Guidance (pronounced gahyd-ns)
(1) The act or function of guiding; leadership;
direction.
(2) When used as a modifier (marriage guidance et al), advice
or counseling (that provided for students choosing a course of study or
preparing for a vocation; that given to couples with “marriage problems” etc).
(3) Supervised care or assistance, especially therapeutic
help in the treatment of minor emotional disturbances, use prevalent in the
management of “troubled youth”.
(4) Something that guides (used of both hardware &
software).
(5) The process by which the flight of a missile or
rocket may be altered in speed and direction in response to controls situated
either wholly in the projectile or partly at the point of launch (ground, air,
sea or space-based).
(6) The general term for the part of the publishing
industry devoted to “self-help” titles.
1765–1775: The construct was guide + -ance. Guide dates from the mid-fourteenth century and was from the Middle English guide (to lead, direct, conduct), from the Old French verb guider (to lead; to conduct (guide the noun), from the Old Occitan guida, from the earlier guier & guidar, from the Frankish wītan (to show the way, lead), from the Proto-Germanic wītaną & witanan (to see, know; go, depart (also “to look after, guard, ascribe to, reproach”)), from the primitive Indo-European weyd or weid (to see, know). It was cognate with the Old English wītan (to see, take heed to, watch after, guard, to keep) and related to the Modern English wit. The Proto-Germanic was the source also of the German weisen (to show, point out) and the Old English witan (to reproach) & wite (fine, penalty). The development in French was influenced both by the Old Provençal noun guidar (guide, leader) and the Italian guidare, both from the same source. The suffix -ance was an alternative form of -ence, both added to an adjective or verb to form a noun indicating a state or condition, such as result or capacity, associated with the verb (many words ending in -ance were formed in French or by alteration of a noun or adjective ending in –ant). The suffix -ance was from the Middle English -aunce & -ance, from the Anglo-Norman -aunce and the continental Old French -ance, from the Latin -antia & -entia. The –ence suffix was a word-forming element attached to verbs to form abstract nouns of process or fact (convergence from converge), or of state or quality and was from the Middle English -ence, from the Old French -ence, from the Latin –entia & -antia (depending on the vowel in the stem word). The Latin present-participle endings for verbs stems in -a- were distinguished from those in -i- and -e- and as the Old French evolved from Latin, these were leveled to -ance, but later French borrowings from Latin (some of them subsequently passed to English) used the appropriate Latin form of the ending, as did words borrowed by English directly from Latin, thus diligence, absence et al. There was however little consistency, English gaining many words from French but from the sixteenth century the suffix –ence was selectively restored, such was the reverence for Latin. Guidance is a noun; the noun plural is guidances.
Lindsay Lohan's latter-day Cady Heron as a High School guidance counsellor. In November 2023, Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried (b 1985)), Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert (b 1982)) & Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan (b 1986)) were re-united for a presumably lucrative commercial for Walmart's upcoming Black Friday sale. Constructed as a Mean Girls (2004) spoof and replete with references & allusions, Lindsay Lohan's now grown up Cady Heron appeared as North Shore High School's guidance counsellor, a self-explanatory joke.
The use of the word in jargon divides essentially into
two classes, technical & descriptive.
Technical use includes the form “autoguidance” (the construct being
auto(matic) + guidance) which is a general term describing the mechanical or
electronic devices used to provide a machine with the ability autonomously to
move without relying on external directional inputs. Autoguidance systems date back decades and
originally relied on the interaction of stuff like gyroscopes, accelerometers
& altimeters (then known as “inertial guidance”) but became more integrated
as electronics became smaller and improved in capacity & durability. The most publicized use was in “guided missiles”, a term which entered general use in the 1950s (although it first appeared in British
documents in 1944 in the sense of “a projectile capable of altering course in flight”, distinguishing
the German V2 ballistic missile from the V1 (an early (unguided) cruise
missile)) and the development of artificial
intelligence (AI) has not only refined the technology but actually shifted the
paradigm to one in which the machine (in some sense) makes
"decisions", a process different from earlier autoguidance systems
which were pre-programmed with a defined set of parameters which limited the
scope of “decision making” to certain options.
The worrying implication of AI is that it might start making “its own
decisions”, not because it has achieved some form of consciousness (in a sense comparable
to that possessed by humans) but because the code produces unintended consequences. When lines of code can be in the millions, not
every permutation of events can be tested (although the use of AI should raise
the count). “Teleguidance” came into use
to refer to the remote guidance of missiles and torpedoes but later also became
a part of “space guidance” (an omnibus term encompassing the guidance
operations required to launch a spacecraft into orbit or space, navigate in
space and return to Earth or some other place).
Space guidance is especially complex because there can be a lag of
minutes or hours between instructions being sent from Earth and received by the
craft, thus the need for ground-based transmissions to interact with autoguidance
systems. Specialized forms in
engineering include “non-guidance”, “pre-guidance” & “self-guidance”, all
of which can be used of hardware components or segments of software within the
one guidance system.
The term “e-guidance” is
different in that it was just a buzz-phrase (which never really caught on) which
referred to guidance given electronically (ie using the internet) and the forms
which evolved (teleconferencing, telemedicine) were different again; they referred usually to human-to-human contact via screens rather than in
person. The descriptive uses included
the familiar forms such as “guidance counselor”, “marriage guidance” & “guidance
industry”, the latter responsible for the dreaded self-help books which
although genuinely useful if focused on something specific (eg SpeedPro's
highly recommended How to Build &
Power Tune Weber & Dellorto DCOE, DCO/SP & DHLA Carburettors), also
includes titles like “Getting Closure in
Seven Days” or “201 Ways to Feel Better”
(even God handed down only 10) et al, the utility of which varied to the extent
it’s tempting sometimes to apply the noun “misguidance”. Misguidance seems not to be used by those
whose guidance systems have gone wrong, engineers preferring the punchy “fail”
while the management-speak crew came up with “unplanned event”.
Guidance “books”, in one form or another can be traced back thousands of years and while there is evidence multiplication algorithms existed in Egypt (circa 1700-2000 BC) a handful of Babylonian clay tablets dating from circa 1800-1600 BC are the oldest guidance documents yet found, containing not solutions to specific issues but a collection of general procedures for solving whole classes of problems. Translators consider them best understood as an early form of instruction manual and one tablet was found to include “This is the procedure”, a phrase familiar in many modern publications. “Guidance” seems to have appeared in book titles in the 1610s. In 2016, Lindsay Lohan threatened the world with a self-help book offering guidance on living one’s life. It’s not clear if the project remains in preparation but hopefully a book will one day emerge.
Kim Jong-un & Kim Ju-ae with entourage (pencils poised) on an official visit to a Pyongyang greenhouse farm.
On Saturday 16 March, the DPRK’s (Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (North Korea)) state media department issued a statement,
referring to Kim Jong-un’s (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK since 2011) daughter as “great person of guidance”, a term Pyongyangologists swiftly noted was
reserved usually for senior leaders, the implication being a programme
was in place preparing her status as a potential successor, thus one day becoming
Kim IV. The analysts said it was
significant the statement was issued in both English and Korean-language
versions of the official Korean Central News Agency report on the visit by the Supreme
Leader and his daughter (within the family presumably now thought the "Supreme
Daughter") visit to a greenhouse farm.
Attaching great importance to the use of the plural form of the
honorific (the unavoidable suggestion being it applied to both), the analysts
noted the crucial sentence:
“The great persons
of guidance, together with cadres of the Party, the government and the military
went round the farm.”
The existence of the Supreme Daughter has for some time
been known although the official details are scant, her age or name never
mentioned by state media but according to South Korean’s military intelligence
service, her name is Kim Ju Ae and she is now aged thirteen.
Official DPRK Central News Agency photograph: Ri Sol-ju (b circa 1987; wife of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un) (left), Kim Ju-ae (b circa 2011; daughter of Kim Jong-un) (centre) and Kim Jong-un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK (North Korea) since 2011) (right), undisclosed location, February 2023.
The Kim regime, which will have the same sensitivity to
domestic public opinion as any authoritarian or despotic operation (an often
under-estimated political dynamic in such systems) and it would seem the
groundwork for a possible succession has been in preparation for some
time. The appearance in 2023 of Kim
Ju-ae at a banquet and subsequent parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of
the Korean People's Army (KPA) attracted interest and even then the
DPRK-watchers thought it might be a signal she had been anointed as Kim IV to
succeed the Supreme Leader when he dies (God forbid). That was actually her second public
appearance, the first in 2022 when she accompanied her father inspecting some
of his nuclear missiles, the big rockets long a family interest. Fashionistas were on that occasion most
impressed by the presumptive Kim IV in 2022 because she was dressed in black
white & red, matching the color scheme the DPRK uses on its
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM); everyone thought that a nice
touch. In honor of the occasion, the
DPRK issued a range of ICBM-themed postage stamps featuring the daughter.
Daddy-Daughter day with ICBMs: DPRK postage stamp issue featuring ICBMs, the Supreme Leader & his daughter, Kim Ju-ae. Like most eleven year old girls, Kim Ju-ae seemed much taken by the beauty of nuclear weapons.
However, the publicity attached to the Kim’s visit to the
farm was believed to be the “first expression of elevating Kim Ju Ae to the
ranks” of the leadership according to a statement from Seoul’s University of
North Korean Studies (UNKS) in Seoul, something confirmed by the Sejong
Institute’s Center for Korean Peninsula Strategy (CKPS) which noted the North
Korean term hyangdo (guidance) was typically
only reserved for “top leaders or successors.”
Attributing meaning to actions in the DPRK seems sometimes more art than
science and the record is patchy but the CKPS observed “this level of personal
worship for Kim Ju Ae strongly suggests that she will succeed Kim Jong Un as
the next leader of North Korea" and it certainly follows the pattern of behavior
adopted in the run-up to Kim Jong-il (Kim II, 1941-2011; Dear Leader of DPRK 1994-2011)
inheriting the country in 2011 after the death of Kim Il-sung (Kim I,
1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK 1948-1994). Notably, the lesson of the political uncertainty after the unexpected early death of the Dear Leader may have been learned and the mistake of not having prepared international & domestic opinion for the reign of the Supreme Leader will not be repeated. In this, the public appearances and use of “great person of guidance”
can be thought of as the early building blocks of the Stalinist personality
cult used to reinforce and perpetuate the rule of the Kims since the 1950s. Since her debut, Kim Ju Ae has appeared at a
number of her father's official engagements which have included a visit to a
poultry farm, military drills & parades and a tour of a weapons factory. All this is taken as solid evidence Kim Ju Ae
is the preferred successor and she can be thought of as something like a “crown
prince” or “crown princess”; the heir to the throne. It has never been confirmed is the new
Supreme Daughter is the oldest or even an only child because the rumors of one
or more sons have never been confirmed although the reports persist, including
that the health of the possible son is not good. By contrast, the official photographs seem to
suggest Kim Ju Ae is in rude good health and although reports of food shortages
in the DPRK appear frequently, she certainly looks well.
The Dear Leader (left), the Supreme Leader (centre) and the Supreme Daughter (right), looking at things through binoculars. Dating from the time of the Great Leader, looking at things through binoculars is a family tradition and there have been websites devoted to the subject.
Of course, while deconstructing phrases from Pyongyang is an exercise both abstract and remote for the DPRK-watchers, for the people of North Korea who have enjoyed some 75 years of guidance from the Great Leader, the Dear Leader and the Supreme Leader, the prospect of decades more of the same from the Supreme Daughter will be of more immediate interest. Public opinion in the DPRK is difficult to assess (although The Economist did publish an interview with the Dear Leader in which he admitted genuine support for the regime was likely little more than 25%) but it shouldn’t be assumed the folk there are not sophisticated consumers of political information and as the despairing staff of old Barry Goldwater (1909–1998) used to beg the press, they may be more focused on “what he means, not what he says.”
The second of the DPRK Central News Agency's photographs recording the visit to the greenhouse farm. Fashionistas will be interested to learn the wearing of leather is a more recent family thing, started by the Supreme Leader who reportedly has banned his subjects from donning black leather, the echo of a number of royal households who centuries ago imposed a proscription on commoners using the color purple which was reserved for royalty. Of course, the sartorial choice may be something purely pragmatic, black garments known to be "most slimming" and whether the ban has been extended to the Supreme Daughter's fetching chocolate brown has been neither confirmed nor denied. The notebooks carried by civilian & military members of the entourage are both compulsory & essential: if the Supreme Leader says something interesting, they write it down and presumably, should the Supreme Daughter say something interesting, that too will be noted although experienced stenographers develop techniques to limit the workload. Those employed at World War II (1939-1945) Führerhauptquartiere (Führer Headquarters) admitted they never bothered writing down the first thing said by the famously sycophantic Wilhelm Keitel (1882–1946; Nazi field marshal & head of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the armed forces high command) because it was always the last thing said by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945).
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