Rodger That: The Price Of Certitude

As a writer and political scientist/economist, with decades of business and political experience across the globe, I am fascinated by the political evolution of western politics. Decades of media and academic posturing on what it means to call your country a democracy is fading. In its place, is a renewed vision of the importance of culture and self-reliance. Progressive governments are being replaced by conservatives who believe in democracy. 

Even where traditional liberal governments are holding on across the western democracies, they are shifting their emphasis. Where once unchecked migration was heralded as humane and beneficial to society, now governments are tightening access to their borders. Where DEI was the hot button of both government and non-governmental agencies, it is now being tempered by a rebirth of belief in merit-based advancement. Where government was called on to somehow create equity among its citizens, many of those same governments have refocused on overall economic growth believing that a rising tide raises all boats.

The international community has believed since the end of the second world war that free trade helps all the citizens of the world. After all, how could the steady decline in the cost of goods not benefit everyone, especially the less fortunate? But in the United States and from Japan to Hungary, the electorate is punishing elected officials who do not favor local production. Farmers in France are up in arms. Trade labor members voted for Donald Trump and his strategy to bring manufacturing back to America. Canadian farmers block cheese imports from the USA.

So, what has changed, what went wrong, or is it that the public has lost its mind? The one world order movement which began at the end of the second world war did change people’s lives. But as the decades rolled by, in the developed economies of the west, what started off as positive turned sour. The free movement of people, free trade, was to create wealth for the citizens of the world. But somewhere along the way, first a few and then many got left behind. The values they’d grown up with, social and religious, were diluted and when they voiced their concerns, they were labeled bigots or racist.

Walter Isaacson, one of the most liberal of all writers and news executives, a former head of CNN and the Aspen Institute and a lifelong believer in the new world order is now a critic. He offered a clear description of why he changed his mind. “I realized that those institutions of free trade allowed people to go to a Walmart and buy a flat screen TV very cheaply on a Sunday night, but maybe there wasn’t a job at the Maytag factory on Monday morning.” He added, “I think people like me underestimated people being left behind, and the harm and resentments they would feel.”

Like the radical right of conservatives in the late 1970’s, the radical left that will not change their absolute belief in what they think is truth and cannot see the world for what it is instead of what they believe, are floundering. Much of what they believe, even the parts that are positive, are being destroyed by them screaming “fascists” at those who believe differently, and their refusal to listen. What an amazing moment it is to be a writer.

Rodger’s 2 Cents: Extraterrestrial Life

A story in National Geographic launched me into fifteen years of study. The cover read, “Are We Alone?” For years science fiction stories introduced us to intelligent life from other planets. But that was fiction. If there was intelligent life elsewhere, why hadn’t they introduced themselves or at least transmitted electronic signals that screamed, “We Are Here!”

How naive of me. With literally billions of suns, many with orbiting planets, the odds were in favor of life out there. If you define life as the chemical process that creates life or you believe that creation is the work of a supreme power, the odds favor life. If it’s all science, the odds of the right mixture of chemical, temperature, and atmospheric conditions allowing the creation of life are probably billions to one in favor. And even the most devout must consider that a Supreme Power wouldn’t stop with earth. We may be just one experiment, maybe not the most successful.

So, why haven’t we detected extraterrestrial life yet? We have hundreds of dishes pointed into space, all designed to detect electronic transmissions. Land and space-based telescopes search for planets orbiting foreign stars. Then the search is refined to look for chemical signatures of their atmospheres, searching for the telltale signs of life as we know it. Just this month another planet with a promising atmosphere was found, but no smoking gun.

As a writer, I spend much of my mental energy figuring out how to make implausible situations turn out to be real, that’s a big part of creating drama. It has slowly occurred to me that the same may be going on ‘out there.’ If scientists believe that life will only be found where we would look for it on earth, perhaps we are missing the big picture.

Perhaps there are very different forms of intelligent life. Think what might have happened when a society far advanced from ours created artificial intelligence to serve their population. But if competing populations destroy the environment, all that may be left is AI, which can function in entirely different environments. Or what if some massive crises, like a huge meteor strike or a corona blast from their sun destroyed the terrestrial atmosphere? Given enough planning and time, intelligent beings may have figured out how to survive and rebuild underground where they could draw on the planet's resources to create a life allowing atmosphere, energy source and sustenance. There would be no detectable telltale signs of life.

Astronomers have detected planets orbiting suns only tens of light years from earth. They have not detected life there, but what if… 

For more than a year now, I’ve been working on a book that explores the possibilities of first contact. I believe the big story that might come from contact might be overshadowed by how human’s foibles deal with it. That is, until we truly listen to the message.  

Look for the book this fall…

Rodger Recommends: Robert Dugoni & Travis Davis

One big part of writing for a living is the relationship with other authors and learning from them. One of the most encouraging authors I’ve worked with is Robert Dugoni, a Seattle based author of dozens of fascinating books. His primary genre is crime based mystery, a genre that has earned him tens of thousands of followers; a genre where he could teach a master class in connecting character and motivation. Unlike most cop crime thrillers, Bob’s hero is a woman.

Years after reading my first Dugoni novel, I was privileged to read The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. It was totally different in that it told a fictional story of a young boy faced with the kind of life challenges that none of us should ever see. It was a great read. 

Later, Robert wrote a spy series with an older male hero, Charles Jenkins. Much of the action in the series takes place in Russia where I’ve spent a lot of my life. Bob’s settings and characters could be lifted from my months of experience and locations from St Petersburg to the Russian Far East. I enjoyed doing a tiny bit of tweaking, helping with book accuracy, including aviation scenes for Bob, but mostly I learned from reading and watching his books evolve to final published versions.

An attorney, with a great eye for detail, Robert also has a non-fiction book out. The Cyanide Canary is co-written with an environmental investigator and it tells the story of an environmental disaster in Idaho and the extreme difficulty in making what was an obvious criminal case. I don’t usually recommend books that I haven’t finished, but this is a great read, and testament to how a great writer’s skills make a great book, no matter the genre.

One of the best books I’ve read in the last couple of years is One of Four, from Texas based author and friend, Travis Davis. I haven’t figured out whether Travis is an exceptional writer, or if his brilliant mind just kicked out a story with characters and a plot that was so unique that I think it’s a must read. One of Four is Travis' third book.

In studying his work, I wanted to see how he handled a plot that many might have written. So, I bought his first book, Flames of Deception, which he recently re-released. Again, I’ve just started reading it, but like in Bob Dugoni’s book, this too is a good read, and for me a chance to watch a new writer’s skills evolve to the point that he could create One of Four by his third novel. Both are worth your time and a few dollars.

A Taste Of The Wild: Grilled Game Kabobs

Over the years, as a wild game cook, I’ve encountered a number of people who are reluctant to try wild game and have met others who are so tuned into the blah flavors of beef or pork, that they dislike the taste of wild game meat. This incredibly simple recipe is one of my favorites for new initiates to hunter’s table fare and for those who will “try it but I don’t really like it.”

(serves four)
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs. game steak (Moose, venison, elk, sheep) either sirloin or backstrap steaks, cut into 1 ½ inch chunks
1 C. Yoshida’s Teriyaki Marinade mixed with 1T. black bean-garlic paste, and two large green onions, finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, just the outer leaves, leaving about a one-inch core for later use, cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
1 zucchini cut into ½ inch pieces
12 baby bella mushrooms
3 C. cooked white rice

Preparation
Marinade the meat in the teriyaki marinade for four hours. Remove meat and save marinade.
Place alternating vegetables and meat on foot long metal skewers, spacing the meat between onion and pepper slices. (You should end up with about 6 skewers.)
Heat grill to medium and place the skewers on the grill for twenty minutes, turning about every five minutes until edges of vegetables are charred slightly and meat is cooked through. 

To Serve
Heat leftover marinade in the microwave oven or on a burner until it just starts to bubble.
Strip meat and vegetables onto rice and then pour the heated marinade over the mix and serve.
The flavor of most wild game actually complements the teriyaki flavoring. Enjoy! 

Rodger Recommends: Overcoming Conflict

(How the beliefs of Max Webber might help each of us)

A story without conflict is like rafting on a river without rapids. You will move from where you start to where you finish without raising your heart rate, or the challenge of survival. As a writer, conflict is critical to what I do and to what I present to my readers. 

With that said, I’ve tried for years to craft a story around the level of political conflict in the United States today with little success. The Eel And The Angel, The Shadow Game, and The Dragon, The Eagle And The Jaguar all are built around international conflict. But the left-right anger in my own country lacks ingredients for a good book. For literary conflict to work in a book, it must be rational and realistic, and there must be a promise of solution.

To better understand today’s political conflict, I went back to one of the most fascinating and influential men of the early 1900’s. Max Webber was a German sociologist, historian, jurist, and economist. His most famous work, The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism, explores how the Protestant Ethic drove the expansion of capitalism in Europe. The primary drivers were hard work, thrift and a rational approach to life and work.

His Bureaucracy Theory described how clear bureaucratic structure, rules and specialization is the most efficient way of organizing large organizations. These two, Protestant Ethic and Bureaucratic Theory became the model that led to the explosion of wealth and the creation of the middle class.

A third theory, Social Behavior Theory, however, seems to be coming into play more and more in the 21st century. This theory emphasizes that social actions are influenced by the meanings individuals attach to their own beliefs and the actions of others. Today, many citizens social beliefs are so entrenched that they see evil in the actions of those whose beliefs differ. This becomes even more troubling when citizens’ own beliefs in certain areas conflict with their beliefs in other areas. 

Webber challenged society to balance their Ethics of Conviction with the Ethics of Responsibility. A great example is the murder of the President of United Health Care. To many that company fails to live up to their beliefs in covering the cost of health care. I get it. But to many of those same people, someone killing the CEO of the company fails to live up to their beliefs in the sanctity of human life.

In politics, Webber challenges us to carefully evaluate the limits of compromise of our belief system versus the compromise that may be needed to win an election. Again, how do we balance wanting to promote our values with the perceived necessity to take money from those we might otherwise disagree with, or to be less than honest in a campaign?

Webber would abhor how we now deal with those with different beliefs as the enemy, often disregarding some of our own human values to promote what we believe in.

Rodger That: Political Divide

The political divide in the United States is not remotely close to that leading to the Civil War. In the 1850s, Americans struggled to agree on the meaning of the “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL,” clause in the Declaration of Independence. When that document was drafted, a strong statement on slavery was initially included by Thomas Jefferson. To get the document approved by all 13 states, that clause was deleted. From the inception of the movement for independence, one segment of the nation where slavery drove the economy, collided with the rest of the country where owning another man was an abomination. There were other differences between the citizens, but most of those could be compromised; slavery could not. 

Today, we struggle to compromise even on what historically would be minor differences. The congress and even state legislatures find themselves dug in, supporting issues that many disagree with and that they personally do not really care about. How did this happen?

Two things fundamentally changed American politics. (And similar things have made political compromise difficult in most modern democracies.) First, is the demand of the media and some of the public for total transparency in government. Second, is the rise of social media and fierce competition among traditional media. How have these two changes driven division?

In the fight for ratings, traditional media has forgone simple reporting of events and shifted to commentary on those events. Much of what we call news today is more opinion than factual reporting. Media platforms have embraced small segments of society who have strong feelings to cement their ratings base. They have retooled newsrooms to assure that they do not isolate that base. Social media has given even tiny segments of society a megaphone to scream their values. The combination of opinion reporting and opinion social media amplifies many issues way beyond their importance to the general public.

In the legislative bodies, transparency has taken this media shift and turned it into an impossible situation. As late as the 1980s, legislators could get together in smoky rooms and work out compromise, horse-trade, with give and take to arrive, not at consensus, but what it took to bring differing sides together. But today, any effort to get away from the scrutiny of the media to reconcile differences, lands a legislator in a media world where they are portrayed as traitors or worse yet, evil.

In my book, The Dragon, The Eagle And The Jaguar (DEJ), all three countries, China, the US, and Mexico find themselves forced to use clandestine means to solve a problem that should be easy to work out. But in the politics of each country, leadership runs the risk of being labeled traitors to their own nation if they are seen working too closely with another nation. The result, just like in our domestic politics, is posturing to satisfy small groups who are screaming the loudest. But unlike international disputes like that in DEJ, where off the record small group solutions are possible, in domestic politics, the demand for transparency and the media’s catering to small constituencies make this type of resolution political poison.

Rodger’s Two Cents: What Is Real, What Is Not?

I was discussing life in the Last Frontier with a colleague living in Chicago this morning. He mentioned that the Midwest was finally past a winter marked by snowstorms and even more massive rain and wind events. As he should be, he was pleased to be moving beyond that. Having spent my share of time in major cities, I could empathize with him. Perhaps after the horrors of an urban winter, I suggested he and his wife should head out to Bar Mar or one of the dozens of other great dinner spots in Chicago to celebrate.

“How about the winter in Alaska?” he asked.

We’ve had a crazy winter. During the four mid-winter months, we had four inches of snow in Anchorage. (Normally we get about forty inches.) It’s been below zero four times. In a normal winter we see below zero weather twice. But we have had three storms where winds of more than a hundred miles an hour pounded our home. And another is due tonight. (Normally we have one windstorm.)

“As I recall,” he offered, “your normal spring escape is to your remote cabin on Alaska’s largest lake. You and Carmen pack a gourmet meal, and a bottle of great wine, take the dog and fly in, and celebrate spring overlooking a wilderness river.”

That’s not going to happen this year, I told him. Late last fall we received several pictures from a friend who was spending winter at the lake. He boated over to check our cabin after a couple of lodges in the area reported a rogue brown bear had broken into their buildings. Sure enough, the bear had hit us too; literally tearing out a back wall and trashing the inside. He smashed all of the cabinets, the stove, propane refrigerator, and tore into all the emergency food supplies I leave in the cabin. (It’s common in remote Alaska to leave food enough for someone surviving a plane crash or other emergency to live for a month in our cabins.)

So, this year our first trip in will not be a celebration of the end of winter. Rather it will be the mother of all clean ups, the destroyed furniture, fixtures, and equipment in a pile on the floor, all coated with a mixture of kerosene, maple syrup, pancake mix, cooking oil, motor oil, and every other thing that the bear could tear open while looking for a meal. Then figuring out how to get the materials to rebuild and laying out a plan to repair our little piece of heaven. 

“You were really lucky you weren’t there,” he offered.

That statement says a lot about how differently people live in the world. I wish I’d been there, That bear would not have gone on to trash eleven more cabins last fall. Once a bear finds food in a building, they become obsessed with finding more, until they die.

As a writer, that reminded me how important it is to clearly describe settings and explain plots. Every reader comes from a different background. My job is to take readers to places, they might never visit, and give them adventures different from their own lives.

A Taste Of The Wild: Mexi-Moose

MEXI-MOOSE (or mexi-venison or mexi-elk…whatever game you have) serves four

This dish is drawn from my love of Carmen’s culturally authentic Sonoran Mexican cuisine.  Stews of pork and chicken are favored home kitchen fare. But this Latina woman now makes her home in Alaska with a man who harvests game and fish to feed the family. So, in a compromise, I’ve learned to cook wild game using the spices of Mexico, with amazing results.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
Olive oil for browning

Salt and pepper for seasoning meat

2 C. of chicken stock

1 14.5 oz. can of chili-ready tomatoes with peppers (Store brand works great)

2 C. tomato or spaghetti sauce

Main Ingredients
2 lbs. of moose or other wild game, cut into 1 inch chunks

1 large yellow onion chopped into fairly large pieces

2 C. carrots cut into 1 inch pieces

2 C. celery cut into 1 inch pieces

5 small portobello mushrooms cut into quarters

Sauce
1 10 oz. can Rotel brand diced tomatoes with hatch chilis

1 C. red wine

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. oregano

Starch
4 C. prepared Paella Rice or Risotto (you can used long grain, but it will not absorb the sauce as well)

Toppings
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese, medium cheddar, or sour cream.

Lime wedges and chopped cilantro.

Preparation
Combine stock, sauce and can of chili-ready tomatoes into crock pot.

Brown meat, seasoned with salt and pepper and add to crock pot.

Cook onion in the same skillet as the meat until transparent and add to crock pot.

Blend sauce ingredients by whipping together or blending and add to crock pot.

Add carrots, celery and mushrooms to crock pot.

Simmer 4 to 5 hours on high, or until meat is tender.

To Serve
Place one cup of rice in large soup bowl and ladle stewed mixture over rice.

Top with your choice of toppings, add a squeeze of lime and one tablespoon of chopped cilantro.

Rodger That: Pride

I learned many of my outdoor skills on my grandfather’s ranch not far from Poulson Montana, including how to process harvested game. It used to amaze ten-year-old me when I would meet the families of his neighbors who absolutely hated wild game. The ranchers raised beef cattle, selling the steers to processors whose fortunes depended on turning the steers into prime eating. I loved venison and elk and couldn’t understand their distaste. 

My kids grew up immersed in Alaska’s outdoor activities, including flying to remote fishing spots. At our cabin, one of the great joys was wandering down to the river and catching a salmon. The filets would be on the grill twenty minutes later, the ultra-fresh fish curling at the edges. Many who dislike fish would change their minds if they ever tasted fresh wild salmon. During the winter we savored the fish we put up each summer along with wild game, mostly moose.

Both of my kids decided to attend college in Montana. I encouraged them to go ‘out of state’ believing that growing up in Alaska meant growing up in a bubble. It was important to be part of what Alaskan’s call ‘The Lower 48.’  As a single dad, I wanted them to choose their own path.

My daughter chose Rocky Mountain College in Billings. The choice was easy for her. She was looking for a small liberal arts college where a reserved young woman wouldn’t get lost. Her brother attended University of Montana in Missoula because his three greatest loves were skiing, hunting and fly fishing. That was at least as good as my reason for choosing a school.

Every year I would make multiple trips to Montana, a place close to my heart and the birthplace of my mother. I attended functions at Rocky Mountain, especially plays where my daughter loved working both on stage and behind the curtain. Most of my trips to Missoula were to join my son for fall bird hunting trips. While both kids were in Montana, we would take a family trip to someplace like Yellowstone National Park.

Several of my son’s college friends were from ranches across Montana. We would be invited to bird hunt on their property, sometimes with their family. Dressed pheasants were a welcome thank-you gift to those families. In the first couple of years, I would bring packages of moose or caribou sausage as gifts, only to be met with disgust by the families, especially the wives of the household, even those whose husbands hunted big game.

The third year my son and I hunted in Montana, the trip was late in the fall, when big game hunting seasons overlapped with pheasant season. We’d stay in tiny motels in towns built around agriculture, always picking one where my son’s Golden Labrador Retriever was welcome. I remember pulling into a small town and heading down the street looking for dinner.

We stopped outside a rowdy bar that advertised pub food to study a line of pickup trucks with huge elk in the back. Inside we met a dozen hunters who welcomed us. Every one of them wanted us to wander out to praise the animals they’d harvested.

After dinner my son commented, “I see why so many people hate wild game. If you don’t get the hide off from a big animal immediately the fat under the skin turns rancid.” 

Thirty years later, while sitting at our cabin’s fire pit, out of nowhere my son looked up and thanked me for teaching him the difference between hunting to put food on the table and trophy hunting. It took seconds to connect the dots with our Montana experiences. I didn’t immediately respond, rather I thought back to one of my grandfather’s favorite quotations by Henry Ford, “A man given to pride is usually proud of the wrong thing.” I thought of families challenged by prideful hunters to eat tainted meals, and a second quotation popped into my mind, this one from the composer David Lawrence, “Pride is a form of selfishness.”

Rodger’s Two Cents: The MAHA Movement

I’ve waited much of my life for a political movement that I can get totally behind. Finally, a rogue Democrat comes along and makes the MAHA movement a household phrase. Make America Healthy Again, is just shorthand for eating foods that are not saturated with preservatives, sugars, un-necessary spices and other chemicals. 

When I was a kid, raised by a single mother, we had to eat pure foods; processed foods were more expensive than locally raised vegetables, farm to table meats and harvested foods like wild berries and wild game. Our diet was seasonal and depended on what was being harvested. 

Over the years, the cost of transportation came down and the food industry began massive processing of foods, packaging them so that they would last a long time and reduce transportation waste.

That made food less expensive but added new chemicals to our diet. Humans may take generations to learn to process these intrusive ingredients. I asked myself what can I do to help with the MAHA movement. The answer is the new blog section in my website, A Taste Of The Wild. Many of my adventure stories include the struggles of protagonists in my books to feed themselves in dire circumstances. In many cases the solution is to harvest what is available and figure out how to prepare it.

Personally, I invest a lot of time every summer in gardening. I love to wander the hills of Alaska picking a half dozen different types of berries. I harvest wild salmon, halibut and wild game. That’s how I’ve fed my family for years. 

Included in the A Taste Of The Wild blog will be some ideas and recipes of foods that minimize ultra processing, or eliminate those foods entirely. Let me know your own thoughts on MAHA food harvesting and eating. In return, I promise not to become too preachy about MAHA in my writing.