Imperialism-It’s both an action and an attitude. I think it’s common to first think about the Imperialist policies towards the African continent in the 18th and 19th century. Likewise I think that it’s easy to regard the word “imperialism” as an action or attitude of the past because it’s taught in history classes. When I think of the word imperialism I perhaps over simplify it by equating it to words like rape, pillage, burn, destroy, control, and dominate, but mostly in an economic sense.

While we may or may not be deriving monetary gain directly through oil or other exports out of the countries that we are occupying, there certainly are beneficiaries of economic gain indirectly from our presence there. Likewise we are seeking to dominate the region with a military presence and through political dominance of governments that we have helped to install. These governments have limited power and influence in the region and are currently only kept in place through our military presence.

Imperialism as an attitude can be described as a belief that one nation (or group of nations)  is inherently better than another. When I  consider how the U.S. and many “Western” nations view and interact with the Central Asia I do see an imperialist attitude represented. This is evidenced by our now prolonged military presence and past interactions with Central Asian countries. Through a “Western” military coup of Eastern nations we have taken down regimes and instated governments dependent upon either the pocket book, or military strength of “Western” nations. By what authority was this done if not by our own? Through our actions we have demonstrated an attitude of superiority. By violating sovereignty we have, through our actions, demonstrated our belief that our authority supersedes the authority of another nation.

How I act towards you can greatly determine how you respond to me. If I were to attempt to punch you in the face would you offer to buy me lunch? Most likely you wouldn’t. You would have first a defensive posture attempting to stop my punch and a counter response, perhaps of an offensive nature. Likewise our imperialist attitude in Central Asia demonstrated by our actions are likely to breed an offensive response back towards us.

There are many questions that are raised as a result of historical and current practices towards other nations. How should we learn from our past actions and attitudes towards other nations? What should we expect to happen as a result of historical and past actions towards other countries? How can we as citizens of an imperialist society act to repair the damage that our society has created? Should we? These and many more questions.

Not just meeting but exceeding a lofty goal before the year was even half over? Imagine that. Why had I not been this aggressive last year, I wondered. Rather than simply thinking I blurted out, maybe I have a fear of success? and thus began a discussion that finally resulted in this post to you, reader person. Is it possible to have an internal fear of success that debilitates you in an unconscious way?

Curious as to the potential for such a wacky idea of “fear of failure” I did a little searching and came across this short test and an accompanying article discussing just that. In the article the authors, Ann B Fisher & Joyce Davis wrote:

“maybe you haven’t made any obvious blunders, but you haven’t been doing your best work for quite a while now, and you don’t know why.”

While my work quality has been high I certainly wasn’t too aggressive in landing jobs. Is it even possible that I, the seeming over achiever could have a fear of failure?

After some consideration of the preposterous idea of fear (after all I am a testosterone filled guy…fear is not an option right?) I actually stumbled into another theory.  Again I blurted out “Maybe I just need a boost in my confidence?”. Great, now I’m considering the potential of having a low self esteem. On top of that my business partner thinks I’m a little wacko for even talking about it. Good thing I am already married, I’d never land a date with that attitude…

In the same article Brian Schwartz, a psychologist is quoted as saying

“People will only achieve the level of success that their image of themselves can absorb”

, oh boy, there it was. I could be suffering from a poor self image! Even now I glance down at my slightly distended belly and think “I need to loose some weight and buy a 69′ Mustang”.

So what is it then? do I have fear of failure, a lack of confidence, or a poor self image? I’d like to think that I don’t have any of the three, then again it does seem to be possible and you may never know it. I also know that even if I do have a fear of failure I’m not going to show it, no, no, no, that would be showing weakness.

What a losing combination too. If I had a fear of success, lack of confidence, a poor self image, and openly showed weakness what would people think?

Have you ever tried keeping a journal, or a blog? I’ve done so many times. The one thing that I’ve always done is start a blog with a point. Without fail I get somewhat bored with the topic or niche and the blog just slowly fades away. It fades away because the topic is niche, it’s always been limited to a niche, there wasn’t room for anything else. Every time I wanted to write about something that I was interested in it just wouldn’t fit. You can’t just post about anything on a niche site, there’s no context, people need context.

I suppose I just haven’t been able to mix one interest with another. It hasn’t seemed right to mix a topic of photography with marketing, the topics are just too far apart. Not this blog though, I’m going to write about whatever I want to, yes sir.

I spilled coffee in the header from the start (is it still there?). This isn’t going to be a picture perfect place. It’s not going to be a lame attempt at perfection. It’s simply a place to blog about whatever it is that interests me at the time. Feel free to visit, comment, whatever, glad you stopped by.