Where now for Captain America?

First published May 19, 2005

This article is dedicated to the 6 Billion human beings living outside the Anglo American cultural bubble, and also to the many millions within it for whom the lights have gone on recently.

If your reading this I'm going to assume you have heard of emotional intelligence. If not then google it http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=DVXA,DVXA:2005-10,DVXA:en&q=emotional+intelligence

As everyone knows, lurking at the heart of American power is a frightened bewildered population, mainly white, who have enjoyed privilege and power which they now fear losing. We've all read the hate mail.

Interestingly, Corporate America has discovered that emotional intelligence is a vital part of efficient workgroups. There's a whole bunch of stuff written on this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=DVXA%2CDVXA%3A2005-10%2CDVXA%3Aen&q=emotional+intelligence+corporate&btnG=Search

Let me boil it down to a scenario:

Imagine an efficient corporate workgroup composed of emotionally intelligent workers. There's a couple of older heads to give experience, a couple of younger ones to challenge orthodoxy and specialist members of the team according to the task in hand.

Then into the midst of this plunk down Captain America. Get the picture?

Is he going to insult the Gay team leader? Believe that the science advisor can't possibly be right because she's a woman? Persistently try to sell bibles to the younger team members? Is convinced that the Asian team member got his position because he is Asian. The list goes on.

Anyway what happens to Captain America?

If he's lucky he'll be put on state courses at great expense to help rid him of his socially and economically disfiguring prejudices or, more likely, will simply be excluded from better paid jobs.

Whereupon he will complain that he is a discriminated against minority and it's everybody else's fault except his.