House of Eratosthenes

Andrew Sullivan Finally Has A President – Now What About The Rest Of Us?

I just read Andrew Sullivan‘s take how President Obama is handling his Afghanistan decision…

What we are seeing here, I suspect, is what we see everywhere with Obama: a relentless empiricism in pursuit of a particular objective and a willingness to let the process take its time. The very process itself can reveal – not just to Obama, but to everyone – what exactly the precise options are. Instead of engaging in adolescent tests of whether a president is “tough” or “weak”, we actually have an adult prepared to allow the various choices in front of us be fully explored. He is, moreover, not taking the decision process outside the public arena. He is allowing it to unfold within the public arena.

NOW he takes his time? We’re to view his deer-in-headlights vaporlock on Afghanistan as wisdom and engaging the public? Damn shame this wasn’t how he handled TARP… or the Stimuless… Or Healthcare Reform… With FOUR proposals available to him, he rejects each with no strategy of his own to put forth, and Sullivan seems to think he should be commended for his indecision?! Name ONE other time this President let any other “process take its time”.

Again — I see enormous harm being done to civilization, by a destructive force that is allowed to endure because it does not have a name.

Normally, when someone is diminished in some way, any way at all…a murderer is executed, a child is disciplined, a driver has to appear in court for failing to observe a u-turn sign, a military force is repelled, a military force is attacked, a horse head is left in a bed, the U.N. sends a strongly-worded letter…a message is sent. That is the real point to all of these things, and a civilized society depends on this.

Certain factors feed in to the effectiveness of the message. One factor is time. Obviously, “If you kill people we’re going to get you” is not as effectively communicated if it takes twenty years to execute the murderer, compared to if it takes twenty days.

Another factor is the potential for compromise. Think of the child being disciplined. Want to spoil a child rotten? Keep right on disciplining him — but make it a regular habit to consider everything. Consider that the child didn’t get a “fair warning,” that he didn’t really mean to do it, but yeah he screwed up but someone else did too…et cetera. Even if the child ends up getting whacked in the butt, or having his stuff taken away, the message is muted. If it’s a simple formula — you did it, there are consequences — the discipline is effective.

O Thinks Hard Yet another factor is opacity. That is, with regard to the decision to punish, or to allow the fire to rain on down. If the punishment might happen and it might not…but the connection between action & reaction is blurred, morphed, made ambiguous and hazy…it becomes just a random bad-thing-that-might-happen. Like a weather pattern. So part of the message needs to be “If you do this, that’ll happen, if you don’t do this, then that will not happen.” Consistency is key. The authority has to commit to things, like criteria, parameters, magnitudes. If the outcome depends on someone’s mood, then for anyone to modify their own behavior in consideration of such a thing, would be mostly pointless. They’ll be far less likely to do it.

The ultimate example of an effective message, is sticking metal tableware into an electrical outlet. The result is instant, jarring, and for all practical purposes, certain. Very, very few people do that twice.

For an example at the other end of the spectrum, I guess we have President Obama and Afghanistan. What’ll happen next? Nobody knows. President Sort-Of-God has to go off and think some more.

Over the past few days I’ve fantasized repeatedly about a world in which homicide is punished so rapidly, that the embalmer flies out to take care of the bodies of the victim and the murderer on the same trip. The point is — allowing that such a thing was possible, just imagine what would happen to the murder rate if we lived in such a world. By the same token, imagine how safe the country would be, if attacking us was an exercise similar to pissing on an electric fence.

This is what is under assault right now: The clarity of the messages. Justice delayed equals justice denied. There has to be more time, more thinking, more complexity, more obfuscation, more apologia, more…whatever. More ingredients in the stew. More of anything but action.

This is occasionally defended as something in service of respecting the Constitution. What part of it, I wonder?

Cross-posted at Cassy Fiano.

[…] to civilization, by a destructive force that is allowed to endure because it does not have a name. Read article. Obama’s Gift to Osama Peter Lemiska, NMJ.us Whoever suggested that Barack Obama is not […]
- FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS OVAL OFFICE WATCH | RUTHFULLY YOURS | 11/21/2009 @ 04:41

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Indecision as a VirtueSunday, November 15th, 2009

Indecision as a Virtue
Sunday, November 15th, 2009