President Obama sacked his US military commander in Afghanistan after he was reported in Rolling Stone magazine criticising the administration. Although General Stanley McChrystal apologised publically saying “it was a mistake reflecting poor judgement”, Obama has fired him anyway on the basis that as Commander in Chief he will not tolerate “division” within his team.
This episode is another step along the road to disillusionment for me about the Obama administration which seemed to promise so much. Some say that McChrystal was unpopular with the administration anyway because he didn’t promise a swift end to the war which matched Obama’s hopes and his promises to the electorate.
A mistake in judgement in talking to a journalist is not that hard to forgive. Journalists are notoriously cunning creatures who seduce you into saying what you really think and then go and publish it. The words “this is off the record of course” are the first you should express in most interviews. A mistake in judgement in talking to a journalist does not make you a bad war general.
You shouldn’t have to always agree with your boss to keep your job. Your ability to run a war (or say negotiate a TV campaign, or plan a media schedule), should not be judged on the basis of your ability to say the right thing or agree with your boss in every case.
Of course solidarity is important, but so is the ability to work through conflict and genuine disagreements. If saying the right thing is more important than excelling at your job, it is a small step to having the right connections, knowing the right people and having the right set of relatives being the overriding criteria for getting ahead.
In 1968 Kurt Vonnegut wrote a brilliant novel and satire about war called Slaughterhouse 5. Its hero Billy Pilgrim comes across a story about a visitor from outer space who explains “the flaw” in the story of Christ in the New Testament. The intent of the Gospels is surely to teach people to be merciful to all people, even the lowest of the low. The problem is that Christ – who doesn’t look like much – is actually the son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understand this, so when they come to the crucifixion they actually think “Oh, boy – they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time”. The visitor from outer space gives people a new Gospel. In it the Christ figure really is nobody. And a pain in the neck to lots of better connected people. And he says exactly what he thinks. As a result he gets nailed to a cross. At which point the heavens open and God says this “From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!”.
Whoever you are you should be able to say what you think, assuming you can back it up, to your boss, without fear.
Will the internet make us more generous and curious?
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010On a recent episode of Radio 4’s Infinite Monkey Cage (a humorous science show) Alan Moore – renowned graphic artist and author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta – described a comic strip by Stephen Collins (http://www.collinscomics.com/). A stranger approaches a fortress. He knocks at the gate and asks to be let in. The guards tell him he can’t come in because they’re only allowed to let in people who are useful. The stranger says “You’ll find me useful I am the internet.” The guards look doubtful. The stranger repeats “You’ve got to let me in, I’m the internet and I can prove it” and he waves two sheets of paper at them. “Look” he says “I bring you pornographic pictures and the opinions of angry children”. The guards refuse to let him in. “But I’m the internet” the stranger replies. The guards go into a huddle and then say “OK, if you’re the internet answer this: we are quite interested in purchasing hot water bottle in the shape of cats. What else might we be interested in purchasing?”
The internet and search engines have changed us. Where once our need for information was mainly linear and easily satisfied with straight answers to straight questions, we now positively need random information chucked at us, and crave esoteric answers. Our curiosity drive has become twisted and rambling like a country road with countless turns and no end in sight. There is not an information super highway, there is instead the complex network of connections between one place and another so that the map of the web would more resemble a map of the back streets of nineteenth century inner London rather than of twenty-first century New York.
In truth many meanderings across the internet defy definition and are unmappable, taking us back to an earlier age of journeys when it was common for there to be some well trodden paths but many mysterious less well travelled routes. Clay Shirky’s new book Cognitive Surplus argues that the internet is returning humanity to an earlier path in other ways too. Shirky suggests that as we spend more time interacting with a wider range of contacts (via Facebook), and more time in active or collaborative pursuits online (compared to sitting alone in front of the TV) we will become more creative and more generous.
(And now Neuroeconomist Paul Zak has discovered that social networking actually triggers the release of the generosity-trust chemical in our brains thus proving at least this possibility. ( http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/147/doctor-love.html?partner=homepage_newsletter)
How much the internet causes more generosity or how much it will enhance less attractive traits of humanity probably depends on humanity itself. As an optimist I will settle for the positive, or at least that it might be a bit less awful than the pessimists amongst us predict.
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