people rejected the pay, they recalcitrantly hired me, and I'm still here, and I'm one of the best they have. Frequently, I keep my job because they can't find anyone to do it for the pay at the level I do it.
GOBNets work on one of two theories- either fear or favors. Incompetent management always fears being outshown; competent management welcomes it. Incompetent management wants people beholden to them; competent management advances the people. Eventually, management retires, and if we don't train our replacements, then we ultimately do the organization a disservice. Like I tell my students, I don't get excited proving I am smarter than they are; I expect them to be better than my generation, because the only way we advance as a society is if the next generation is better than the previous one. Unfortunately in GOBNets, all too frequently, management makes sure people owe them, and they make sure we know that we are beholden to them. Unfortunately in GOBNets, management likes to hold back the next crop so that they justify their position as our leaders. I'm sorry, but you are not God, and it is to Him that I am indebted for all that I have and am. In fact, I have advanced despite the efforts of some of my employers to damage my career precisely because God is greater than management and because He has my back.
Nobody goes to their grave with suitcases full of trophies, money, or any other kind of transitory possession. In the end, we are who we are- either sycophants or crusaders.
Some people sell their souls for the fabled mess of pottage, trading their integrity for a pension, a position or a promotion. Our integrity sells sometimes for very little, but it's all we really have that is ours. When they told me at work that I could either fall out or fall in line, I told them I'd rather die. Ok, what I actually said was, "You need me more than I need you." (Yes, I have actually said that.)
In the end, you can have your integrity and have the satisfaction of soul knowing that you honestly and earnestly did the best you could to do the best you could. There is peace in that on dark and cold nights when I am alone to know that the Cause approved and that I never faltered in defending even if I was ultimately unsuccessful when measured by man's metrics. Maybe I'm single or at the bottom of the stack or limited in earning potential, but I do have friends and my students appreciate what I am able to do for them. I think they know I would fall on my sword to do what's best for them. When I am presented by a Kobiashi Maru, I do my duty and do what is just and true and trust that even if I have nothing to show for it, I will die with my integrity. It isn't much, but in that inch we are all free. No man will be my master. Blow wind. Come rack. At least we'll die with the harness off our back.
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