The Grey Area
It’s ironic that in an election year highlighted by the contest between a black man and a white man for blue and red states, the determining factor should be which of these men is better able to deal with the grey area in which much of today’s world resides.
There have always been questions and musings about issues and ideas that didn’t have clear cut answers. Today however, with the acceleration of global communication and commerce, one of the unintended consequences of the earth being flat (thank you, Mr. Friedman) is that there’s a nearly overwhelming amount of information, coupled with unprecedented degrees of cultural difference, that need to be acknowledged and processed in order to reach productive conclusions. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but much of the populace is either unwilling or unable to exert the mental muscle needed for constructive change to take place.
As this critical mass of information/cultural overload was building we saw a longing for simpler days and times that manifested in, among other things, the election of President Bush. His amiable personality was embraced while his lack of success in the private sector and lack of experience in the foreign policy arena at the time of his election were conveniently disregarded. If you’re not familiar with his history, he ran a couple of businesses into the ground and had never been overseas prior to his presidential candidacy.
At the risk of sounding fatalistic, at this point I’m not sure there’s an alarm clock loud enough to wake the populace. There’s too much static masking the alarm. Since a lot of folks can’t or won’t deal with the complexity of today’s growing grey area, they settle for simple, clear, awful solutions. President Bush is, unfortunately, one of those folks, as well as one of those awful solutions.
I have great respect for my elders and cherish their wisdom. Senator McCain does not lose my vote on that count. The grey hair does not preclude him from mastering the grey area. He has not, however, displayed himself to be nimble enough to deal with a world whose complexity is increasing exponentially, regardless of what we might like it to do. Focusing on McCain’s near illiteracy when it comes to the internet might seem like nit-picking, but it belies a lack of intellectual curiosity that is a necessary requirement for governing in this day and age.
The grey area has got to become part of our comfort zone if we and future generations of Americans are going to prosper in the years ahead.
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Right on again, LK!
The ambiguous “grey area” is expanding, as our attention spans are shrinking.
Not good.
you said in a line what took me two pages. good thing, unlike rice, there’s no server shortages. yet.
Not sure if nimble is what we need, LK. Not sure if the people are ready to take a chance on a great orator who is making contradictory statements. Not sure if rallying 200,000 Germans to say, “Are you ready to rock, Berlin?” is that far removed from the Bush concept of cocky superiority. The heartland are simple, but not stupid. Yet, The Falcon gets the distinct impression that OB – no matter if he is or is not doing it – plays superior. McCain, on the other hand is so blatantly WRONG, that The Falcon has found himself once again in the -THESE are the canditates? – mode.
The Zenons and Marillion-5’s are cracking up. God help us all, LK.