Topic: The Revolution
On My Resignation A personal note with a few reflections on our contemporary times and Cleveland Browns’ running back Jim Brown as I repatriate back to the United States.by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
(libertarian)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Dear Reader -
For close to seven years upon my graduation from college, I have worked in the chemical engineering field for a company in the semiconductor industry. For the first half of my career, I scaled-up formulations from R&D into commercial products, troubleshot just about every product problem under the sun for our customers, and implemented substantial cost-savings projects, all at the same time. It was fun. For the past three years, I have been based in Shanghai, China, where my key responsibilities were to help build and start-up a couple manufacturing cells with brand-new equipment, transfer products into China from all over the globe, and most importantly help convince customers to qualify and purchase product from the new facility. Even in today's tough economic times, the factory doing fine due both to the nature of its products and since it is situated in the midst of all of our customers.
When I look back at everything I managed to accomplish professionally, I can't help but have a deep sense of pride and satisfaction. In a small way, I feel a bit like Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns, a hero of mine who retired at the apex of his football career at the same age, coincidentally, of 29. He was an All-Pro for all 9 seasons in which he played, and averaged 5.2 yards a carry when the opposing team knew that two times out of three he would get the ball. After leading the team to a championship in 1964, Brown was the league MVP (for his third time) and Pro Bowl MVP in his last season. He left his first profession at its top, and then started his second as an actor, where he became well known for an earthshaking love scene with Raquel Welch, since in those crazy days actors with dark pigmented skin never made love to actresses with lightly pigmented skin.
Brown grew up within sight of Georgia's Jekyll Island, where secretive bankers schemed up the Federal Reserve, and wrote at length in his autobiography Out of Bounds about his (many quite literal) battles with racism. While I have no immediate plans for acting out love scenes, I do strongly identify with breaking free while "at the top" and starting anew.
Obviously, in both cases, nothing got done by myself or by Brown himself as any true professional understands, your success is always intertwined with that of your colleagues. I do not fool myself with my intellect, and I've often had the pleasure of learning a lot from those much smarter than I. Learning from plenty of my own mistakes (or what the wise term "experience") is a harsher way to educate oneself, and much more of my success came from a tireless work ethic to accomplish the goal at any cost than I really care to admit. However, from my perceptions and interactions with friends outside my company, success is often equated with getting that MBA rubber stamp or defeating or even backstabbing So-and-So so one can "become" a manager and clamber the corporate ladder. Such a linear way of thinking is anathema to me, but to each, their own!
I love meeting new people and seeing new places, so the cultural experience of settling in China and learning to speak Mandarin was immensely pleasurable. For several years, I have had a vague but realizable career plan of living in Asia for a bit longer and then moving to, working in, and traveling about another area, preferably Europe, where I once spent time as a foreign exchange student. Later, as I loosely envisioned, I would settle down somewhere, hopefully nearer to the rest of my family in America and possibly even raise kids with a special someone.
Up until the past several months, and besides the people I worked with that made my hard work (mostly) fun, I enjoyed the fact that I was producing goods, in my case so that people's computers, cell phones, and automobiles could be built and would work. Show up in the morning and all there is a bunch of tubs, bottles, and bags of raw material, and at the end of the day a very delicate "flower" is made, so delicate that in my company's case it had to be immediately placed into a cryogenic freezer. Although I've honestly never minded rolling up my sleeves, the future job I had envisioned in five years was a plant manager or even for multiple factories. Indeed, perhaps I will return to this career track one day.
However, my perceptions of the world I am living in have changed, due in a large part to pondering many of the ideas from my "Ron Paul education" that started in late 2007. When I left the beaches of southern California for Shanghai, the one activity I missed most was surfing. However, through my travels, I slowly realize that all I did was exchange one type of wave for another. The current multi-faceted tsunami is touching the lives of every single person on the planet. The most familiar facet to this wave is economical, but in reality politics, the rule of law, the environment (in a far bigger way than most realize), sociology, psychology, cultures, religions, technology and science are all wrapped up as well.
However, the most troubling component of the wave is endless war without peace. War flourishes in periods of turmoil as sovereigns either seek to scapegoat outside parties to avoid internal pressures and/or to confiscate wealth, whether it is land, property, resources (whether Iraq's oil or Afghanistan's opium), or the products resulting from the overall oppression of a population, aka a form of modern slavery. In some ways, our modern times are no better than the last several hundred years, with the lovely exception that we know have an "Automatic Extinction Button" that always hovers near the fingers of Obama and many other leaders. I want to stress that this wave is truly praxeologic in scope, or more simply, just a consequence of the Misesian theory of Human Action. As Adam Smith also put it in his 1776 Wealth of Nations, everyone acts in their own self-interest.
One skill I developed while surfing is a sense of timing. Not that I am a pro surfer or anything like that, but there is a time to paddle like crazy, a time to spring to your feet when you catch a wave. When? Well, after a while, you just know. There is also a time to shy away from the rogue waves that offer nothing but a washing machine experience. For me, it's just time. Time to calmly dismount off this wave of credit expansion, globalization whatever you want to call it - and start paddling again. Although I am heading home to land-locked Pennsylvania, I am not going to just paddle to shore and call it a day. I am just paddling a little further out. The next wave to ride will be along soon.
Postscript - The below 1909 poem on a homecoming to America from Europe is from Henry Van Dyke's "America for Me." I think it is pretty easy to determine which of the horrendous verses I added on are mine, but I italicized them anyways. (Bald Eagle photo)
'TIS fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down Among the famous palaces and cities of renown, To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings, But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.
So it's home again, and home again, America for me! My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!
Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air; And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair; And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome; But when it comes to living there is no place like home.
I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled; I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled; But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way!
I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack: The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back. But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free, We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.
Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me! My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, In a land of peace, freedom, and prosperity, without bigotry Where the air is clean, the fields abundant, and the forests green
Asia's been kind and friendly to me, yet something is bereft; The future's too much for her, and the people are quite adrift. Though quite active, busy as bees they are, most know not why. For now I think I've had enough of Asia where most live not free. Oh, Shanghai's a crazy town, there's excitement in the air, And Bangkok's an insane asylum, with many a he-woman fair, And it's sweet to dream in Angkor Wat, or in a rain forest or two But when it comes to freedom, even my home needs some too! I've liked the Shanghai maidens fair, whether at skyscrapers or balls, I've gloried at the base of Everest, in the high passes of Nepal, I like the Singapore gardens, the scent of Hokkaido's leaves as they fall, But oh, to fight for America's freedom, before evil expands its' sway! Oh, it's time to head home, time to stand with other patriots, I took a plane eastward bound, and flew through the heavens to arrive.From here I shall not leave again without first fighting for what's right, For the freedoms of the founding fathers, and for liberty and truth.
One other note: I rarely wrote on Asia or China until quite recently (try "The Year of the Ox Arrives in China, Land of "Currency Manipulation" (PART 1/2)") while I was overseas even though the experience radically altered my perspective. For instance, the photo above is mine, taken from a Bulong minority village on the Burmese border of China where on a spur-of-the-moment detour I taught the children there English and Mandarin for a week while on vacation last year, and received some valuable lessons on life in return. I've discovered that I am just as comfortable teaching children (or living!) in a shack with dirt floors and crude benches as I was presenting projects to visiting managers, peers, or our multinational customers.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
As always, unlike the NFL, the author grants full permission to allow any accounts of, rebroadcasts, retransmissions, repostings in part or full of this article to your blog or anywhere else in order to promote the Restoration of our Republic.
Veritas numquam perit. Veritas odit moras. Veritas vincit. Truth never perishes. Truth hates delay. Truth conquers.
The views expressed in this
article are those of Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Posted By: Jahfre Fire Eater
Date: 2009-03-28 11:00:43
Back in March I was in Valley Forge on business and ended up skiing one night at a place called Spring Hill. I live within an hour of some of the best skiing in Colorado yet the first and only place I have skied this year is Spring Hill, PA. I grew up in farm country out side a very small PA town called Sayre.
Well, Knock me over with a feather! Jake comes home! :)
Welcome back Jake! Remember, if you're ever out this way we've got to go catch a few waves together... I particularly appreciated your tribute to surfing in this article. :)
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Up until the past several months, and besides the people I worked with that made my hard work (mostly) fun, I enjoyed the fact that I was producing goods, in my case so that people's computers, cell phones, and automobiles could be built and would work. Show up in the morning and all there is a bunch of tubs, bottles, and bags of raw material, and at the end of the day a very delicate "flower" is made, so delicate that in my company's case it had to be immediately placed into a cryogenic freezer. Although I've honestly never minded rolling up my sleeves, the future job I had envisioned in five years was a plant manager or even for multiple factories. Indeed, perhaps I will return to this career track one day.
'TIS fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down 