This week another storm brewed as President Obama tried to make a dent in the armor of a conflict that has been waged since World War II. By mentioning a single date (1967), Obama was said to have "picked a fight with Israel." Today he begins to make in roads into repairing the damage, explaining that he didn't say anything earth shattering or unusual in his reference to those post war boundaries.
What do these two storms have in common? Israel, yes, but more importantly, taking a short view of things vs. a longer one.
The 'short view' in general is the quick decision without the research, the impulse buy at the store, the whim that can lead to heaven or hell. In both these cases regarding Isarael, had the agents involved stopped to think, maybe they'd be better off today. To whom does this warning apply? All of them. Tony Kushman probably may have been better off had he considered how his words would be taken out of context and used against him. The CUNY board should have looked into the situation before rescinding his award. In these two cases, political expediency trumped long and deliberate thought. Perhaps it was impossible for Kushman to think out the long term ramifications of his ideas, and the way our world now recycles and spins words and sound bites, they are little machines with teeth of their own. The CUNY board, trying to "get out in front" of the accusation that they were being anti-semitic, surely made their move without a conversation with Kushman.
Could Obama have had more conversations about this speech prior to this moment in order to calm the waters? Did he and his cabinet know the furor was coming? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I have come to see of late that we rarely see anything coming as clearly as we think we do. In hind sight, we see it all, and can assign motivations to every event. But in real time, I am surprised at every event that comes up.
We can all read the news as Harry Shearer does with a supercillious air, finding every news maker ludicrous and short minded. To be fair, it was Mr. Shearer who made me aware of the CUNY debacle in the first place. It was his show and his spin on the story that made me think, how could they dare do this?
As news consumers it is a very convenient place from which we judge the short sightedness of others. Still, there are decisions made that we can criticize as (in hind sight) really, really bad.
This past week, someone decided to layoff one of my family members. This is the short sighted view of the world at its worst. This short sighted person looked at what would "work" for her in the short run. Despite claiming that it was about the future of the company, she was really choosing what was convenient for her for now. If she had considered alternatives, and had conversations about the problem, the conflict might have been resolved. But who can have such conversations? Instead, we act fast, think decisively, and react to the catastrophes later.
One is often criticized as being too pensive, too cerebral, too wishy washy if one asks questions first. This is the classic attack on Hamlet, the prince who thought too much. I am more and more convinced of the importance of Nietzsche's observation that Hamlet did not think too much, but rather, that he thought too well. He thought too well because he could see the long term implications of every act he considered. This can lead to paralysis. One must eventually put on a le show or respond to a request...
Take a quick listen to the Harry Shearer show from Saturday. You will hear about...
Those who sell and buy FEMA trailers full of formaldahyde are desperate for cash and desperate for housing, respecively. Preston Mitchum plagiarizes a You Tube speech and later hopes it won't have an impact on his career as a lawyer... Another man blamed his Danish sense of humor for offending... well, everyone except his closest friends. von Trier said he sympathized with Hitler. He is now "persona non-grata." In an opening prayer, Bradley Dean attacks Obama's faith in the Minnesota house of representatives. GOP head Kurt Zellers denounced the words, but should he have seen it coming? James Frey (A Million Little Pieces) was apologized to by Oprah Winfrey this week because, she now explains, she hadn't thought about his side of the story. Someone named Hartge used the word "jewed" and then defended it by saying it was in the dictionary and that it was a business term. Jamie Diamond (of JP Morgan Chase) apologized for wrecking people's lives while the shares of JPM went up by 11%. Newt Gingrich apparently was "inartful" when he "appeared" to call Ryan's plan for destroying Medicare socialist. He now wants to work with him and are exchanging emails.
This list of short sighted folks is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Of course, the only way one can stay off such lists is to say nothing or do nothing... The long view takes too much time, and by the time you get the idea out, everyone is on to something else. We live in a very rapid world, where time is short and so is our attention span. Most of us cannot read anything longer than a paragraph or so. Length matters, and so does the long view, but it takes time we don't have?
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