FHC #10 – World [2 pages]

Concerns of “Historical Beings”

Education, Money, Career, Membership and World

Human beings find themselves in a World of language  — ambitions, moods, explanations, intentions, distinctions, interpretations, commitments, practices and outcomes —  not of their making and in the midst of concerns much larger than themselves or their family as they go about their daily lives. 

We don’t choose our World or the concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies that exist when we marry and begin our careers. 

It is given to us.  We find ourselves in the World and then have to cope with its threats, obligations and opportunities in order to survive, adapt and live a good life.

The World is “linguistic” because when we look around the World, we see people in different cultures whose intentions, interpretations, practices and outcomes are always similar to our own at the same time they are very different. 

In school, we learn about different civilizations whose language and practices led to the existence of our own. 

And, as we move around in the World, we encounter different groups, associations and societies whose concerns and practices belong to people who focus on taking care of specific concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies different from ours.

Then, from time to time, we read about or hear about people we do not and will never know. 

Sometimes we discover they have made innovations and contributions that affect us and our family.

Sometimes they help others in situations we cannot imagine.

At other times we hear how disasters and catastrophes cause people we don’t know to die or suffer, and we worry and fret about it.  Sometimes we find ways to help.

When we are in school, we begin to learn that the World is larger than we might imagine after being raised in a small family community. 

This is when we first learn practices that enable us to learn about the World by reading about it and listening to stories about it and the infinitely large Universe in which we find ourselves. 

These practices continue into adulthood and are essential to our development as businesspeople in a global marketplace organized around the existence of computers and the internet.

The World is “historical” because it and the language and practices that produced it are always from the past. 

That is why human beings always find themselves in the World with always already existing concerns to take care of, situations to deal with, capabilities to acquire and use, and action plans to fulfill people’s fundamental and specific concerns.

The World is “existential” in both interpretations of the word.

The World is existential because it requires people to think and act in order to survive, adapt to always changing circumstances and to live a good life.

It’s existential because businesspeople find themselves forced to cope with the World in ways that are meaningful to them, or so their lives are meaningful and worthwhile from their point of view.

The World is “strategic” because knowledge of its concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies are what businesspeople use to execute their action plans, improve them and/or design fresh, new ones that are highly valued and scarce relative to demand.

The World is “competitive” because it produces criteria and standards for value that businesspeople can notice, observe and assess in order to design their own fresh, new offers, practices, narratives and strategies that are highly valued and scarce relative to demand.