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Just a Suggestion


Tzaia
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The whole "suggestion" thing was a way for a leader to control others yet not be accountable for "suggesting" it.

If someone didn't follow a "suggestion" and something bad happened, it was because they didn't follow the "suggestion".

If someone followed the "suggestion" and something bad happened, well it had only been a "suggestion" and that person followed it by their own free will, the leader didn't make them do it.

Either way, you got yelled at and treated to a temper tantrum from a leader.

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The whole "suggestion" thing was a way for a leader to control others yet not be accountable for "suggesting" it.

If someone didn't follow a "suggestion" and something bad happened, it was because they didn't follow the "suggestion".

If someone followed the "suggestion" and something bad happened, well it had only been a "suggestion" and that person followed it by their own free will, the leader didn't make them do it.

Either way, you got yelled at and treated to a temper tantrum from a leader.

I don't think it was thought through that well when vpw tried it.

I think it was just another control mechanism.

"When I SUGGEST something, you're to treat it like I ORDERED you to do it."

But saying it outright would wake a few people up. So it's "stealthed" as an aphorism

from the military (which it ISN'T.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Completely beside the point.... where is that quote from? I know that the original song was "Life is like a mountain railroad with an engineer that's brave." But I distinctly remember some country group on the radio singing "with an engineer gone wild" in a version on the radio back in the early 80's. But when I tried Googling it, I only found this thread. Anybody know who did it?

You're right. I think the song..."with an engineer so brave...." is an old gospel tune. I think changing it to "engineer gone wild" was a TWI thing and was never on the radio; I could be wrong. I'm thinking it was sung by that 5th Corps group called "Sonship".

Edited by Broken Arrow
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This may not qualify as a newsflash, but for those who may not know, this "suggestion of a leader is paramount to a command" quote is from a book written by either of two retired generals. I think it is from the book Marine! by Chesty Puller (sp?). I think it may have been required reading for one of the Way Corps. The other book it might be from is one titled Soldier. I can't remember the name of the author. They really are good books, by the way.

Anyway, Wierwille seized that quote and applied it to himself. We were beat to death with that, and not just from Wierwille, but from just about everyone who was considered a leader.

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You're right. I think the song..."with an engineer so brave...." is an old gospel tune. I think changing it to "engineer gone wild" was a TWI thing and was never on the radio; I could be wrong. I'm thinking it was sung by that 5th Corps group called "Sonship".

That would explain why I couldn't find it with Google. I'd never heard of the original until I recently started looking for the "engineer gone wild" version. I could have sworn I heard the "wild" version on the radio, but apparently not. As they say, the memory is the first thing to go... I forget what the second thing is!

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It was on the Album All Aboard where he read stories - sort of a prelude to love Letters - I think. Didn't Sonship also do one that had the line "Get onboard the sonship, ship ahoy, ship ahoy"? Listened to everything at once back in 2000.... don't remember for sure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It was on the Album All Aboard where he read stories - sort of a prelude to love Letters - I think. Didn't Sonship also do one that had the line "Get onboard the sonship, ship ahoy, ship ahoy"? Listened to everything at once back in 2000.... don't remember for sure.

I remember a brief snippet of "Get on board the Sonship, ship ahoy..." on the Rock of Ages '76 album, and I remember somebody saying it was by Sonship. Don't know where the whole song was. I also had the All Aboard album, but don't remember the Mountain Railway song being on that. If I remember correctly the music was mostly (if not entirely) by Joyful Noise. I still have those old records packed away somewhere. I'll have to dig them out again one of these days.

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