In the Oct 21 New York Times there was a thought-provoking article entitled “The Opiate of Exceptionalism", by Scott Shane. It is about politics, and in particular this election. He begins by reminding us of the low U.S.rankings in many measures of success (child poverty, educational achievements, infant mortality, incarceration of our citizens, behind most of Europe, Australia, and Canada in social mobility, etc. etc. etc.). He then goes into the meat of the article, which is that politicians who place too much emphasis on the details of our problems do not get elected.
We prefer not to dwell on our problems in depth. We are confident that we will overcome them without too much pain. We even hear the words “American Exceptionalism”, which imply that there is something unusual about us that makes us better than other nations. That is a risky belief, because history has shown it not to be true. The rise and fall of empires has been consistent, and generally unexpected by the people in them. It is easy to find people in England the former Soviet Union, and even France who are stilll baffled as to why the world no longer considers them a superpower. Of course the U.S. is more exceptional………………….
We want our presidential candidates to reassure us that they have simple and relatively painless solutions to our problems. Unfortunately, solutions to many of our problems are neither simple nor painless, nor will they make everyone happy. They are solvable, but that requires that we work together, and keep our eyes on the future and not on the past —two things that are not always easy for large numbers of people to do. It is interesting to review Abe Lincoln's “A House Divided Cannot Stand” speech, which was thought to be politically risky when given. I think of it occasionally when the U.S. Congress doesn't seem to be able to get out of its own way.
The tendency for complacency is deep within human DNA, and serves a purpose, because it helps us diminish worry, and feel good about our lives. It is satisfying to have been involved in many years of producing large bore V-8 engines of ever increasing horsepower. We can overlook efficiency because there will always be available cheap gasoline, right? More oil will be discovered, right, coal can be converted to gasoline cleanly, biofuels will become cheap, Canadian tar sand gasoline will drop in price, right?
Complacency also makes us feel good about ourselves. We are losing our competitive advantage in manufacturing, but we are smarter, more innovative, more entrepreneurial, and better at business than people in other countries, right? And of course, our products will be of higher quality than anyone else’s as soon as we quit outsourcing. Made in the USA will reign supreme again. Not that easy.
Globalization is here to stay, and many other countries are in pursuit of increased overall product quality. And they have the skills and motivation to succeed. I agree with Shane’s article and believe we should encourage our political candidates and ourselves to go more deeply into our problems, and I think our companies to think harder about product quality. As my daddy used to say, nobody owes us a living. And as we all should know, you have to work hard to be exceptional. It doesn’t automatically come with your citizenship, race, gender, past performance, I.Q, size, or appearance.
If you would like to read a well-written article concerning complacency, read Malcolm Gladwell's July 27 2009 New Yorker article about the psychology of overconfidence entitled "Cocksure". It is here.
Off the topic, if you would like a thought provoking article on whether there will ever be cheap gasoline again, try this one.
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