07.16.12
Led with his head
From the wire, on one of the many gurus of the Culture of Lickspittle:
Stephen R. Covey, author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” as well as three other books that have all sold more than a million copies, has died. He was 79.
In a statement sent to employees of a Utah consulting firm Covey co-founded, his family said the writer and motivational speaker died at a hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho, early Monday due to complications from a bicycle accident in April …
Covey was hospitalized after being knocked unconscious in the bicycle accident on a steep road in the foothills of Provo, Utah, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.
At the time, his publicist, Debra Lund, said doctors had not found any signs of long-term damage to his head.
Of minor interest to this blog because of his book’s alleged importance to the yearly thing called Keystone Boys State in Pennsy.
Keystone Boys State, one of the bane’s of DD’s existence long before he was DD, was originally dealt with here. (Click the link in graph before this one — ha-ha. Imagine how vexing it must be!)
In part, it reads:
Yes, one thinks learning to suck up, march in formation and follow pointless orders does teach something about life but one ought not to ask teenage kids to give up a week of summer to learn it. The current website seems to indicate Keystone Boys State is big with those junior ROTC operations which haven’t yet been run off public high school properties.
“The effort to get everyone involved at [KBS] manifests itself by having every ‘citizen’ elected, selected, assigned or appointed to leadership positions throughout the week. Each citizen also is provided with text materials based on organizational science and personal development exercises. Much of what we do is a spin-off of the Stephen Covey text, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective [People],” the boys camp proclaims.
“All citizens should become familiar with parliamentary procedures, ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’ and Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – NOW ! ! !”
“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” wasn’t required reading when DD attended Keystone Boys State, probably because it hadn’t yet been written.
It is another in a long line of publications from the self-help industry, filled with the kinds of slogans and advice people used to following orders and doing pointless institutional or corporate busy work for work’s sake think will help them improve their attitude so they can earn a quick million dollars, get promoted and exit the logjam of daily life.
“[Endless work] may be necessitated by constantly raising your sights,” writes Barbara Ehrenreich in “Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America.” “If you are satisfied with your current condition, you need to ‘sharpen the saw,’ in self-help writer Stephen Covey’s words, and admit you could be doing better.”
