My first job in the forest was marking timber. Going through a timber sale area and marking the trees that were to be harvested or not. I enjoyed the job. It was physically and mentally engaging.

My second job in the forest was to manage a timber marking crew. This was a very big jump for me as I had always been a very complacent worker bee. I liked to stay focused on what I was doing and not worry about anyone else at all. The big hurdle that I had to get over was that the measure of my work was no longer the quality of my work. The measure of my work was the quality of work the people under me were doing. Thus began a very long learning curve on how best to manage people.

What I learned – the very hard way – was that a happy worker is a productive worker. And what made a happy worker was that they were comfortable with their lives, they knew what they were doing, and they felt like they were being included in all things that included them. It is true that there are people who intentionally try to gum up the works. They spread gossip and cause disruptions which can spread through the work force like a spider web. But, most of these people are simply reacting to some other misery in their life that makes them feel insecure, or like they are not being included. Maybe an unhealthy relationship at home or such.

From my experience, one of the most common forms of disruption was from people who simply wanted to appear smart. They would lie about what they understood, act like they already knew about something new, or pretend that they were not confused about something that was normal to be confused about. Then, to cover up their own confusion, they would lie to and mislead others so it wouldn’t appear that they were not alone.

This is the point where my mind extrapolates this example to a societal level. To where the people pretending to be smart and knowledgeable have entered political office and became Generals and CEOs. Where misinformation has become the norm because the highest authorities have gained their position from hiding their confusion. They gain many followers because we have a representative system… a majority of people do feel the same way.

In this society, our grade based education system creates an uneven education class system no different than, and supportive of, our economic class system. Ultimately, our education system teaches and conditions people to be most concerned with the appearance of how smart they are, and not with the role that they are playing in the community. To the point that lying and cheating is acceptable behavior… and building a support network to aid in this effort is advantageous in term of evolution.