THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE "X" FACTOR -- AN EXCHANGE

THE INCOMPREHENIBLE “X” FACTOR – AN EXCHANGE

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© August 14, 2011

REFERENCE:

The reader here is a former managing editor of an international journal that has published essays of mine on leadership, or more precisely leaderless leadership and dissonant workers.  To his credit, he had the courage to publish me when I left no one off the hook 

As the dust clears, and it becomes more apparent where we are, I can better understand why he published me, but also why I failed to connect.  Given the reputation of being provocatively in your face, it is now apparent I wasn’t in the reader’s face enough.

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A READER WRITES:

The American people, the media and politicians are still way too in love with movie one-liners and the notion that they have anything to do with leadership and wisdom.

The "missing story" is not a story but a snappy put down or challenge – also known as the buck stops here!  That is what Harry S. Truman said.  He went on, “They claimed I was giving them hell and I was just telling the truth.  If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.” 

My distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt put it this way, "Walk softly and carry a big stick!"

Harry and TR were both great leaders who also made some pretty big mistakes. They did lots more than just draft and give one-liners. I wonder who among our current leader wannabes would continue giving a speech and waving to the crowd after being shot, or would fire someone of the stature of MacArthur in the middle of a war

But this is not 1908, nor 1951.

We wanted new leadership but still feel more comfortable with someone who "acts" like a leader in a movie - this is life and we are messing up more, faster than ever before - we still want/need new leadership but still cannot actually embrace it because it requires us to do hard work as well.

Ever hopeful still - grin...

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DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

The current climate on the political right as well as left is puerile.  It is as if few in responsible positions have emotional maturity beyond eleven or twelve year old six graders. 

It is interesting that you mention President Truman.  We have been making a retreat from him ever since, on the right as well as the left.  Truman, who only had a high school education, was a failed businessman, and benefited from Kansas City, Missouri’s Tom Pendergast political machine, turned out to be his own man in the oval office.  Imagine that?

He not only fired a military leader who defied his political authority, but brought WWII to a dramatic conclusion by dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  Consider this, as vice president, he was not even privy to the existence of the bomb until after April 12, 1945, when FDR died, and he was elevated to the presidency.  Four months later, the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.

Truman was 24 when Theodore Roosevelt was making a name for himself in 1908.  He would go on to distinguish himself on the Western Front of Europe in WWI, and start his slow climb to prominence.

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I mention this because the brightest of our young people today, my granddaughter among them, doesn’t like history, and would rather read novels of vampires.  Indeed, my four-year-old granddaughter and her twin six-year-old sisters knew immediately when they saw the t-shirt we brought back from Romania came from the land of Transylvania and Dracula. 

Myth and fantasy, or a retreat from reality, has tainted the most celebrated of our leaders. 

Ronald Wilson Reagan, born in 1911, growing up in the jazz age and the roaring twenties, eventually finding his role in Hollywood, often attributed fictitious celluloid characters of the big screen to flesh and blood identities in his off handed stories. 

Hollywood has increasingly found its way into political leadership in recent years.  Meanwhile, there is little chance today of an academic the likes of Woodrow Wilson to scale the heights to the presidency. 

You might think President Barak Obama the exception.  Look at how he has come under fire, not only because of the state of the economy, but because he is unable to project or articulate the fantasy world we all prefer to embrace.  He is the only adult in the room for he doesn’t know how to act otherwise, and is criticized for this because we want him to reify our fantasyland and this is foreign to his nature.

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THE GENESIS OF JUVENILITY

When I was a boy in the early 1940’s, and we chose up sides, you weren’t picked if you weren’t any good.  You watched, or did something else. 

In school, we knew who was smart, who was lazy and who was dumb, and so did those so identified, and it was accepted if not liked that well.

It wasn’t cool to bully anyone because there was always someone else that could knock your socks off.

When we failed a course, or weren’t promoted to the next grade, parents may have wailed, “foul,” but they had no redress.  Teachers prevailed as the school superintendent backed them.  There was no taking the course over to erase a grade.

If you didn’t keep your powder dry, cheated, or misbehaved, you could be expelled, permanently.  That school was out of bounds for you, and if you wanted to continue your education it would have to be somewhere else. 

In kindergarten, first and second grade, you were awarded merits and distinction for excellence or the basis of performance with everyone else passively accepting the outcome.  You didn’t get awarded with something for nothing, that is, so as to protect your delicate psyche from permanent damage.

There was an unwritten mentoring process in which older boys and girls looked after younger boys and girls with a modicum of respect shown on both sides of the exchange.

There was no six-week Standard Achievement (SAT) review course that you could take to achieve a higher score and ranking with a better chance to get into your favorite college.  High school grades were an index of what you could likely do at the college level, and were accepted as such.

There also was no six-week Graduate Record Examination (GRE) review course that you could take to achieve a higher score and a better chance of getting into graduate school.  Your college record was an index of the possibility of your filling a slot in graduate school.

The irony is that students then had more of a voice in their education before educators came up with the student-centered learning. 

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Trudeau’s Doonesbury today hits the nail on the head.  The cartoon is about the results of a test, measuring student learning in terms of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills. 

The results show no gains after two years suggesting students spend far more time socializing than studying.  “C’mon dean,” the executive administrator says, “that’s why they come!  We give them good grades and a degree, their parents are happy too!  Who cares if they can’t reason?”  The dean answers, “Uh, employers?”

Not to be outdone, Dilbert by Scott Adams looks at the problem from a work perspective. 

Dilbert asks if he could work at home two days a week, saying, “I can be twice as productive and happier at the same time.” 

The boss admits in Adams famed fashion, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but you’re part of an elaborate science experiment to see how much frustration it takes to kill employees.” 

Then, the boss adds the rationale for this declaration.  “Why else would the company make you commute for two house a day just to sit in a tiny box?” 

Dilbert complains, “Other people work from home?”  The boss answers, “Are you referring to the control group?”

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We have had sixty-year-long cultural drag that has been like an elephant on our backs.  This finds us continually throwing clinkers in the works to frustrate our progress as reason has taken a holiday. 

That notwithstanding, we still believe we can find a leader, someone capable of pulling us miraculously out of this mess without first embracing reason and reality.  It is why the cycle continues, as we remain victims of circular logic with no inclination or will to manage an escape.

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Feminine advocate Gloria Steinem, now 77 and still beautiful, said it took a hundred years to get where women are today, and it will take another hundred years to get where they should be.  It is not only true of feminism but everything.  Cultural shortsightedness is endemic to every age and is always reluctant to let go of the status quo. 

We have spoon fed and promoted self-esteem psychology and self-indulgent behavior to three generations of children.  This has represented a frantic retreat from pain and failure and reality, and now pain and failure and reality are staring us in the face.  Small wonder we fail to recognize or deal with the fact. 

We have unwittingly groomed leaderless leadership and dissonant behavior into our constituency.  Now nine out of every ten people know nothing else.  Your point precisely. 

It is my view that this is unlikely to change whether President Barak Obama is reelected or not.  It will only change when we quit being squealing infants in grown up bodies if we don’t get our way.  I don’t hold much hope for us changing in the immediate future, which includes the 2012 presidential election, all the rhetoric to the contrary.

Be always well, good friend,

Jim

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