I must give George W. Bush some credit, his use of the phrase “Ownership Society” was as prescient as it was accurate. While he meant it in a different manner than it will mean in the future it’s a great description of America. America is the land where it can be owned; a house, a TV, a car, land, mineral rights, even problems and conditions, or responsibility. Athletes and coaches often speak of “owning it” parents and teachers use the phrase “owning up to it”. Yes, in America, almost anything can be owned, often to exclusion. When the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi bought Rockefeller Center in New York (where they have the public ice skating and the giant x-mas tree every year) it was a huge swipe at the national pride because it was no longer American Owned. Mind you, it stayed in New York its not like the Japanese moved it to Sapporo.

Here lies the crux, the breakthrough, the germ of thought from where the new perspective is born. From the way things were seen before to how they are viewed now. Take a moment to think about Rockefeller Center, does it matter who owns it? The building is still there, you can still visit it, they still put up a giant Christmas Tree every Holiday Season, still have the giant skating pond… In other words, the building is still being used as it always has and the invisible transfers of ownership over the years have changed little.

However, it would be silly not to acknowledge that there is the potential that any new owner could radically alter how something is used or viewed. Again to use Rockefeller Center, the Japanese could have closed the building to the public and use it store Japanese kimonos or shredded junk bonds. Perhaps this fear or alternation was at the root of the uproar, because owners can change that which they own because ownership means power…Right?

It is disheartening, and frustrating to see that mere minutes after current US President Barack Obama is given the Nobel Peace Prize, he is torn apart by virtually half of the US media, most Republicans and many pundits all of whom are singing from the same song..loosely titled…”He does not deserve it”.
The tragedy is that there is a pervasive blindness about peace and how it is accomplished. Signing agreements do not make peace happen, bullying aggressors at Martha’ Vineyard or Camp David does not ensure peace, if it did, Isreal and Palestine would have settled differences long ago.
Peace is a slow process but one that has so far always begun by flexibility and open lines of communication. Peace is achieved by establishing dialogue, communicating positions and being flexible about solutions, showing a willingness to actually communicate, not just broadcast agression.
In selecting Obama the Nobel committee countermanded most perceptions of peace and how peace is achieved today, something they have done before.
Perhaps, they are seeing deeper than the naysayers, perhaps not, I am not them so I cannot say. However, if one looks at ‘tone’ in international dialogue, foreign newspapers and even U.S. magazines, war does in fact seem to have receded. By scrapping the proposed missile shield that so angered Russia and China, having direct talks with Iran, lobbying for total nuclear disarmament and allowing Brazil to diffuse the crises in Honduras without conflict, Obama actually has achieved some measurable accomplishments for peace. However a quick daily read of headlines is the best testament to now being a more peaceable time. Most nations are now focusing on financial restructuring, international summits like the G20, the impacts of the Treaty of Lisbon vote in Ireland, recent elections and congratulating Rio on the 2016 Olympics. What has almost completely disappeared is international saber rattling.
Sometimes the absence of a thing is hard to see but once you do see it, you can’t miss it. The bully pulpit so favored by others has been put away by Obama and consequently, international tensions have gradually ebbed now for the better part of a year. Previously unimportant international meetings now take center stage and the biggest public contest was for the Olympics, surely this is a good indicator that perhaps the Nobel Committee was looking with different eyes.

I will avoid the tortured metaphors of life being a highway or train tracks or whatever. Simply put, the great advantage and Achilles’ heel of being human is the ability to work on different things, leading in different directions simultaneously. It’s great for service or information companies, you can answer the phone and review a spreadsheet at the same time, very efficient.
Modern measurements of efficiency were simply not possible in the old manufacturing economy when, for safety’s sake, or for speed, a person was required to perform a specific task over as quickly as possible or perhaps a set of tasks in sequence, very rapidly. These things take concentration, because people can only move very fast if they are intentionally trying to do so.
In information dependent companies employees do many different things, often simultaneously. We usually call this multi-tasking and do it in our personal lives all the time.
Of course, it can get out of hand, applying for new jobs while holding down another one can get very sticky if you have inconveniently scheduled interviews, driving while talking on the phone is universally denounced, justifiably. In the end, perhaps work has finally merged with our own private lives, we live the way we work and often work the way we live. I suppose in a way, it resembles farming which was a lifestyle more than a job. Is that good?