Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter PilotIn describing his seven and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, the late Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale has said: "In that atmosphere of death and hopelessness, stripped of the niceties, the amenities of civilization, my ideas on life and leadership crystallized." Despite torture, intimidation, and isolation, Stockdale fulfilled his duties as senior officer among the prisoners with intelligence and courage, defining rules of conduct and maintaining morale. He often described the intense pressures of that situation as a "melting" experience, in which preconceived feelings, fears, and bias melt as one comes to realize that, under the gun, you must grow or fail--or, in some cases, grow or die. This collection of his essays and speeches from the 1980s and 1990s reinforces how that experience formed a lifelong basis for his philosophical thought on issues of character, leadership, integrity, personal and public virtue, and ethics. The selections in this volume all reflect, in one way or another, a central theme: how man can rise with dignity to prevail in the face of adversity. |
From inside the book
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... thought it might be possible to create a human being ( homunculus ) in the laboratory - some- thing people today are again getting uneasy about . The higher alchemy aimed not at mere physical change but at moral and spiritual ...
... thought of God , and I thought of country , too , and that helped . But my " secret weapon " was the security I felt in anchoring my resolve to those selected portions of philosophic thought that emphasized human dignity and self ...
... thought to be terrifying , but how can he stop you from taking the punishment he threatened ? " That became our kind of Stoicism in that pressure - packed microcosm of all human conflict . Pain was tactical and repairable , but shame ...
Contents
The Role of the Pressure Cooker | 13 |
Prisoner of War | 28 |
Trial by Fire | 44 |
Copyright | |
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