Street Smart Science

 

"We can't all be Einstein (because we don't all play the violin). At the very least, we need a sort of street-smart science: the ability to recognize evidence, gather it, assess it, and act on it."

-- Judith Stone

"We can't all be Einstein (because we don't all play the violin). At the very least, we need a sort of street-smart science: the ability to recognize evidence, gather it, assess it, and act on it." When I used this quote in a recent post, I was taken by how it defined the Military Intelligence field.  But, digging deeper, it also defined how I came to have two careers that spanned almost 40 years of my life.

I am not a brainiac, not by any definition.  I barely graduated from high school. Why? I've asked myself this question often.  The best answer I've come up with is that school, in general, simply held no interest to me.  Teaching myself the geographic coordinate system, necessary for plotting "bigfoot" sightings in North America was a snap, but I wanted to learn it.  Choosing the major of Psychology was necessary to understand deviant behavior and to mess with people's heads.  Theoretical physics was necessary to understand space and time, faster than light travel, wormholes, and the UFO/UAP subject.  Religions, spiritual beliefs, and philosophy were necessary to understand life, universal law, and what comes next.  I eat this stuff up, to the extent I need it, then I move on.  I am, for better or worse, a jack of all trades and a master of none - Military Intelligence.

A few of the Intelligence personnel were invited to attend when the British Navy came to the USAF Survival School to assist in training resistance and interrogation techniques.  The obvious question was thrown out there: How would you get information from a POW necessary to save allied troops?  As a student of deviant behavior I, of course, threw up my hand.  

Show the prisoner a plastic knife from any fast food joint, and threaten to peel off his face with it.  The British Lt Commander smiled and told the class my example was just a threat.  I smiled back, cocked an eyebrow, and responded, "Until you do actually do it."  That statement set him back a bit.  It sounds horrific.  It is also illegal.  But, ask yourself, as your face starts to separate from your skull with the use of a dull butter knife, how far do you think you'll get before the unbearable pain makes you spill everything I want to know?  

Pain is a hell of an incentive.  Living without a face is worse.  The fact that I might not go completely through with it?  Well, it's simply psychological warfare.  Not all of us can peel off someone's face, any more than all of us can play the violin.  And, there is a special place in hell for those who even contemplate peeling faces.  Patriotism is a demanding mistress.

During my air force career, I  managed many airmen that other supervisors thought were destined to cross-train into other careers because they weren't the sharpest tools in the Air Force shed.  I recognized a lot of me in these "supposed" losers.  They were dull as a fox.  They weren't stupid, they just weren't being challenged.  When they failed others, they were reprimanded.  When they failed me, they were told to critique why they failed and try again and again until they succeed.  I explained the mission.  I put them in charge of their career.  Training, like an interrogation, is all about earning respect.

Respect your fellow personnel, but make sure you're "smarter" than they are.  Always strive to be smarter than the people around you.  You don't have to be faster than the enemy chasing you, you just have to be faster than the other prisoners that escaped with you.

I'm still not a very intelligent person, but I have retired from two careers that I absolutely loved, and I never lost a person assigned to me because other people thought they couldn't do the job. I figure I'm pretty well representative of "street smart" science.

By the way, in all the years of military service after the interrogation and resistance training with the Brits, even when I was the NCOIC of the Wing Intelligence Division, nobody ever asked why I always kept a plastic fast-food knife in the pencil cup on my desk.  Memories.  Go figure.

“Why do smart people exist, if not to figure out convoluted problems?”

-- Mikhail Bulgakov

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with the United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and, finally, a senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Western Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research.

Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteered as the lead chaplain at a regional medical center.

Feel free to contact Pastor Tony:  tolerantpastor@gmail.com