When a donkey senses danger, his reaction is to freeze in place and assess the situation. In most cases, he won’t move a single step until he figures out the safest action. This makes him appear stubborn, particularly if we don’t see the danger or fail to realize that a harmless object has him worried. His habit of stopping and thinking, rather than running, is one of his survival means. It’s also the characteristic that makes a donkey a trustworthy mount, especially on precarious trails. A tumbling rock, skittering snake or branch slapping in the wind makes him stop and think instead of bolting, which is what a startled horse would do. Better an ass rode than from a horse thrown, indeed.
Persuasion
A donkey who isn’t actually in a dangerous situation but thinks he is can usually be persuaded through leadership and rewards to give up and go along. But he must have prior confidence that you won’t lead him into danger. For example, a small stream that you know is safe to cross might look scary to your donkey. He might not realize it’s not deep or swift. If he won’t walk through it, get off his back and walk through the water ahead of him so he can see it’s safe. Offer him hay, carrots, apples or a nice scratch on the head for doing whatever you ask. The more he becomes aware he can trust you as a leader and that doing what you ask pleases you, he will seek the rewards of following your instructions rather than his instincts.
Experience
As a donkey has more experiences, he realizes he doesn’t need to be afraid of many things. He will ignore the tree stump, flapping plastic bag and bird taking flight that once caused him to stop in his tracks. You might think he has become less stubborn; in his own mind, he has gained the confidence to perform his job without worrying everything is out to get him. Pay close attention to your donkey’s reactions to objects and situations. Let him explore from an early age. Let him take time to think about things that bother him so he can figure them out, ultimately walking right past without hesitation.
Political ‘Hunger Games’ roils Trump’s inner circle
According to interviews with more than a dozen people on or close to the campaign, staffers are increasingly dividing themselves into competing factions aligned with Trump’s three top officials – embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who still commands deep loyalty among many of the people he hired; deputy campaign manager Michael Glassner, who has a growing group of supporters; and newly hired strategist Paul Manafort, who was elevated this week and is building his own fiefdom.
.. That stretch coincided with his daughter Ivanka Trump having a baby, which limited her availability as a trusted adviser to her father. He was even caught off guard when he appeared on a Wisconsin conservative radio show without being informed that the host Charlie Sykes was leading the state’s #NeverTrump brigade, and he lost the state by double digits a week later.
.. “I’ve got state team leaders in Indiana who’ve been furious for months … they’ve had no campaign material, no ground game, no nothing and they’re going into these states 15, 20 days before the primary and it’s just too late.”
.. The in-fighting has further damaged morale inside the campaign, said multiple staffers and former staffers. They cited slow repayment of expenses, a confrontational management culture and mass layoffs in states that have already voted.
.. But one former staffer said “nobody trusts anybody” on the campaign. The former staffer, who stays in touch with current staff, added “especially since the shakeup, people are trying to save their asses, and throw their rivals under the bus, and campaigns don’t win that way.”
Millenials: The Self-Reliant Generation
If you look at how millennials actually live, you certainly don’t see a progressive counterculture. In fact, you see what you’d expect from a generation that lived through a financial crisis, family instability and political dysfunction. You see an abstract celebration of creative transformation but a concrete hunger for order, security and stability.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millennials change jobs less frequently than people in other generations. And a study of 25,000 millennials in 22 countries by Jennifer J. Deal and Alec Levenson found that at least 40 percent expect to stay with their current employer for at least nine years. Forty-four percent said they would be happy to spend the rest of their career at their current organization.
.. Millennials have extremely low social trust. According to Pew Research, just 19 percent say most people can be trusted, compared with 40 percent of boomers.
.. Just 26 percent of millennials are married, compared with 48 percent of boomers at that age. Only 42 percent plan to have kids.
How China Wants to Rate Its Citizens
I was reminded of that grade-school experiment when, in recent weeks, I’ve read about China’s plans for a social-credit system, or S.C.S., that aims to compile a comprehensive national database out of citizens’ fiscal, government, and possibly personal information. First publicized, last year, in a planning document published by the State Council, S.C.S. was billed as “an important component part of the Socialist market-economy system,” underwriting a “harmonious Socialist society.” Its intended goals are “establishing the idea of a sincerity culture, and carrying forward sincerity and traditional virtues,” and its primary objectives are to raise “the honest mentality and credit levels of the entire society” as well as “the over-all competitiveness of the country,” and “stimulating the development of society and the progress of civilization.” Or, as it seemed to me, Stars of China, writ large.
.. The opacity of its infrastructure is disquieting. What safeguards will be put in place to prevent the database from being rigged? Will the very corruption that the social-credit system is meant to counter infect the system itself? Who will oversee the overseers of the operation? How will privacy, long under siege in contemporary China, be protected? And will punishment for political discontent be delivered through dismal credit scores? If S.C.S. becomes a mechanism of financial and social integration, it is hard to imagine how it could avoid becoming an instrument of mass surveillance.