War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds
Meet Your Host, Alan Weiss
Alan Weiss is one of those rare people who can say he is a consultant, speaker, and author and mean it.
His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times Corporation, Toyota, and over 500 other leading organizations. He has served on several boards of directors in various capacities.
His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 60 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill) now in its 30th year and sixth edition. His newest is Your Legacy is Now: Life is not about a search for meaning but the creation of meaning (Routledge, 2021). His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into 15 languages.
Get to know AlanShow Notes
Science fiction movies proliferated in the 1950s, all with dire threats for earth, and probably accidental or deliberate metaphors for the nuclear age ushered in during 1945. The aliens were tough, but we usually won, though not always (e.g., “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”).
In 1938 Orson Welles, on his Mercury Theater radio show which was extremely popular in the New York area, broke in with a fake news story about Martians landing in the New Jersey meadowlands, which were then impenetrable swamps (and now the home of football stadiums and malls and, perhaps, Jimmy Hoffa).
It created an uproar. Police were involved and people went into hiding. By the time the hoax was exposed, many people’s lives had been turned upside down.
We’re in a sort of War of the Worlds today. There is the external, international war of aggression, theological oppression, tyrannical dictators, and non-cooperation about resources and disasters. There is also an internal war in this country (and others) about history, religion, politics, and exactly who occupies the higher moral ground. We have an inferior public education system at primary and secondary levels which we seem to think is improved by removing names such as Washington and Lincoln from the buildings.
While we were always bailed out in the fictional war of the worlds, will we be bailed out in this one? I’m afraid there is no bailout, only our own accountability to make improvements and to collaborate.
That, of course, is never a given.
Alan Weiss’s The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.
Introduction to the show recorded by Connie Dieken
