Financing Greatness and Mediocrity - Part 1

John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Every nation evolves and, in the process, evolves to different levels of Civilization

A Look Back?

Sir Kenneth Clark related in his book and in a riveting television series called Civilisation (two nations divided by a common language -Churchill):

?how vital Charlemagne was to the preservation of Western Civilization and Christianity - as was his grandfather Charles "the Hammer" Martel: who defeated the Moors at Poitiers in 732.?

Intellect and Ingenuity

Van Heerden explained the process in this way: “Intellect, the culture-creating part of the human mind is incessantly at work. However, ingenuity, like all human attributes, is misused at least as frequently as it is deployed to do good. Directed by hubris, it is dangerous; guided by love, it becomes inspirational.?

Status v. Success

The Great American delusion is to value status over excellence as David Brooks explained, and to fall prey to the misuse of what I’ll call the Maya Angelou Factor.?

From 2022:?

David Brooks: I’m a liberal arts type, so I see life as a story. Each person is born into a family. Over the course of life, we find things to love and commit to — a vocation, a spouse, a community. At times, we flounder and suffer but do our best to learn from our misfortunes to grow in wisdom, kindness and grace. At the end, hopefully, we can look back and see how we have nurtured deep relationships and served a higher good.

Will Storr, a writer whose work I admire enormously, says this story version of life is an illusion. In his book “The Status Game,” he argues that human beings are deeply driven by status. Status isn’t about being liked or accepted, he writes, it’s about being better than others, getting more: “When people defer to us, offer respect, admiration or praise, or allow us to influence them in some way, that’s status. It feels good.”

High-status people are healthier, get to talk more, have more relaxed postures, get admired by their social inferiors and have a sense of purpose, Storr argues. That’s what we’re really after. The stories we tell ourselves, that we are heroes on journeys toward the true, the good and the beautiful — those are just lies the mind invents to help us feel good about ourselves.

Life is a series of games, he continues. There’s the high school game of competing to be the popular kid. The lawyer game to make partner. The finance game to make the most money. The academic game for prestige. The sports game to show that our team is best. Even when we are trying to do good, Storr asserts, we’re playing the “virtue game,” to show we are morally superior to others.

The Maya Angelou Factor?

“You, created only a little lower than the Angels." - from "The Pulse of the Morning" at Bill Clinton's inauguration.

"People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

Trump uses the Maya Angelou Factor to disguise his ignorance and superficiality, as well as that of his daughter:

and son-in-law.

He does this to divert our attention from the truth and in order to convey to a gullible and superficial segment of American society that he truly cares about them:

Financing Greatness

The Wright brothers' endeavors were privately funded.[8]. Early on, this funding came primarily from their own bicycle shop, that Katharine

managed.[7] She packed supplies for the Wright Brothers,[9] managed official correspondence, supplemented funding for their continued work at Kitty Hawk with her stable income from teaching,[7] and provided solutions to problems not having to do directly with the planes or the mechanics behind it. Katharine helped Wilbur and Orville to negotiate a one-year extension of their contract with the U.S. Signal Corps. She also learned?French ?in order to speak with European dignitaries for her brothers during their exhibition trips funded by?Charles Ranlett Flint .[8]

Charles Ranlett Flint?(January 24, 1850 – February 26, 1934) was the founder of the?Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company ?which later became?IBM . For his financial dealings he earned the moniker "Father of Trusts".[1][2] He was an avid sportsman and member of the syndicate that built the yacht?Vigilant, ?

the U.S. defender of the eighth America’s Cup races and owner of the yacht?Gracie .[3][4]

There is a close association among sailing, flight, financing and success in America.

My Comment: The Great Delusions are caused by a lack of inspiration, success:?

and Education:

Play is the work of children - Jean Piaget

Continued with Financing Saudi Arabia?