I've recently been noticing my mild obsessions. Not in an obsessive way, obviously, just noticing what it is I notice. I don't seem to have many deep obsessions but I've got lots of longitudinal ones. Little things I don't pursue in any detail but which always spark my attention when I bump into them - and which have done for years. Pockets is one, Kinder Eggs is another, and collections, and notebooks, and carry systems and cheap watches and SW Radio. That sort of thing. Two incidents in the last few weeks have made me realise I have another - the marginalia of power.
The first I noticed was Churchill's habit of labeling memos and orders with stickers saying "Action This Day".
Then, when some of Thatcher's papers were released by the national archive I noticed she had a similar habit.
Then this article in the New Yorker pointed out that Deng Xiaoping did the same thing to a letter written to him by some of China's leading scientists:
"China must join the world’s xin jishu geming, the “new technological revolution,” they said, or it would be left behind. They called for an élite project devoted to technology ranging from biotech to space research. Deng agreed, and scribbled on the letter, “Action must be taken on this now.” This was China’s “Sputnik moment,” and the project was code-named the 863 Program, for the year and month of its birth."
I think I like this stuff for two reasons. This is how it feels like power should work. Dramatically. Like in a movie. A moment of decision, an incisive order and the world changes. In a West Wing-y way. So it's an appealing myth.
And secondly, it illustrates how limited the real levers of power are. Supposedly powerful people are fed memos and letters containing partial and limited information. That's how they see the world. Then they make sweeping statements which are entirely open to interpretation by the organisation 'below' them. Their actions are via other people. How many things to be Actioned Immediately never get actioned at all?
That's it really. Nothing significant. Just a little thing.
Anyway.