Sunday, April 25, 2004
Stupid Leader Tricks
Unlike some of our elected officials, I believe that history matters. Even though we may be dead when our history is written, our children and our grandchildren won’t be. It is important for us to remember this simple fact. If it’s true that a certain leader of the free world made that silly statement that history doesn’t matter because we’ll all be dead, then I must say that we should all be worried about the direction that our world is heading.
I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but when one silly statement gets added to another, a pattern begins to appear. Then again, what can we expect from our elected officials when we ourselves show a gross neglect of knowing and understanding our own past? It’s not just the fact that many students in our schools are ignorant of history. It’s the fact that many adults – even those of a certain age – are equally ignorant.
Sometimes, we think we know the past, but, in fact, we only know a part of it – namely, the part that makes us feel comfortable about ourselves. We just read those books and journals that uphold our point of view, be it political, religious or cultural, and not bother to read the opposing viewpoint.
I found an example of this when I was surfing the web recently and came upon a right-wing website. It was a political forum where someone made the statement that all the past Democratic presidents were weak in wartime leadership – in contrast to the current leadership, of course!
Among other things, the writer made the statement that Franklin Roosevelt had the U.S. declare war on Germany without due cause. (According to this person, since Japan attacked the U.S., then, naturally, we should have just fought the Japanese, not the Germans!) What the imbecile who wrote this didn’t bother to say was that Hitler had Germany declare war on the United States first! Therefore, how can we blame FDR for asking Congress to declare war on Germany?
Of course, this little fact didn’t bother the forum writer since he just wanted to make an ideological point. So, he told only half a story, but half a story is just propaganda. This is not unique to the Rabid Right either. I have many examples from the Loopy Left as well.
There are quite a few radical left websites that keep rolling up the usual tripe that it was our leaders who planned 9/11 and not Al Qaeda. (This is similar to people saying that FDR allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor.) I have even written to some of these forums hoping to show some sanity, but I got attacked (flamed!) for my efforts so many times that I’ve given up and left them to their imagined conspiracies.
It’s important that we learn about history because the past gives us an opportunity to see if we’re making the same mistakes that were made before. Sometimes, I wonder if our leaders hope that we stay ignorant about the past. This way, they can tell us whatever they want and expect us to believe and follow them. (When I say “leaders”, I don’t just mean national but local as well.)
One of the reasons why I started writing these newsletters is to give examples where events of the past remind us of the present. The way some people talk - and believe? - our current situation with the war on terror came about in a vacuum, as if some Arabs just happened to hate the U.S. and decided to do us harm out of the blue – literally! Others seem to have a short term view of history and believe that everything really started because of our government’s support of Israel.
Of course, the truth is much more complicated than this, but to even try to explain the complexities of this particular anti-U.S. sentiment would take a good while. So, it’s easier for people to believe the simple than the complex. The challenge then becomes to simplify the complex so it can be understood by most of us.
The problem for us is that our leadership deals in – thrives on! – soundbites. They assume that we all have the attention span of a child and feed us simplistic – not simplified, but simplistic! – drivel and hope that we won’t notice the facts. This has been our politics for the past two decades.
In a way, soundbites may be alright as long as the leaders don’t lead in soundbites – as long as they understand the complexities of the world and act accordingly. It becomes dangerous when elected officials actually use soundbites as a leadership tool. In this case they’ll throw away nuance and see the world in black-and-white, us-against-them. (I’ll leave it to your judgment whether that is our current situation or not.)
In my last essay, I wrote about how British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sold Czechoslovakia down the river with his policy of appeasing Nazi Germany. At the time Chamberlain was lauded for being a great leader for bringing “peace in our time.” Of course, history sees Chamberlain and Appeasement in a totally different light. We look back at that time and wonder what were they thinking? I’m afraid that people 50 to 100 years from now will look back at us and ask the same thing: What were they thinking?
I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but when one silly statement gets added to another, a pattern begins to appear. Then again, what can we expect from our elected officials when we ourselves show a gross neglect of knowing and understanding our own past? It’s not just the fact that many students in our schools are ignorant of history. It’s the fact that many adults – even those of a certain age – are equally ignorant.
Sometimes, we think we know the past, but, in fact, we only know a part of it – namely, the part that makes us feel comfortable about ourselves. We just read those books and journals that uphold our point of view, be it political, religious or cultural, and not bother to read the opposing viewpoint.
I found an example of this when I was surfing the web recently and came upon a right-wing website. It was a political forum where someone made the statement that all the past Democratic presidents were weak in wartime leadership – in contrast to the current leadership, of course!
Among other things, the writer made the statement that Franklin Roosevelt had the U.S. declare war on Germany without due cause. (According to this person, since Japan attacked the U.S., then, naturally, we should have just fought the Japanese, not the Germans!) What the imbecile who wrote this didn’t bother to say was that Hitler had Germany declare war on the United States first! Therefore, how can we blame FDR for asking Congress to declare war on Germany?
Of course, this little fact didn’t bother the forum writer since he just wanted to make an ideological point. So, he told only half a story, but half a story is just propaganda. This is not unique to the Rabid Right either. I have many examples from the Loopy Left as well.
There are quite a few radical left websites that keep rolling up the usual tripe that it was our leaders who planned 9/11 and not Al Qaeda. (This is similar to people saying that FDR allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor.) I have even written to some of these forums hoping to show some sanity, but I got attacked (flamed!) for my efforts so many times that I’ve given up and left them to their imagined conspiracies.
It’s important that we learn about history because the past gives us an opportunity to see if we’re making the same mistakes that were made before. Sometimes, I wonder if our leaders hope that we stay ignorant about the past. This way, they can tell us whatever they want and expect us to believe and follow them. (When I say “leaders”, I don’t just mean national but local as well.)
One of the reasons why I started writing these newsletters is to give examples where events of the past remind us of the present. The way some people talk - and believe? - our current situation with the war on terror came about in a vacuum, as if some Arabs just happened to hate the U.S. and decided to do us harm out of the blue – literally! Others seem to have a short term view of history and believe that everything really started because of our government’s support of Israel.
Of course, the truth is much more complicated than this, but to even try to explain the complexities of this particular anti-U.S. sentiment would take a good while. So, it’s easier for people to believe the simple than the complex. The challenge then becomes to simplify the complex so it can be understood by most of us.
The problem for us is that our leadership deals in – thrives on! – soundbites. They assume that we all have the attention span of a child and feed us simplistic – not simplified, but simplistic! – drivel and hope that we won’t notice the facts. This has been our politics for the past two decades.
In a way, soundbites may be alright as long as the leaders don’t lead in soundbites – as long as they understand the complexities of the world and act accordingly. It becomes dangerous when elected officials actually use soundbites as a leadership tool. In this case they’ll throw away nuance and see the world in black-and-white, us-against-them. (I’ll leave it to your judgment whether that is our current situation or not.)
In my last essay, I wrote about how British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sold Czechoslovakia down the river with his policy of appeasing Nazi Germany. At the time Chamberlain was lauded for being a great leader for bringing “peace in our time.” Of course, history sees Chamberlain and Appeasement in a totally different light. We look back at that time and wonder what were they thinking? I’m afraid that people 50 to 100 years from now will look back at us and ask the same thing: What were they thinking?
