The Perfect Storm of Incompetence

I am spending alot of time lately thinking about the state of the union and where we are headed.  There is something afoot in this land of ours that is darkly disturbing and I have been preoccupied with trying to  draw lines around it for months, so I can articulate what it is that is bothering me so.

It seems to me there are two reasons why we are in great danger of foundering as a country.  First, the mass of citizens is undereducated, not very intuitive or bright, and simply can't understand why they can't have what they want immediately.  Basically they are acting like 5 year olds.  Additionally, when it comes time to vote, they usually have no idea what anyone really stands for and have virtually no understanding of the issues that qualifies them to make any decisions concerning those issues.   Second, the people charged with running the county--legislators and industry leaders are preoccupied with making money at all costs, in spite of intelligent arguments to be forward looking and plan for the future.  The people writing and enacting legislation are consumed with making money from special interest groups, getting re-elected, and raising money for re-election.  Despite what they say, they are greedy, self serving, and many of them are just plain stupid.

I used to think that the body politic was intuitively smart and could discern bullshit from truth, but I think that is no longer the case.  What I see all around me are  people who actually believe that all of our ills are caused by the direction we have taken over the last 20 months.  I think that is ridiculous! 

We all know that changing the American economy is like trying to turn a battleship 180 degrees.  You can't do it fast.  Nothing can be done fast.  Somehow, Americans think that once Obama took the oath of office we should have had instant fixing and instant change.  People simply don't understand the nature of legislation... the time it takes to a) get it passed,  b) see it actually start to function, and finally c) see the effects of the legislation. 

Look at Obama's health plan as an example.  It was just passed 6 months ago, we just saw the first pieces become activated, and if you look at the rollout of the rest of the benefits, most of them don't have effect until 2014!  And  yet, all the Republicans and other empty headed braying mules that follow them scream long and hard about, is how it has ruined the economy and caused giant deficits.  In fact, every independent economic board looking at the effects of the plan predict that it will lower costs over the long run.    And yet, there are Republicans telling us that it's going to bankrupt the country and they are going to repeal it.  Excuse me, it passed!!  Give it a chance!  But no, all we hear is how the majority of Americans hate it.  What they hate is what they believe from all the half truths and lies that have been told about it for the last year, and somehow the Democrats are unable to defend it.  The people would rather believe the lies.  What happened to American's ability to perceive truth and reason?   Has our education system been such a consummate failure that the average citizen cannot think for himself and discern facts from lies?  Is it just too complicated for any of us to understand?

The stimulus is another red herring that Republicans keep smacking all of us in the face with.  It kept us from having a depression!  No one seems to want to acknowledge that fact.  Rather, those who claim it has been a failure, only want to return us to the conditions prior to the crisis so we can go through it again.  They refuse to acknowlege that we were headed for desperate straits during the Bush years because of his lies and mismanagement.  It is not part of their consciousness.  All we are told ad nauseum is that Obama is responsible for ruining the country.....and the masses all believe it, along with other drivel like, 'he's a Muslim', he's a socialist, he wasn't born here, blah, blah, blah. 

What is wrong with the average citizen in this country?  The Republicans are howling about all the terrible things that Obama is doing, and no one wants to get in their faces and howl back at them that they were the ones who got us here in the first place.  Change takes time and we must give the battleship a chance to turn into the wind so we can see the course we are finally on.  No one is willing to do that.  Everyone wants instant gratification.  That is the nature of our materialistic society. It is the reason we are in such desperate trouble.  What is clear to me is that we have been heading into this quagmire for over a decade and we can't simply fix all the ills in 15 minutes.  No one wants to acknowledge that fact.  People are not smart enough to see that for themselves.  They want to believe someone who says they can fix it by tomorrow.

Then there are the politicians who will say just about anything to anyone to get elected.  All they do, and I mean ALL they do is predicated on raising the most money for re-election.  They take money from powerful lobbying groups, they make decisions based on who has given them the most financial support, they lie unabashedly.  They are matched by those who run powerful companies and will do anything to keep the stock price up and the bottom line rosy.  I remember having lunch many years ago with a Wall street icon when our company was a public company.  He had been involved with the Milken scandals of Drexel Burnham Lambert, and when I asked him whether he had ever lied about something to his shareholders, his answer was " only when there was no other choice"!  I think that is the modus operandi for most congressmen and business decision makers.  It will ultimately be the downfall of our country.

So the biggest problem as I see it is that everyone has their own set of facts and those facts have nothing to do with what the actual facts are.  The public is left to try to choose which facts are the ones to believe and for the most part they are incapable of analytical thinking of any kind and simply agree with whomever is screaming the loudest.

Then there is Mr Obama and his minions who simply don't understand all of the above and are seemingly powerless to raise this issue with the people, and find a way to make a cogent argument that has enough gravity to be believed.  They don't have the words to make the masses understand what needs to be done and to get them to buy into enough time to see the changes through.   Strange that someone who rallied the country with his promises can't make them understand that he is keeping them.

It's all a perfect storm of incompetence.

L'Shanah Tovah

I watched a remarkable documentary series this past weekend.  It was called the Jewish Americans (of which, of course, I am one).  It was a look back at the history of Jews in America, starting with their arrival in the 1600s up through the present day.  It was a high quality story, for sure, but I didn't really appreciate the impact of it until the last 15 minutes of the final part of its three parts.

As you might expect from PBS, it was a well produced and in some ways a frightening story that spent much of it's time examining the nature of anti-semitism in this country--it's ebb and flow over the last 350 years.  There were no real surprises, except that for the first time in my life I was able to put the entire timeline in some kind of perspective.  I was able to place myself in the continuum for the time I have been alive and it was illuminating to  finally have a sense of place in the flow of Jewish life in America.

Over the years I have been what I now realize is a secular Jew.  Sure, I know the basic service at the synagogue and remember the songs and melodies that have been a part of me since childhood, but my family were not 'temple goers'.  My Mom and Dad were part of that massive migration of Jews to the suburbs in the 1950s and I grew up in a small town in New Jersey where most of my friends were Jewish and we all went to Hebrew School together.  The Temple was more of a social instrument than a religious one.   I was Bar Mitzvah-ed and then.... sort of cut loose from the bonds of higher learning at the Temple.  All my friends were Jewish. (although I was smitten with a shiksa goddess named Linda Scarlett in 1st Grade!)  But all through my post Bar MItzvah life, my attachment to the Temple was virtually non-existent.  I went to Temple on the High Holy Days, but never felt the draw of being a religious Jew who prayed every Saturday.  I never felt like I was missing anything specific, but I always had this nagging kind of anxiety that I was somehow not really being what I needed to be as a Jew.

I remember when I was studying for my Bar Mitzvah, my Uncle George, who was an imposing figure and very learned, kept reminding me that on my Bar Mitzvah day he was going to ask me why I was proud to be a Jew.  I lived in fear of that moment because I never could formulate an answer that I knew would satisfy him, or myself for that matter.  He passed away before my Bar Mitzvah, so I never had to answer the question, but the question still haunts me today.

As I watched the program, I was especially moved by that final part of the episode that described what has happened to Judaism and our Jewish life experience here in America over the last 30 years.  As a student, the details of the holocaust and the role of American Jews in the creation of the State of Israel; in the Civil Rights struggle; in the effort to save Soviet Jews were all well learned during my school years, but the collection of film, photographs and narrative and the way they were presented gave me a deeper understanding of the role we Jews played in the unfolding American Story of the last half of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st.   I  was able to fine tune my place in the story.  The last segment of the program took the position that Judaism has changed and is always changing. 

The wonderful thing about Judaism is that it celebrates life.  It encourages questions and study.  It is not about sin, but rather about living a life according to the laws of Torah and seeking a connection with God by being joyful and celebrating life.  I was surprised to find out that the Orthodox movement has seen the largest resurgence of membership in literally hundreds of years.  Yet even the young Orthodox Jews had contemporized  Judaism by relating it constantly to our life experience now--what is happening to us as a culture now.

There was a segment about a young boy who had the same kind of upbringing I had.  He had the same questions I did about who he was and what his place was.  He was a musician, and had a rock band as a teenager (just like me), but his passion was reggae music.  His idol was Bob Marley.  He listened closely to the lyrics of Marley and heard stories and references to the Old Testament throughout all his music.  It was a touchpoint for him, and he started writing his own lyrics using the Old Testament as his inspiration.  Today, he is Matisyahu, an American Hasidic Jewish reggae musician.  He has transformed himself into an Orthodox Jew and his passion is to relate the teachings of Torah through the most unlikely of mediums--reggae music.  But he is incredibly popular, not only with non Jews, but with Jews as well!  To listen to him perform and describe his journey to the place he is now is to understand the meaning of Judaism for our time.  It gives me comfort to know that my own sense of my own Jewishness is valid.  I have become a Jew for my time.  And I am proud to be a Jew, Uncle George, because I finally have a sense of the value and intrinsic beauty of being a human being that is comfortable in his own skin.  I can be Jewish in my time.  There are all kinds of new ways we can express what it means to be Jewish.  We can all take a deep breath and feel free to create whatever comes out of the interaction between our inherited tradition and the culture we are living in.The words of one of the prayers that I remember so well says it all:

"Blessed are thou O Lord our God who has given me life, has sustained me in life and has brought me to this moment. "

I think the key is to realize that there is a preciousness to this moment.   Being a good Jew, and a proud Jew,  is to realize the preciousness of each moment that we have.  Judaism is not one size fits all.  However, the constant throughout our history is our celebration of life and all its blessings.

L'Shanah Tovah, everyone!

Trying to Make Sense of It All!

So now we rush headlong into the election season.  I am amazed at the mood of the country, and aghast at the ignorance of the population as a whole.  It is inconceivable to me (and I marvel at it every day) that a majority of Americans believe that by handing the government back to the Republicans we will be better off.  Notwithstanding the inability of the Democrats and the President to articulate a comprehensive plan for recovery to the people, the fact that the attention span of the majority of the populace is so short as to allow Republicans running for office to blame the condition of the economy and the high unemployment on the current administration is ludicrous.

How is it possible for intelligent people to be swept up in a kind of mass hysteria that nothing is happening fast enough; the stimulus package failed; Obama is a Muslim, Socialist, Communist, evil person; tax cuts without spending limits will solve everything; and on and on?

Listen to John Boehner, and Lindsay Graham and John McCain.  Do they really have a plan?  What about Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh?  Do they really have a plan?  Do all these fast talking smear experts of the Tea Party have a plan?  How about all the Republican congressman who, in lock step, have opposed every initiative of the administration from Day 1, and now blame all the  woes of the country on the folks who have at least tried to do what they believed is the right thing.  Do they have a plan?  None of them does.  All they know how to do is point fingers and blame.

I just don't see how electing these kinds of people is going to help us deal with our overwhelming structural and economic problems.  Has anyone actually studied the statistics?  I hate to be the bearer of unwanted news, but the country is actually in much better shape than it was on January 19, 2009.  At least we haven't fallen off a cliff, which is where we were back then.  In spite of united Republican opposition, more people have health care, there is new regulation in the banking industry, and the automotive industry was stopped from cratering.  And all we hear from all the media veragos is that we have lost all our freedoms!  I haven't lost any freedom!  I can still go where I want, work where I want, speak to whom I want, express my opinions where and when I want to.  What are they talking about?  Have you seen any 'death panels' lately?  Are they flying any Marxist flags over the White House?  Has anyone been thrown into jail for no reason?

Now you can ask whether the current administration and President has done everything perfectly and I think we would all agree that it hasn't been ideal by a long shot and there have been missteps.  Is Obama disappointing as an inspirational leader and a perfect communicator---yes, but is that a reason to throw all the progress away and put the people back in power who drove the car into the ditch in the first place?  Good Lord it has not yet been two years!  Give me one example where two years after a major recession, depression or panic, that things were back to normal.  Sorry to tell all you people with the attention span of gnats, but coming out of a recession this deep and pervasive that was 10 years in the making is going to take longer than 20 months.  It always has!

There is a part of me that really dislikes only commenting on the political health of the country all the time, but I really fear for this nation's intelligence.  I don't really think we are very smart as a people.  We have let a bunch of idiots run things for too many years and they have brainwashed us all.  Selfishness, greed and the seeking of power has triumphed over compassion, intelligence, and doing the right thing.

Am I thrilled with all that the Obama people have done?  No, but I will tell you this--I have listened to the man speak.  I have never heard him utter one phrase or word that is in contradiction of our Constitution or laws.  I have only heard him speak of the wisdom of the people and the need to be compassionate and supportive of one another.  I have seen him reach out to all segments of humanity and be accused of being a Muslim, a communist, and the personification of the AntiChrist.  (Have you seen the daily movie on Glenn Beck's website and the portrayal of Beck as the Savior of our country by driving the Devil out of the White House?)  How is that constructive?  I have only seen him try to do positive things for the future of our country and be harangued at every turn for motives he clearly does not possess. 

What I am having trouble understanding is why ordinarily smart people believe all the crap that is fed to them by the hatemongers and naysayers.  My own sense of all this is that these people just don't like a black man in the White House, and will do and say anything to try to preserve an ethics and morality that is twisted and outdated.

Wake up America and plug your brains back in before it is too late.....