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Two young birds were talking one day. The eagle asked the turkey why she stayed so close to all the other turkeys and never ventured out on her own.
The young turkey gobbled back, "I'm very happy doing what everyone else does. And besides, there are rules and regulations which state that turkeys should never go beyond the fence rows."
The eagle chortled and proudly affirmed, "That kind of existence would really bore me!" He prized his ability to fly high above the fence rows in free flight. To him that independence was the ultimate trip.
The eagle related how his parents had valued their own freedom and had shown him how to respect the power of his mind and the shape of his wings. "All problems have understandable causes and even relationship conflicts can be negotiated successfully," he cheerfully proclaimed. "Especially, if they are analyzed in win-win contexts of mutual respect!" he added with a flourish.
The turkey looked at the precocious eagle in bewilderment. She had listened to his proposal for more than ten minutes and was becoming impatient with his flamboyant behavior. "We are safe and secure here," she thought to herself. "Why spoil my routine?"
"There is tasty grain to eat and clean water to sip. Everything is okay, isn't it?" she questioned herself as she displayed her plumage and did the turkey trot.
In response to her cute gesture, the gallant eagle strutted about and fluttered his fine feathers. He wanted to take off with his new friend together to discover the joyful delights beyond the horizon.
But his thoughts were interrupted when she invited him to meet the flock instead. After the eagle was introduced to the flock, the turkey leader began to explain the importance of protocol and the venerable chain-of-command.
"My fine feathered friend, it's just not proper for you to get the idea that you can fly into the Turkey Pen whenever you please!" she dogmatically gobbled. "We cannot allow this departure from acceptable behavior. It is too upsetting for the young poults who need strict discipline as they learn the official rules," the pompous old hen warned the eagle.
All the old geezers in the flock simultaneously shook their wattles and took turns scratching her back as the old hen continued to explain her birdbrained view of life.
"Birds of a feather must always flock together! We want to maintain the status quo in order to keep order and to avoid aggravation," she solemnly declared. "Order is essential for a happy flock. You must obey!" she exclaimed.
"Order is based upon OBEDIENCE to the rules and regulations in the Turkey Pen. Otherwise, if you don't flock together, you will be INSUBORDINATE!" the grumpy old turkey leader warned the flock.
(Click on the picture to see why the old turkey leader felt that way)
The dictatorial attitude of the flock leader irritated the enlightened eagle who began to feel uncomfortable as he listened to the bureaucratic nonsense.
Then, as the eagle backed away from the center of the flock, he accidently bumped into an aging turkey whose yellowish-gray color differentiated him from the rest of the birds. He listened as Uncle Tom Turkey began mumbling.
The eagle was offended by the intimidating verbal threats
and the simple-minded brainwashing of the wrinkled old hen.
"THAT'S FOR THE BIRDS!" the eagle quipped.
(Click on the picture to see why the young eagle felt that way)
(See the End Note for the symbolic meaning of Uncle Tom) Uncle Tom's language was difficult to interpret but his wimpish voice and haggard expression created a vivid picture of the cowardly dysfunctional life in the Turkey Pen.
Tom had lived his youth on a different kind of farm where turkeys had been permitted to walk and fly from acre to acre doing whatever they wanted on their free range. After he was sold to this new owner and transported to this commercialized corporate turkey coop, Tom had hoped to share his good feelings about himself and his past with his new pen pals.
But soon after he had arrived at the factory farm --- before he could fully explain his own philosophy of life to his new comrades, he was promoted to a middle management position. He was appointed cold turkey to supervise the fledglings and was not permitted to fraternize with them, he disclosed to the eagle.
Uncle Tom had thought that his swift upward mobility was due to his good personality and high moral standards. At the beginning he was very proud of his position of influence. Initially, he thought of his promotion as a feather in his cap. At first, he had been proud of his new role and had even taken some poults under his wing to protect them.
But, unfortunately, his high rank brought with it a lot of stressful turmoil. In his new position as a supervisor, Tom had been forced to kiss up to his bosses and scratch their back feathers. And he had to cover his own tail feathers in order to protect himself and please his superiors. As one of the official overseers, Tom had to maintain a constant vigil over his young subordinates to ensure that they obeyed the rules. In that process, Tom had been compelled to defend many regulations which he did not like. He was forced to enforce the official pecking order no matter what --- and to punish those who violated the rules.
Tom could not wing it and let the young turkeys take risks and learn from their mistakes. He was afraid that he would be condemned by his bosses. The ultimate punishment for disobedient turkeys was to have their eyes pecked out by the bully bureaucrats. Without eyes, they would quickly starve, since they could not see where to put their beaks to eat from the automatic grain feeding machines, Tom sadly explained.
After a brief pause to clear his throat, Tom told the eagle that he was never comfortable playing the condescending role of a middle manager. He had been both a superior boss to the young and an inferior subordinate to his boss. It had been drilled into him that it was his duty to suppress optimism and inhibit creativity among the young, especially when they were pursuing unorthodox independent radical behavior.
Sometimes he even had to intimidate the adolescent upstarts and scold them in order to get them to cooperate. In the beginning Tom rationalized his own dictatorial and often patronizing behavior toward the young turkeys by remembering that it was far easier to control them that way. Instead of feeling happy, however, about his career as a supervisor, he now felt more guilt for having pulled rank so many times to quash the spontaneity and creativity of the juveniles.
After many years of painful regret, Tom's sensibilities had been dulled by the official hypocritical training program. He now realized that he had been co-opted by his superiors and had sold out his positive values and his youthful optimistic belief in self-determination. Tom's pathetic sad legacy was that he had feathered his own nest at the expense of the young whom he had repeatedly stifled.
The eagle was surprised to see how well the mean-spirited militant leadership psychology of the old turkeys was working and just how much featherbedding was officially sanctioned. The effectiveness of the official policies and the official propaganda of the old turkeys stunned the young eagle. He could see that Tom had unwittingly absorbed the cynical values and the brutal manipulation tactics of his superiors. Tom had been duped into being a doofus and now was unable to break free.
As the eagle pondered Uncle Tom's revelations about the ruthless bureaucratic policies of the old turkey leaders, he could see that Tom had been henpecked beyond rehabilitation. The official bureaucratic indoctrination of self suppression and victimization, based on the idea of original sin, had unfortunately kept Uncle Tom and the young turkeys dependent on the whims of the old tyrants. Uncle Tom had become an enabler, and the young turkeys were acting more chicken than turkey, scared to deviate from the norm.
Just then the beguiling oratory of the old flock leader caught the eagle's attention once again. The pretentious old hen was gesticulating erratically as she theatrically pontificated further: "Our flock can be compared to a giant tree that is rooted in the past," she gobbled loudly. In spite of all the dead wood in its main branches, it continues to flourish --- except just before Thanksgiving Day each year --- when most of our best young turkeys disappear," she gasped faintheartedly.
The old shaky hen's shrill voice wavered as her body quivered back and forth. But finally she regained her composure and contemptuously strutted around the young eagle. "Nevertheless," she strongly insisted, "we must resist all attempts at reform so we can stay in control!"
The disgraceful insults and elitist snobbery of the obstinate old hen disgusted the eagle.
"We truly are the beneficiaries of the bureaucratic system," the arrogant old turkey leader boasted. "We can't afford to change! We lifers who remain --- we continue to be fed by the farmer --- and we continue to breed --- and we continue to obey the rules," the cocky old fart self righteously squawked.
(Click on the image to see why the turkey leader felt that way)
Suddenly, he discovered the fatal flaw in the leadership theory of the old turkeys. Even though the farmer had disabled the turkeys by clipping their wings when they were younger, thereby crippling them so they could not fly anywhere anymore, it was the authoritarian hierarchical management structure of the old power freaks in the Turkey Pen that continued to compel the young turkeys to comply.
The young turkeys were, therefore, vulnerable to the entrenched bureaucratic policies of the arrogant old turkey leaders. This ancient administrative political scheme was like a vice crushing their tiny bird brains. It had forced them into total submission and had made them obedient and compliant to the mystical greater "higher power" of bureaucratic leadership. Since they had not learned creative coping improvisation skills from their leaders, they had extremely low self-esteem and no self-worth.
The eagle felt sorry for the young turkeys, and also Uncle Tom, when he realized just how inert their little bird brains had become. Now the eagle knew why the turkeys were spending so much time scratching around in little vicious circles hunting for scraps and some semblance of nature. They were humiliated and afraid of reprisals from their superiors in the pecking order. Since the flock had been shamed into obedience, all the young turkeys were powerless to protest.
Tragically, the eagle could see that the systematic victimization of old Tom and the young turkeys had made them depressed and even delusional with no ambition to excel. All the turkeys appeared to be permanently stuck in the Turkey Pen in a perpetual cycle of self-deprecation, oblivious of their captivity with no exit except oblivion.
The eagle's vantage point as an outsider gave him the perspective necessary to realize that the systematic scolding and brainwashing by supervisors had taught the young turkeys to fear growing up. They were afraid to make waves and to rock the bureaucratic boat, which was afloat in a sea of frustration and awash in an ocean of self-imposed limitations. They were always covering their own tail feathers because they were afraid of retribution, fearful that they would become the target of further humiliation and abuse.
The official irrational policies of their superiors had kept the young turkeys ignorant of their evolutionary heritage. Because the young turkeys were not free to think for themselves, they could not see how well their passivity fit into the busy farmer's "Grade A" marketing plan. They could not comprehend how easily the old turkeys controlled them with lies about their self-esteem and social intelligence. They were demoralized and helpless to change their hapless fate.
The fair minded eagle saw with his eagle eye the immense inequity in the Turkey Pen. He could no longer tolerate the flagrant abuse of the younger turkeys by the older turkeys. Since he rejected the unethical and irrational hypocritical bureaucratic rules and regulations prevalent in the Turkey Pen, the eagle screeched back at the downtrodden pathetic flock whom he believed had all been turned into cowards:
"That sounds like BUREAUCRATIC GOBBLEDYGOOK! It's bird dung! What wasted potential!" shouted the feisty eagle. "What foul fowl! What feckless farts! Your Leaders Suck!" the outraged eagle blurted out.
(Click on the picture to see why the eagle felt that way) With a mighty flap of his powerful wings, the wise eagle leaped into the air and headed for the stars. Soon he was flying high enough to have a bird's eye view of the Turkey Pen. From his perspective high in the sky, the sagacious young eagle could see clearly that the Turkey Pen was only a small speck of the real world.
When the courageous eagle swooped and glided, he was thrilled that his own knowledge and values gave him a bigger and better picture of life than the one the young turkeys had been brainwashed into accepting in the Turkey Pen. As the happy eagle soared in the warm thermal currents high above the Turkey Pen, his positive perception of himself and his true environment caused an ecstatic rush of endorphins to his brain that quickly spread throughout his strong body.
As he realized the truth about the dysfunctional Turkey Pen, he felt empowered to do an acrobatic flip as he circled the Turkey Pen one last time and made a graceful flyover before heading for friendlier skies. He was so glad to be flying away from the Turkey Pen and the wasted lives of the young turkeys. The smart eagle realized that all official rules and regulations that are unethical are, therefore, fraudulent. He emphatically affirmed to himself that being emotionally free to think for himself was far superior to the sophistry and hypocrisy that Uncle Tom and the old turkey leaders had to endure:
"All unquestioned BUREAUCRATIC rules and regulations, which are NOT open to rational analysis and democratic logic, and are NOT open to negotiated changes, must be challenged and transformed at all costs!" the passionate eagle boldly concluded.
(Click on the image to see why the young eagle is so outraged by irrational rules) Deep inside his consciousness, the fair-minded eagle knew that unquestioned rules and regulations imposed by unaccountable faceless bureaucrats were shamefully immoral and fraudulent.
The skeptical eagle concluded that all dysfunctional rules and regulations should be challenged and transformed for the sake of the future. He was suspicious of all superficial bureaucratic rules and regulations not in tune with reality or which did not have provisions for meaningful change. The bold eagle's commitment to the quest for lasting survival skills and scientific truths gave him the willpower to create his own career destiny.
The eagle was proud of his top flight family values. His ethical assumptions about his own ability to create goodness in the world motivated him to be resourceful and to resist and overcome the kind of corrupt bureaucratic policies and practices that had resulted in the gobbledygook cliches and rituals that squelched free inquiry and creative results in the Turkey Pen.
As the courageous eagle climbed in the pure blue sky in his straight ahead flight, he was gleefully happy as he remembered the key to successful flying. His parents had taught him that he must never let problems destroy his willingness to survive and to solve them, no matter how depressing or traumatic they were. The robust young eagle had been taught that his self-esteem depended upon how well he managed his habits and how much he respected himself. He knew it was his own personal values and fearless choices that gave him the optimism to survive and the enthusiasm to adapt to the continuously changing natural environment.
The bright young eagle was pleased by his self-awareness of the awesome power of his own reality. As he considered his positive options, the grateful young eagle reminded himself that it was his own ethical perspective that permitted him to live in the present and to honor life itself. He knew deep inside his creative mind that it was his own mindset of healthy habits and his vigilant approach to everything around him that made it possible for him to fly freely into the future!
MORAL: BE LIKE THE EAGLE AND FLY or
BE A TURKEY AND ROAST
(Click on the eagle image to see why a winner must focus for success)
Copyright © Pending
END NOTE
The hope symbolized in the Flying Eagle Allegory is that individuals everywhere, but especially subordinate employees of large organizations, in both business and government, can assert themselves in creative ways to fulfill their personal or professional career goals without defrauding their friends or colleagues and without deceiving their customers.
I have used the classic stereotypical image of "Uncle Tom" as a co-opted African-American person to apply to my career as a professional librarian in one of the world's largest County Public Library departments with more than 700 full-time employees and an enormous multimillion dollar budget -- in a colorless way. I have experienced employment discrimination in an entrenched bureaucratic caste system caused by rigid gender biases and socioeconomic prejudices that appear to favor loose job descriptions so Affirmative Action appointments and promotions can be justified with maximum feasible deniability of wrong doing by top county administrators.
When Affirmative Action quotas are combined with official ancient bureaucratic policies and practices, they inhibit the empowerment of the majority of full-time subordinate employees since they act as invisible barriers to the career advancement of many qualified professional library staff. They can be thought of as "bureaucratic barriers" to career success.
The metaphorical Flying Eagle Allegory represents a rigid bureaucracy at its worst where the mental chains of mean-spirited policy constraints have been wrapped around the precious brains of subordinate employees. The drama symbolizes the persistence of some so-called "leaders" of large government and business organizations to continually defend brutal negative adversarial positions as a way of neglecting their accountability. Such an acronistic attitude smothers creativity and individuality in favor of conformity to bureaucratic military style command-and-control leadership practices which are psychologically dysfunctional since they are outmoded outside a theater of war!
The Flying Eagle Allegory was created to support the cause of subordinate employees in any organization. It focuses on the dysfunctional leadlership practices encountered by subordinate employees who work in rigid bureaucratic organizations. All abusive dysfunctional administrative practices should be confronted during strategic planning meetings, or at least in creative "self-talk" sessions by employees within their support networks or circles of influence.
The therapy of true communication is essential if official union or employee group negotiation options are not readily available to forestall the horrible burnout feelings which can be experienced by subordinate employees who are the victims of unregulated public and private large organizations whose leadership policies and practices are dominated by uncaring brutal top-down leadership tactics.
The main message of the Flying Eagle Allegory is that subordinate employees desperately need and deserve genuine respect and recognition in order to survive and thrive under the extremely stressful changing working conditions. The sources of excess stress include demographic changes, technological transitions, and budget reduction realities. The distressful working conditions described in the allegory can harm employee morale and basic health, since it weakens immune systems.
Nevertheless, each employee of a large organization, whether working for a profit making corporation or a not-for-profit governmental organization, can confront the administrative abuses and create a more healthy and satisfying professional workplace based on the new interdisciplinary "cognitive neuroscience" research findings related to both the structure and function of his or her brain.
The ideal purpose of the allegory is to permit dispassionate individual thinking and group dialogue about the leadership concepts and issues involved in building better relationships between top leaders and subordinate followers everywhere. The solution is to create more mutual respect for subordinate employees in the face of the extremely divisive adversarial legal tactic of using hardball negotiations, which seems to often dominate confrontations between supervisors and subordinate employees.
The ultimate professional ethical leadership question for all "working wounded" subordinate employees is:
Do you want to"FLY" like the eagle When you contemplate the answer to this question, hopefully, you will be encouraged to use the reliable coping skills presented in selected relevant information at the following link to the Brainpower Mindset Categories matrix:
for the reasons stated or
"ROAST" like the turkeys for the mistakes made?
Brainpower Mindset Categories The twelve categories of facts and ideas connect these twelve universal subjects with each other through the use of "core resource lists" and memory enhancing "mind-maps."
A new policy based upon a new understanding of professionalism and modern psychology, especially "cognitive neuroscience," is required to protect all full-time professional employees. For more humane treatment of full-time subordinate employees, the "facilitator-coach" model of leadership, which is based on the well researched "servant-leader" paradigm, should be implemented in conjunction with the assumptions of the "Emotional Intelligence" concept of leadership, which has been called primal leadership. This creative combination can provide the respect and appreciation for the outstanding performance and results that highly motivated employees can produce every day.
In addition to the new psychological brain science facts and ideas, personnel practices in large organizations should be based upon professional "principle-centered" leadership knowledge dealing with the "empowerment" of frontline employees so they can do their best work. Trust and vulnerability are two essential parts of the creative transitions employees face in the uncertain employment future. Only when the real leadership problems of the workplace are openly acknowledged and resolved can subordinate employees feel secure and safe enough to be genuinely creative and fully engaged in producing outstanding results on the job.
To conclude, the metaphor of "flying like an eagle" is the equivalent of the new "psychology of flowing." Flowing is like having fun achieving worthy goals. It is being fully engaged in an emotionally healthy life, either at home, or work or when volunteering in your community. This attitude of gratefulness because of a lifetime of significant achievements is the result of a rational ethical positive basis for integrating your personal and career goals into authentic happiness and lasting satisfaction.
Psychologically, the feeling of being happy or satisfied at home or at work ("flowing") is one of the bonuses of being an empowered person or employee. The experience of living or working with "flow" produces positive brain chemicals known as endorphin hormones. Endorphins are directly associated with high self-esteem based upon high self-respect and are known as the "pleasure hormones" which stimulate high levels of dopamine. In contrast to the healthy impact of endorphins, the harmful "stress hormones" known as cortisol and adrenaline can cause feelings of anxiety or depression when overstimulated. These hormones can make people feel weak and sickly. These brain chemicals are extremely harmful to bodily processes when experienced chronically. They produce burnout symptoms that can be devastatingly debilitating.
On the other hand, a supportive work environment can create predictably efficient and effective teamwork among employees and even result in deepened friendships as well as good customer service results. Such a happy work environment can also maximize your personal career success.
Return to Essay-Set #1: Focus on the Self-Liberation Philosophy
Go to the Brainpower Index: Interactive Index of Factual Ideas
