Obama Suggests Reckless Talks
Barry Farber
Barry Farber
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
We've all seen them. We've all worked with them. We've all been one at some point too - and some of us have been one more than a couple of times. Some of us help them, others laugh quietly, some of us are friendly, while others are aloof. Sometimes they do well, sometimes great, but sometimes they don't fit in and they go on and repeat the process somewhere else.
Being the new guy isn't easy. There's a learning curve on every job - you encounter more failures than success when you start out. You have to learn the language and pace of a job. The language can be industry specific or simply the cadence. And the pace is the rhythm of the work. We've all witnessed newbies, bursting with enthusiasm and ideas, all too willing to rip the establishment because they see systems that are cumbersome or (in their eyes) don't function effectively. Generally some company veteran pulls the young upstart aside and tells them not to rock the boat so hard that it gets swamped. Contained, tempered, or measured enthusiasm is the ideal.
We deal with this everyday in the business world. Management changes, they bring in 'their team' - people they've worked with before or went to college with - and they systematically get rid of those members of the previous administration that don't ascribe to the new vision or direction of management. The new team thinks they know how to do things better or more efficiently because it worked at their last company or supposedly worked for some other company.
The trouble with this is that businesses lose oodles of knowledge when employees leave. A lot of these people were also new once - they tried their ideas, some failed, some succeeded, but they learned - and they know more than their job description, pay grade, or age belies.
This is why the whole apprentice system was invented in work - you learn the procedures and short cuts from an expert in that profession. And most of us, in lieu of apprenticeship, started out in positions much lower than a CEO or editor-in-chief. It's the same thing with school too when you think about it. We aren't born knowing things like sciences, mathematics, literature, or sports, all of these have to be learned.
We even have to learn how to socialize. There are rights and wrongs in every culture. From the proper etiquette, to proper language appropriate to our surroundings, to couture...all of it has to be learned or else there is too much social discord or disruption.
Disruption - social disruption - is the precursor to change in many historical instances. Now, I'm a believer that some change is good, and challenges to the social norms are needed from time to time - either to test the merit of social law, or to ferret out those that seek to destroy the whole for personal benefit. But wholesale anarchy? Never, unless you're ruled by a dictator or tyrant.
So, when is it okay to rock the boat? Logic and compassion dictate that it should be when the fewest amount of people would be harmed, and most would find benefit. Say, the change from long skirts to shorter skirts, or from horses to cars, or from cars to mass transit. Granting women the right to vote, overnight delivery to fax, and fax to internet...things like these are all 'good' change.
And this brings us to Barack Obama. His degrees from two prestigious universities indicate he's smart, but I've known 4.0 students that needed maps to get home, so the degrees - while impressive - don't matter. We know he's a charismatic speaker and has an innate ability to charm an audience that candidates in both parties would die for. I'm sure he's a nice guy to hang out with, and heck, I'm certain a majority of the people in this country would prefer to go to a BBQ at his place versus all the other current candidates. It seems like he's a great family man, and clearly takes his faith seriously, unlike some of the religious posers out there on the stump.
But that being said, we're not hiring a guy to be class president or leader of a social welcoming committee. We're in the process of hiring a President. It is fitting that the process leading up to employment takes as long as four years, and that the personality examination covers a candidates entire lifetime. Candidates have to go through this long, drawn out political vetting to prove they are the best choice for the job. The media scrutiny, the lack of sleep, the personal sacrifice, and the constant crush of humanity are a mere shadow of a precursor to the daily realities of the office. If a candidate develops cracks during this phase, he or she gets passed over, like Howard Dean and his primary implosion of 2004.
Being the leader of a nation - any nation - is perhaps the toughest job in a country. Being the leader of the United States is that much harder because of our global reputation as a leading democracy founded on a culturally rich and diverse immigrant base. We are a beacon of what can be when cultural and social divisions are willing set aside for the greater good. Thus, the leader of our nation has to be a person that has a precisely balanced sense of right and wrong, has an empathy for humanity, has the ability to see beyond tomorrows headlines, has the innate ability to see multiple angles of problems and solutions, has the fortitude to handle criticism with dignity and admit errors when appropriate, and has the ability to make decisions based on facts - not political or party agenda. It is not surprising that very few citizens of our great nation care to take up the challenge. The white hot spotlight of the world is permanently focused on the office. It's like that MTV show 'The REAL World', only the cameras are on for 1461 days straight, or 2922 days if you are good enough to get invited back.
Back to the boat rocking - Obama's recent international policy 'faux pas' are indicative of someone who fails to understand that the establishment he wishes to disrupt.
He's the new guy - we get that.
He wants to shake things up - we get that.
But his reckless statements (talks with Cuba, nuke option off the table, and let's invade Pakistan) show how politically naive this junior Senator really is. And, he has a degree in political science with a concentration in international relations! Say what you will about Hillary, she looks like a beacon of international light next to his dim policy ideas. Obama will impress the impressionable, but he leaves those of us with an understanding of global relations feeling very, very cold inside. The 'what if he were president' is almost to horrific to imagine given his current skill set and charisma.
Obama needs to invest more time is being a Senator, and perhaps he should join a few committees to get a better understanding of Washington and the global importance of the office of President. He needs to be an apprentice first; he is verbally reckless which is not a leadership quality. Only time on the job can give him the proper skill set to take the next step. He may not recognize his own deficiency, instead relying on his multicultural background to give him the illusion of a mental leg up in international politics. He parentage does not give him any super ability to understand cultures - his experience is his own - not his father's or his mother's. It would be like me having an inborn understanding of Germany because of my father, who is a naturalized citizen, was born there. I've never been to Germany or speak the language.
Mr. Farber is being polite when he uses the word reckless.
I see something more dangerous than the power crazed and ethically bereft Clinton's, the hypocritical 'poor man' Edwards, and that sufferer of chronic mental and verbal diarrhea, Howard Dean.
Here is someone with no grasp of the enormity of the position he seeks. Frivolous words haphazardly tossed out have the potential to incite our enemies and alienate our allies. Our media and foreign media can twist those words around to their benefit. The media sells papers and advertising in times of strife, so always keep in mind their financial objectives! Obama seems clueless about this, sort of like the new guy making political blunders - shaking hands with a snarly, anti-social CEO. Or being friends with two sworn office enemies, or showing up a superior to impress someone higher on the food chain, or not knowing enough to replace the empty water cooler bottle.
Yes, Mr. Farber, Barack Obama is reckless. But I would also call him clueless.
