Trade Craft
I just finished watching that mini series that ran on TNT a few weeks ago. ‘The Company’ was an over-fictionalized, over-dramatized, over-simplified time compressed depiction of the CIA during the Cold War. I give harsh description of the tale because I was confused as to the amount of truth in the story. The events were probably almost true as were some of the characters, but their portrayal and personalities must be some stereotypical rendition of the real person. Then there was also the main character that was completely unconvincing as an actual historical figure. Chris O’Donnell is a good enough actor but his role as the CIA operative that seems at the center of every major CIA operation that failed over the last fifty years was certainly less than truth. Reminded me of Forrest Gump. Actually had someone ask me if there might have been a real person Forrest Gump. Moron. Nope, I found the reenactments of deliberations in the operation center of the CIA more like a kind of a gumbo of what occurred from the second hand testimony of the people that said they were in the room at the time. Still, the plot was interesting, a first rate television novella and the examples of trade craft were compelling. There is also an interpretation of historical events at work here. Many of the methods and operations that the CIA carried out and often times failed at are under increasing scrutiny. Again. And once again there is a pointed base that feels that all the things that the CIA has done since its creation has been to the detriment of this country. I’m of two minds. The first is that the CIA has do technology pretty well. They also did a pretty good job at the human intelligence end, although I think the Russians did a far better job at that. On the other hand, the civilian administrations that have asked the CIA to do some really stupid things and the CIA has been stupid enough to go ahead and do it. The blazing city on the horizon is Baghdad and we’re the ones that have set it on fire. There is great speculation as to the complicity of the CIA in this. Yes, there are some interesting biases in the film. I’m reminded of the documentary ‘The Fog of War’ which was an extended interview with James McNamara, Secretary of Defense and the architect of the war in Vietnam. He turned out to be a quiet man that was really good at math. His demeanor was a bit detached and cold. He shied away from opinion about the outcome of the war and what his feelings about it. In the on screen portrayals I’ve seen of McNamara, he shows a range of emotions and character that just doesn’t seem to be there in the real person. That’s also the case of the characters and the plot in this mini-series. A little more life-like than life. That’s television though.
There is always bias in the fictionalization of a story. The author is motivated by passions and ideologues of his or her own. In telling the story of the Cold War and the many episodes in it, there is a great deal of room for hindsight and the reflection of whether the ends justified the means. The Cold War was something that I was born into and grew up in. It was pointed out to me several years ago that we were somehow traumatized by the notion that we lived in a world where nuclear holocaust was only 30 minutes away. I had never thought of it that way. Even in my years on board ship, having the opportunity to see actual nuclear weapons, it never occurred to me that we might actually use them. It really was a cold war. Lots of posturing and small international incidents. The screenwriters held out the characters as real and committed to defending the US but as the program drew to a close and the characters toward the end of their careers, they seemed to grow despondent and cynical about the things they did in the name of God and country. The betrayal and the lies seemed to create a black hole from which those that entered could not return. It is true that the deeper that you go into that world the less likely you are to understand your place in it. Down the rabbit hole. I know that the story of the CIA is far more complicated than the story portrayed in the show; there was the conspicuous absence of anything involving Afghanistan even though this was pivotal in the waning years of the Soviet Empire. The miniseries ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the defection of many members of the KGB. An older and wiser Chris O’Donnell visits Russia to track down his best friend and Soviet agent to kill him for his betrayal of his trust, friendship and country. The characters describe how everything seemed so defined during the Cold War. Right and wrong, good and evil. Choose a side and offer your life to defend it in some bizarre presciption of proxy wars, assassination and espionage where winning is defined as making fewer mistakes than the other guys. It’s a romantic and nostalgic view of a world that was far more gray than black and white. Where the Soviets a threat to our way of life? Yes, there was a clear and present danger and we fought the good fight but there were many incidents that were clearly mistakes; Bay of Pigs, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, most of the civil wars fought in South America since the end of WWII, the CIA training and arming Muslim extremists during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban after the collapse of the Soviet Empire and while I don’t have the evidence I’m sure we had a hand in the horror that occurred in the former Yugoslavia.
The triumph of capitalism over communism. The spread of democracy and the freedom of peoples all over the world. Communism has been relegated to the dustbin of history along with all the other failed isms that have tried to supplant our dominance on the worlds stage. I look around at the world we live in and question exactly what we’ve won. The individual over the state. That is, we create a system where by the individual is empowered and free to face the world and the challenges it presents. To start as nothing and rise to the pinnacles of power. This is the dream of America for the world and look how we go about it. Look how smart we are. Globalism. In my real job as a service technician, I travel from factory to factory observing the lives of the people and the products they manufacture. Recently I was assigned the job of evaluating a machine that was to be sold in the liquidation of assets of a bankrupt manufacturing company. The address was up north, one of those cornfield industrial parks that the developers can roll out cheap and quick. If you build it they shall come. And they do. The banks roll out the cash for the buildings and then for the equipment that’ll fill these concrete caves. Then bring in the workers. They’re mostly small family owned businesses that have picked up a sweetheart contract and then bust their ass to build a client base around this handout start. The owners try to keep a smaller shop and try to treat they’re people right but then it always gets tight or the owner gets flat greedy and the company grows. The payroll gets a little larger and those that worked so hard to get this company off the ground are often left behind as they watch the owners and a well chosen few receive the lion’s share of the spoils. And this is as it should be. Those that risk the most stands to gain the most in success and loose the most in failure. Typically that is hardly how it works out. There is always an atmosphere in these shops; no unions, government regulation co-opted by an incestuous local and county government and a banking system bent on maximizing profit at all costs. People are a commodity in this world; bought and sold, used, then used up. It’s palatable in these places, a feeling of the owners and the owned. And when the bottom falls out and the company collapses, the owners and all the parasites seem to get out with their skin. But the employees usually get screwed. Strip and flip, bankruptcy, mergers, acquisition, pension under funding, cancellation of retirement benefits. They can’t pay you the money they promised and guaranteed in writing because they need more money than they have. And the needs of the owners are always more pressing the needs of the owned. The triumph of the individual over the state and the responsibilities inherent in the operation of a business involving more than one person. Is it fair? No, but life isn’t fair. Never thought it was, but is this just? According to recent trends, yes.
And what of the bankrupt company that was selling off its assets. The day was bright and sunny and I’m out in the country but the concrete boxes that dot the landscape trigger a distaste. I find the building and pull into the parking lot. The banker with the keys to the shop is talking with a Hispanic semi-driver in the parking lot. The banker seems flustered and the truck driver confused. He’s on his cell and there’s another guy coming out of the front door of the shop. He looks a lot like one of those owners I described above. Two cars in the lot; Mercedes and a Cadillac SST. The owner-type heads towards the SST and pauses for the banker torn between the driver and this guy who can write checks but the owner-type waves and says he’ll call then piles into the Caddy and drives off. I was parked and out of the car by then. The banker frowns a little as I introduce myself. I apologize and retreat towards my car, I’ll wait until you’re finished with the truck driver.
It was spooky. It was if the employees had no warning at all. End of the day Friday, the boss comes out and says don’t come back on Monday. The company is out of business.
Thanks for coming.
There is always bias in the fictionalization of a story. The author is motivated by passions and ideologues of his or her own. In telling the story of the Cold War and the many episodes in it, there is a great deal of room for hindsight and the reflection of whether the ends justified the means. The Cold War was something that I was born into and grew up in. It was pointed out to me several years ago that we were somehow traumatized by the notion that we lived in a world where nuclear holocaust was only 30 minutes away. I had never thought of it that way. Even in my years on board ship, having the opportunity to see actual nuclear weapons, it never occurred to me that we might actually use them. It really was a cold war. Lots of posturing and small international incidents. The screenwriters held out the characters as real and committed to defending the US but as the program drew to a close and the characters toward the end of their careers, they seemed to grow despondent and cynical about the things they did in the name of God and country. The betrayal and the lies seemed to create a black hole from which those that entered could not return. It is true that the deeper that you go into that world the less likely you are to understand your place in it. Down the rabbit hole. I know that the story of the CIA is far more complicated than the story portrayed in the show; there was the conspicuous absence of anything involving Afghanistan even though this was pivotal in the waning years of the Soviet Empire. The miniseries ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the defection of many members of the KGB. An older and wiser Chris O’Donnell visits Russia to track down his best friend and Soviet agent to kill him for his betrayal of his trust, friendship and country. The characters describe how everything seemed so defined during the Cold War. Right and wrong, good and evil. Choose a side and offer your life to defend it in some bizarre presciption of proxy wars, assassination and espionage where winning is defined as making fewer mistakes than the other guys. It’s a romantic and nostalgic view of a world that was far more gray than black and white. Where the Soviets a threat to our way of life? Yes, there was a clear and present danger and we fought the good fight but there were many incidents that were clearly mistakes; Bay of Pigs, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, most of the civil wars fought in South America since the end of WWII, the CIA training and arming Muslim extremists during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban after the collapse of the Soviet Empire and while I don’t have the evidence I’m sure we had a hand in the horror that occurred in the former Yugoslavia.
The triumph of capitalism over communism. The spread of democracy and the freedom of peoples all over the world. Communism has been relegated to the dustbin of history along with all the other failed isms that have tried to supplant our dominance on the worlds stage. I look around at the world we live in and question exactly what we’ve won. The individual over the state. That is, we create a system where by the individual is empowered and free to face the world and the challenges it presents. To start as nothing and rise to the pinnacles of power. This is the dream of America for the world and look how we go about it. Look how smart we are. Globalism. In my real job as a service technician, I travel from factory to factory observing the lives of the people and the products they manufacture. Recently I was assigned the job of evaluating a machine that was to be sold in the liquidation of assets of a bankrupt manufacturing company. The address was up north, one of those cornfield industrial parks that the developers can roll out cheap and quick. If you build it they shall come. And they do. The banks roll out the cash for the buildings and then for the equipment that’ll fill these concrete caves. Then bring in the workers. They’re mostly small family owned businesses that have picked up a sweetheart contract and then bust their ass to build a client base around this handout start. The owners try to keep a smaller shop and try to treat they’re people right but then it always gets tight or the owner gets flat greedy and the company grows. The payroll gets a little larger and those that worked so hard to get this company off the ground are often left behind as they watch the owners and a well chosen few receive the lion’s share of the spoils. And this is as it should be. Those that risk the most stands to gain the most in success and loose the most in failure. Typically that is hardly how it works out. There is always an atmosphere in these shops; no unions, government regulation co-opted by an incestuous local and county government and a banking system bent on maximizing profit at all costs. People are a commodity in this world; bought and sold, used, then used up. It’s palatable in these places, a feeling of the owners and the owned. And when the bottom falls out and the company collapses, the owners and all the parasites seem to get out with their skin. But the employees usually get screwed. Strip and flip, bankruptcy, mergers, acquisition, pension under funding, cancellation of retirement benefits. They can’t pay you the money they promised and guaranteed in writing because they need more money than they have. And the needs of the owners are always more pressing the needs of the owned. The triumph of the individual over the state and the responsibilities inherent in the operation of a business involving more than one person. Is it fair? No, but life isn’t fair. Never thought it was, but is this just? According to recent trends, yes.
And what of the bankrupt company that was selling off its assets. The day was bright and sunny and I’m out in the country but the concrete boxes that dot the landscape trigger a distaste. I find the building and pull into the parking lot. The banker with the keys to the shop is talking with a Hispanic semi-driver in the parking lot. The banker seems flustered and the truck driver confused. He’s on his cell and there’s another guy coming out of the front door of the shop. He looks a lot like one of those owners I described above. Two cars in the lot; Mercedes and a Cadillac SST. The owner-type heads towards the SST and pauses for the banker torn between the driver and this guy who can write checks but the owner-type waves and says he’ll call then piles into the Caddy and drives off. I was parked and out of the car by then. The banker frowns a little as I introduce myself. I apologize and retreat towards my car, I’ll wait until you’re finished with the truck driver.
It was spooky. It was if the employees had no warning at all. End of the day Friday, the boss comes out and says don’t come back on Monday. The company is out of business.
Thanks for coming.