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like bubbles as the dates passed. In one case that I’m
very familiar with, one man started to look very peculiar and
sort of lost his appetite and then his ability to eat and
finally died. I think optimism was one of the causes. In
general, and I’ve read it in other books, if you must put
up with people who stretch the truth, pessimists are better
bedfellows than optimists. At least as far as mental health goes.

Our second form of deception that was practiced in
prison and every place else where there is a military service,
is the idea of a leader taking charge supposedly to salvage
a bad situation and he issues an order which on examination
really doesn’t mean much of anything or in some cases cannot
be followed. Such an order that doesn’t mean anything really
to the recipient of the order, as in the prison camp to put
out a blanket CYA coverall, “Obey the Code of Conduct”.
This needs further explanation and to let it go at that strikes
those who hear it as your insurance against a bad reputation
after return. It leaves the poor guys who are working for
you in a quandary or worse. Much like I once attempted to
give such an order by telling a camp to follow the general
policy of oblique envelopement [envelopment]. This is a time when we were
trying to curtail the adventurous doves who were about to cut
loose on a permissive prison thing. I modeled this oblique
envelopment after such nice management buzzwords as “protective

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