Post photo: Walk on the beach
Table of Contents
Children
Marc Zuckerberg and Elon Musk want to fight, both recently spread this via their respective social media channels. Musk was allowed to choose the location of the spectacle and chose Las Vegas for it.
Both are very successful business people who grew up under very ideal conditions for themselves, namely the western world, and were able to devote themselves fully and exclusively to their own careers. Meanwhile, others did the "dirty work" of building, protecting and maintaining both democracy and the market economy.
May success be granted to these gentlemen. But can't they just keep celebrating their successes in the lap of luxury while secretly dreaming of a US presidency where they, as Superman, rule over their entourage?
What they are now announcing almost simultaneously is the product of naughty boys who neither have a legal guardian nor a neighbor's children pulled their pants down, nor do they have the size or even the humility to use all their wealth to make a meaningful contribution to society, to whom they ultimately owe everything they have achieved so far.
So it is to be hoped that neither of them will make a career with the Republicans and that they, like most other billionaires, would like to buy their salvation through supposed donations and charities shortly before their own death. They don't bring our society any further, but they send different signals than a high-profile fight, from which both of them will certainly make money.
Ultimately, however, we must all ask ourselves what have we made of our society? And those who have so far only distinguished themselves by deserting and shirking should first listen to what we citizens have to say before they want to dominate the all-needed debate again.
conversations
Although I'm a little busier than usual this week, there have been one or two very good conversations in the last few days, unfortunately all without coffee. I was particularly pleased when one of the people I spoke to stopped by in the evening and brought me up to date on our common passion. I'll be in Karlsruhe this evening because the EUROPA-UNION district association there is celebrating its anniversary. Unfortunately, I won't be able to meet all the interview requests this week. I hope to be up to date again next week. Who knows, maybe it will work out again with the coffee for a conversation.
And then perhaps a telephone that is not only important to me will work on the other side of the world, which would make a lot of things easier for everyone involved.
Moltke
For years I not only read his books and writings, some of the best of which were probably written by his officers, but also collected them. One of my readers recently drew my attention to a book in which Moltke, among others, prominently features, and asked me for my opinion. For a few years it seems to have become somewhat more popular, at least in the world of consultants, to quote proven and quite competent officers. But probably only because some consultants think that they can use it to stand out from the much too large pack.
And so it happens - which was actually to be feared - that the less witty consultants and authors not only misquote Moltke, but do not even understand it.
Today I read this renowned consultant's book ("management classic") and found to my delight that the author (2021 [2011]: 92) reproduced Moltke's most quoted words in English, but still correctly. This is even very important to him, because towards the end of the book (2021 [2011]: 262) he writes in a note that it is precisely this quote that is often misquoted. Which makes the whole thing a bit funny, since at the beginning of the book he lets a colleague have his say with the said false quote.
The whole thing becomes tragic when, immediately after Moltke's correct quote, the author comments accordingly, which clearly proves that he Helmuth von Moltke could not have understood at all, and certainly not this quote!
Which in turn allows conclusions as to why so many misquote Moltke. Because as you can see or read more and more often, this is enough to build entire careers. And since the author also pages long Carl von Clausewitz performs, it could only become a bestseller.
I refrain from naming the author and just throw his book in the dustbin. Both he and the book do not deserve further mention here on the blog.
