This editorial has that Ukrainian Easter Doll quality, for it is an editorial comment on an editorial comment.
First the credits where credits are due:
The Never, Never Land of denial
© 2011 Deseret News Publishing Company | All rights reserved
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705375545/The-Never-Never-Land-of-denial.html
By Timothy R. Clark Deseret News
Published: Monday, July 4, 2011 9:13 a.m. MDT
Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D., is an author, international management consultant, former two-time CEO, Fulbright Scholar at Oxford University and Academic all-American football player at BYU. His latest two books are The Leadership Test and Epic Change.
“After civil war and the beheading of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell rose to power and became Lord Protector of England. As a leader and reformer, Cromwell commands intense controversy concerning his legacy. Some have castigated him as a ruthless dictator. Others have enshrined him as a founding father of England’s commonwealth and parliamentary democracy. Regardless of the view you take, it’s impossible to dismiss the power of the speech he made when he dismissed the Rump Parliament on April 20, 1653. It cuts to the heart of leadership intent and the tension between stewardship and self-interest.”
RIGHT ASCENSION COMMENTARY
Clark then quoted only parts of it. I prefer to quote for my editorial all of Cromwell’s dismissal of the Rump Parliament, since it is THE classic denunciation in the whole history of classic denunciations. It is the type of public address, depending on one’s political view point, that one wishes President Obama or one of his political adversaries, say Jon Huntsman, would blow in and say right to the collective pusses of the current House of Representatives, and then the Senate.
Oliver Cromwell's speech dissolving the Rump Parliament
delivered at London, England, April 20, 1653.
“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.
Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.
Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?
Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?
Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.
Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God's help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.
I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.
Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
In the name of God, go!”
Clark comments on the tone of this dismissive.
“Now resist the temptation to dismiss the speech as puritanical nonsense, moralistic high-mindedness or pious rhetoric. Even if you think it’s sanctimonious and even if Cromwell was a hypocrite, ask yourself this question, “Does this man have a point? Is the point relevant in our society, in our organizations, in our families?"
“I had finally stopped reeling from Anthony Weiner’s mockery of public service when I had to endure yet another episode of embarrassment, courtesy of Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois. Blagojevich has just been convicted on 17 counts of corruption, including attempted fraud, extortion, bribery and conspiracy. That’s not a surprise to anyone; the evidence was overwhelming. But then came his unchastened response: “Frankly, I’m stunned.” Then came the even more fantastic response: “Among the many lessons that I’ve learned from this whole experience is to try to speak a little bit less.” It made me think of a phrase by George Eliot from her novel, "Middlemarch": “Taking the world as an udder to feed our supreme selves.”
RIGHT ASCENSION COMMENTARY
It is fascinating how many conservatives get utterly indignant at Anthony Weiner’s . . . Well, Anthony Weiner’s weenie. It is not a crime for a married man to flirt. Nor is it a crime to lie to tabloid journalists. Many if not most find the climate in Washington – whether meteorological, political , or sexual -- poisonous these days. Whether the members of Congress live as single or married, monogamous, or adventuresome persons, Washington’s sexual climate has been of the kinky variety for a decades. Washington’s climate remains a perk or hazard of the federal public service profession.
Clark Continues:
“Isn’t it interesting that the human mind has an infinite capacity to rationalize? When reality doesn’t meet our expectations, we can escape to Never, Never Land. We can accept or deny. We can embrace reality or fashion a new version. Because humans hate discord between ourselves and reality, we always do one or the other, or perhaps a little of both. We can change ourselves or pretend to change reality. We can tell ourselves a soothing story. We have become very good at telling ourselves soothing stories, and we tend to spend an enormously long time doing it. In fact, we often wait for the impending crisis to hit before we are ready to throw away our soothing story. Public policy is the place where soothing stories abound.”
RIGHT ASCENSION COMMENTARY
I refuse to be intimidated by "reality." What is reality? It is nothing more than a collective hunch.
Inevitably when someone tells us, “You have to face reality!” What someone is really saying to us is that we have to believe his view of reality, or better put, his fantasy world view.
Clark continues
“How long did it take us to admit that smoking is a bad idea? How long will we persist in the denial that violent video games are harmful to children? How long will we contend that pornography is benign? How long will we argue that lotteries are not a regressive tax that preys on the poor? “We may each be entitled to our own set of opinions,” as the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “but we are not entitled to our own set of facts.”
RIGHT ASCENSION COMMENTARY
Countless people can prove Facts accurate through their five senses. Humans, however, always interpret the facts. Many places, Washington for example, do believe they have a right to their own collection of factual evidence.
I find Clark’s paragraph on the problems interesting, but arbitrary. He wrote a short article, so I expect that. If I had written it, I would have an arbitrary list as well, but I would include denial of the growing problems of
Ignoring the problems of alcohol.
Classifying prescription drug abuse as good and all other drug abuse as bad.
Continuing to burn fossil fuels at cheap prices
Spending trillions of dollars on the illusions of national and personal security
Relying on the Second Amendment and collecting guns to re-enforce the illusion of personal safety
Continuing to ship in foods, vegetables, and fruits from around the world at cheap prices.
Thinking that just because one has a job and makes money one is productive.
Believing that the American dream means self reliance, when in fact Americans have always purchased the American Dream on borrowed money and sent the debt two generations down the line for payment.
Clark concludes his editorial this way:
“Let me quote two men who were fast friends, then adversaries and friends again because they finally threw away the soothing stories that justified the bitterness that separated them for so long. Thomas Jefferson said, “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” His colleague and friend, John Adams, offered these words, “I sleep well, appetite is good, work hard, conscience is neat and easy. Content to live and willing to die. Hoping to do a little good.”
Let's try to spend less time in the Never, Never Land of denial.”
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