- Bush Smiles Blindly in the Face of Disaster:The Cult of
Positivism
by Cathryn Sykes
- OpEdNews.com
I note that Mr. Bush is now labeling Mr. Kerry with the dreaded
"N" word, N in this case standing for "negative."
This plays perfectly into the cult of rampant positivism that's had
this country in its grip for years. This cult started when
useful ideas on positive thought and reinforcement were carried to
absurd extremes. It became a given that that the solution to
almost any problem was to simply "think positive." as though
a cheery attitude alone would make misery, poverty and violence simply
melt away. Oh, and we weren't even to use the word
"problem" anymore. We had to say "challenge"
or "opportunity." A little semantic sleight-of-hand
that, all by itself, would make things infinitely better.
Corporate America loved this idea. If anyone complained about
working conditions, impossible deadlines, inane corporate policies or
the lack of resources to do a job, they could simply be bludgeoned
with the "N" word. "Don't be
negative!" became a favorite corporate weapon when employees
protested being asked to do too much, too quickly and without proper
equipment or training. They soon learned that the only acceptable
answer to any order given was a cheery "Sure!" even if the
order made no sense and was impossible to carry out.
Typical of the results of this attitude was a staff meeting I once
attended where I asked a supervisor if he could supply me with certain
information by a specific date. "Sure!" came the
instant answer, accompanied by a glance at the department manager.
The deadline came; the deadline went. I called the supervisor.
Where was the information he'd promised me?
"There was no way I could get that for you so quickly," he
told me. I asked him why he hadn't simply said so at the staff
meeting. I could have searched for other sources. I could
have pushed back the deadline for my project. I would have had a
problem, but one I could have easily solved. But now I was out
of time and in trouble, specifically because he'd made me an empty
promise. Why had he done it?
"Are you kidding?" he said bluntly. "You say anything
resembling 'I can't' around Victoria and you're dead!"
Such fear permeates America. People hesitate to even mention
problems—sorry, challenges!—for fear of being labeled with the N
word. It used to be that a problem was simply something you solved,
often by identifying it early before it grew, as overlooked problems
tend to do. Now, far too often, a problem is something you
hide or ignore. ...and hope desperately that it simply goes away.
But real problems require real solutions, and this requires first
recognizing that a problem actually exists and then analyzing its
nature. This is what I call realism. There are still a few
realists around. Kerry is a realist.. He recognizes that
we have major problems in both Iraq, Afghanistan and this country and
that ignoring them in favor of endless chants of "Things are
getting better!" is no solution. He never says they're
unsolvable— few problems are— but does recognize that they need
addressing.
Mr. Bush, on the other hand, reminds me of one of the most positive
men who ever lived.
This man was an experienced leader, a man at the top of his
profession, a man in complete control of his team And his
team was the best available. Top of the line, cream of the crop,
hand-picked. A bunch of people hugely enthusiastic about their jobs.
They were given the best, most technologically advanced equipment to
work with, equipment that the rest of the world acknowledged as the
finest of its type ever created. Everyone cheered them on.
Their leader decided to go for a record, a record that would bring
recognition and glory to his team. Almost everyone involved was
gung-ho, excited, positive. A few people mentioned
possible problems, tried to point out worrisome shortfalls in
equipment, but they were labeled with the "N" word and
ignored. "Full speed ahead!" was the order of
the day.
And because of that order, because warnings were ignored or
downplayed—because of her captain's unrealistically positive
attitude— the S.S. Titanic rammed an iceberg and tore a gaping
hole in her side. The lack of sufficient lifeboats was no longer a
"challenge," but a sentence of death. Sixteen hundred people
went into the icy waters of the North Atlantic and drowned.
Sixteen hundred people.
In Iraq, the toll of American dead now stands at more than a thousand.
. Estimates of the number of wounded, sick or injured from that
war range as high as seventeen thousand. No one knows for
sure how many Iraqis have died. And despite Mr. Bush's incessantly
positive spin on the situation, things are not getting better.
America is running at full speed into increasingly dangerous waters.
We don't need someone with a go-go "cheerleader"
mentality at the helm. We need a problem solver. We need a
realist.
Think about that Nov. 2nd.
Cathryn Sykes syryn@mac.com is a freelance writer and political
independent who lives near Fort Worth, Texas. She became a Kerry
supporter after checking and refuting a tidal wave of anti-Kerry
stories sent her by her mostly-Republican friends. "As a
writer, I can recognize very carefully crafted propaganda when I see
it," she says. The tactics used by those she labels the
Bushites "both angers and scares the heck out of me. Add to
that the Administration's grandstanding, broken promises and
frightening arrogance and you have people we really need to remove
from power."
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