Book Reviews: "Corps Values" and "Who Moved My Cheese"

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Two books are emerging as general guides for people in their workplaces and personal lives. “Corps Values”, written by Democratic Senator Zell Miller, explains, as he puts it, “everything you need to know I learned in the Marines.” It explains how one can apply oneself and develop pride and discipline in what one does to improve performance, attitude, and how one appreciates oneself. “Who Moved My Cheese” describes how people need to recognize the changes in a vibrant world and how to adapt to changes in positive manners.

These are books with useful if general advice. The advice is often hard to argue with, yet still important if only because they are good but often ignored. Other authors have made similar points. Norman Vincent Peale described the power of positive thinking, a concept which helped drive the Ronald Reagan Presidency that intentionally expressed most messages in positive tones while avoiding negative connotations. Most religions tell of faith and perseverance. Still, many never get these basic messages. Books such as these are then helpful in transmitting the need to consider open paths to improve our lives.

Georgia’s Zell Miller, from a state where “The Little Engine That Could” is read in every Pre-Kindergarten in a state that offers all Pre-Kindergarten, describes how his drifting youthful ways were transferred into an ordered Marine life to which he still subscribes to in politics. Marine values such as courage and loyalty are valued commodities in politics. Marine values such as respect and punctuality have been verified by psychological studies. Some Marine values, such as neatness, are not necessarily qualities that Management studies affirm as being of importance. Overall, this is a book many will find uplifting and of good guidance.

Ignoring recent nutritionists’ warnings about the dangers of eating too much cheese, “Who Moved My Cheese?” tells a parable about how mice, accustomed to conquering a maze where cheese is hidden become so adapted to the routine path, even reorganizing their lives around this path, fall apart when the cheese location is moved. The morale of the story is we must learn to adapt to change. Indeed, especially in these vibrant times, we must prepare for the inevitability of change, recognize when important elements are changing, and properly react to these changes. Hey, if the nutritional warnings are correct, maybe we should even change to eating less cheese.

In so far as books such as these aptly describe common sense, though without describing whether these techniques have undergone rigorous empirical testing, these books cannot be recommended for their scientifically proven measures. On the other hand, as these books primarily describe matters that are common sense, and to the degree that many of us have forgotten common sense, these books serve to remind us and wake us to realizing that common sense still should prevail.