Watch the news with 'news readers' spewing hearsay and agenda driven content with fractional truths or attend a lecture from an 'esteemed scholar' who's made a study of global economics and claims to have originated formulaic solutions that will enhance international trade for prosperous political relations. To the mainstream the above represent the upper echelon of intellectual precision with a broad scope of knowledge that would be far too intimidating to question so even if the viewer is unsure of the concepts being claimed as fact most people wouldn't engage these individuals in a debate because most people take the path of least resistance and just move on rather than challenge those the establishment have claimed as field experts.
Have you ever wondered about those who have the intellectual capacity to dominate a conversation with these people? Haven't you ever wanted to see one of these so called experts get his butt handed to him in a debate with the humiliation that would damage his ability to stand in front of a room and lecture with such untested confidence? I believe I have come across an individual that could step into any university, political forum or televised debate on economics and crush anyone that tried to test him.
I'm an MBA student at Penn State and was recently in NYC and met a friend who teaches at Columbia for dinner at the Waldorf Astoria's Bull and Bear Steakhouse. We were chatting over drinks and catching up on the latest gossip when my attention was drawn to a table where the volume had been gradually escalating and the conversation seemed to take a turn. There were five older gentlemen, gray hair, $3,000 suits, power broker and robust bank account types. The argument was actually getting heated to a degree which should have been alarming to the restaurant manager and I began to wonder why no one was going over to break it up. We didn't have to speculate as to the occupations of these men as I soon heard on waiter say to another, 'Those are the guys with the European Union and World Bank, you can't even get near the table with a cavity search how exactly am I supposed to ask them to quiet down if their security stops me before I can even get close to the table?'.
Just then another gentlemen walked into the room and towards the table, no one stopped him and he stood behind the loudest of the group, placed his hands on the man's shoulders and said in a calm voice, "Let's keep it civil gents" at that time there was pure silence and they quickly made a place for him at the table. OK, this is where it began to get strange, I mean flip side of the universe strange. First, this guy was less than half the age of anyone at the table, he couldn't have been more than 34 or 35 years old but the silence and absolute focus that these men of influence gave to every word that came out of his mouth was shocking.
Who could be so young to demand such respect and attention from such senior power players? I couldn't take my eyes off of him and I began to hone in and listen. The conversation was centered on EU and IMF issues for the Mediterranean region, the unstable Euro, US relations in Asian and other topics that demanded a superior comprehension of the most complicated forms of economics. My friend and I just sat there along with the rest of the room, with dropped jaws, gawking eyes and zeroed in ears. He was so calm and, well cool! Yes, a cheesy clich description but, my God, he was smooth, the most complicated terms and concepts were just rolling off of his tongue with such mastered fluency. I couldn't breathe because the sound of my breath would hinder by ability to hear his next words. The verbal deliver, the intellectual intonation and vocabulary, the polished appearance and the depth in his eyes as he spoke made him the God of the room. The crazy thing is, I was so enveloped in the intelligence, the youth and the unbridled aura of sex appeal that I don't even remember what he actually said until the end when it was clear they were wrapping things up and he said, "This, gentlemen is what I mean by Zeitgeist economics. You see, the positioning and strategies have been implemented, influence is in all the right places, I say we move forward in an expedited manner" then one of his colleagues said, "Let's reconvene at my suite in an hour" then, they got up and walked out. I'm not the kind of person to ask for autographs or introduce myself out of the blue to a complete stranger but I have never wanted to get inside of the personal space box of someone so bad but I was completely paralyzed. I still regret it. I'm constantly running it through my mind how I could have stopped him, given him my card, gotten his, followed him, whatever.
When I left I asked the manager, more specifically who they were, he looked up at me and the waiter punching in the order on the computer behind him stopped and looked at his boss for the response and he just said, "Miss, there are some things you just don't ask or answer because you never know who is listening", I pressed him, "At least tell me who that younger man was? What's the big deal? They're gone! This is ridiculous; just tell me who he was!" He shook his head and walked away, leaving me standing there looking like an idiot. I was insulted and now I was angry and just as I was about to pull the 'Let me talk to your boss' transition an older women put her hand on my arm and said, "My dear, he's afraid to answer you because he'll lose his job instantly if he breaks security protocol for the hotel but I can tell you who that young gentleman is." I leaned in as her voice range fell to a whisper, "That was James Scott; he's a consultant of sorts." Leaning in closer she continued, "I know this because my husband worked for the Federal Reserve and they would always talk about him, they would call him 'The Rogue' because he is like an economic mercenary. That's all I know. He's like a strategist for governments." And with that she walked away. I just stood there and looked at my friend and then looked at the room and literally all eyes were on me and they all had the same look of shock, envy and wonder.
We walked around town for about an hour but my mind was so full of questions I just wanted to get back to my hotel room to do a Google search on this guy. My girlfriend and I exchanged goodbyes and I got back to my hotel as quickly as I could. I spent hours on the web reading article after article about him. Yes, James Scott, he's an economic strategies consultant he has a small yet obscenely powerful consulting firm called Princeton Corporate Solutions. His contacts and power base sprawls the planet and into the backrooms of the most elite circles of finance and politics. Strange thing, there are literally thousands of articles that mention him, exclusively talk about him and that are written or co-authored by him but not one single photo anywhere. I have to tell you, I will never forget this experience. I felt as though I stepped into one of those conspiracy, 'New World Order' type things.
The truth is, there are invisible hands that navigate us through the maze of this human existence and there are things we control in our lives and things that are out of our control. What I witnessed that night will be with me forever and I'll think about him every time I flip on CNN or MSNBC and see a self-proclaimed expert talking about commerce and world trade and I know that no matter how established or how fluent they are with their concepts or how many books they've written or which prestigious fellowships he/she has that there is still someone whose knowledge is so vast, his influence so dominating and complete that those who know him will only mention his name in whispers and those who have seen the results of his capabilities and of his existence but have never been introduced only refer to him as 'The Rogue'.
Have you ever wondered about those who have the intellectual capacity to dominate a conversation with these people? Haven't you ever wanted to see one of these so called experts get his butt handed to him in a debate with the humiliation that would damage his ability to stand in front of a room and lecture with such untested confidence? I believe I have come across an individual that could step into any university, political forum or televised debate on economics and crush anyone that tried to test him.
I'm an MBA student at Penn State and was recently in NYC and met a friend who teaches at Columbia for dinner at the Waldorf Astoria's Bull and Bear Steakhouse. We were chatting over drinks and catching up on the latest gossip when my attention was drawn to a table where the volume had been gradually escalating and the conversation seemed to take a turn. There were five older gentlemen, gray hair, $3,000 suits, power broker and robust bank account types. The argument was actually getting heated to a degree which should have been alarming to the restaurant manager and I began to wonder why no one was going over to break it up. We didn't have to speculate as to the occupations of these men as I soon heard on waiter say to another, 'Those are the guys with the European Union and World Bank, you can't even get near the table with a cavity search how exactly am I supposed to ask them to quiet down if their security stops me before I can even get close to the table?'.
Just then another gentlemen walked into the room and towards the table, no one stopped him and he stood behind the loudest of the group, placed his hands on the man's shoulders and said in a calm voice, "Let's keep it civil gents" at that time there was pure silence and they quickly made a place for him at the table. OK, this is where it began to get strange, I mean flip side of the universe strange. First, this guy was less than half the age of anyone at the table, he couldn't have been more than 34 or 35 years old but the silence and absolute focus that these men of influence gave to every word that came out of his mouth was shocking.
Who could be so young to demand such respect and attention from such senior power players? I couldn't take my eyes off of him and I began to hone in and listen. The conversation was centered on EU and IMF issues for the Mediterranean region, the unstable Euro, US relations in Asian and other topics that demanded a superior comprehension of the most complicated forms of economics. My friend and I just sat there along with the rest of the room, with dropped jaws, gawking eyes and zeroed in ears. He was so calm and, well cool! Yes, a cheesy clich description but, my God, he was smooth, the most complicated terms and concepts were just rolling off of his tongue with such mastered fluency. I couldn't breathe because the sound of my breath would hinder by ability to hear his next words. The verbal deliver, the intellectual intonation and vocabulary, the polished appearance and the depth in his eyes as he spoke made him the God of the room. The crazy thing is, I was so enveloped in the intelligence, the youth and the unbridled aura of sex appeal that I don't even remember what he actually said until the end when it was clear they were wrapping things up and he said, "This, gentlemen is what I mean by Zeitgeist economics. You see, the positioning and strategies have been implemented, influence is in all the right places, I say we move forward in an expedited manner" then one of his colleagues said, "Let's reconvene at my suite in an hour" then, they got up and walked out. I'm not the kind of person to ask for autographs or introduce myself out of the blue to a complete stranger but I have never wanted to get inside of the personal space box of someone so bad but I was completely paralyzed. I still regret it. I'm constantly running it through my mind how I could have stopped him, given him my card, gotten his, followed him, whatever.
When I left I asked the manager, more specifically who they were, he looked up at me and the waiter punching in the order on the computer behind him stopped and looked at his boss for the response and he just said, "Miss, there are some things you just don't ask or answer because you never know who is listening", I pressed him, "At least tell me who that younger man was? What's the big deal? They're gone! This is ridiculous; just tell me who he was!" He shook his head and walked away, leaving me standing there looking like an idiot. I was insulted and now I was angry and just as I was about to pull the 'Let me talk to your boss' transition an older women put her hand on my arm and said, "My dear, he's afraid to answer you because he'll lose his job instantly if he breaks security protocol for the hotel but I can tell you who that young gentleman is." I leaned in as her voice range fell to a whisper, "That was James Scott; he's a consultant of sorts." Leaning in closer she continued, "I know this because my husband worked for the Federal Reserve and they would always talk about him, they would call him 'The Rogue' because he is like an economic mercenary. That's all I know. He's like a strategist for governments." And with that she walked away. I just stood there and looked at my friend and then looked at the room and literally all eyes were on me and they all had the same look of shock, envy and wonder.
We walked around town for about an hour but my mind was so full of questions I just wanted to get back to my hotel room to do a Google search on this guy. My girlfriend and I exchanged goodbyes and I got back to my hotel as quickly as I could. I spent hours on the web reading article after article about him. Yes, James Scott, he's an economic strategies consultant he has a small yet obscenely powerful consulting firm called Princeton Corporate Solutions. His contacts and power base sprawls the planet and into the backrooms of the most elite circles of finance and politics. Strange thing, there are literally thousands of articles that mention him, exclusively talk about him and that are written or co-authored by him but not one single photo anywhere. I have to tell you, I will never forget this experience. I felt as though I stepped into one of those conspiracy, 'New World Order' type things.
The truth is, there are invisible hands that navigate us through the maze of this human existence and there are things we control in our lives and things that are out of our control. What I witnessed that night will be with me forever and I'll think about him every time I flip on CNN or MSNBC and see a self-proclaimed expert talking about commerce and world trade and I know that no matter how established or how fluent they are with their concepts or how many books they've written or which prestigious fellowships he/she has that there is still someone whose knowledge is so vast, his influence so dominating and complete that those who know him will only mention his name in whispers and those who have seen the results of his capabilities and of his existence but have never been introduced only refer to him as 'The Rogue'.
The Communication Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment