Contemplating Competence

Does cynicism increase with wisdom, or just with experience? I'd say it's with experience, and that even geniuses can be horribly gullible, but then I'm just being cynical.

Of course, cynicism is easy to come by these days, no matter your experience or IQ. All you need do is read the news in print or on the net, listen to it on the radio, or watch it on TV. Almost nothing you will come across will inspire pride, faith, trust, or any other positive emotion in those who govern us, or in those who report their governing.

We seem to be a nation run by incompetents, chronicled by idiots.

Ask yourself, when was the last time anything was done by our government that turned out well, and had lasting positive results? Hard exercise, isn't it?

The best I can come up with seem to be results that can't easily be tied to discrete actions, but are the results of long-term policy. Like the ending of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. Many feel that result could be linked to Ronald Reagan's aggressive spending on defense, but I'm not so sure that was the only factor, and maybe not even the critical one. And even this desirable event may have a few negative results in tow to spoil the glow. Like the vulnerability of the former USSR's nuclear stockpile.

And the fall of Lenin's Lads was a long time ago now, with most college kids barely toddlers or not yet born. What competent act has happened since then?

Don't say 'The First Gulf War', because I won't accept that answer. Daddy Bush may have orchestrated a successful military campaign, and showed admirable (if ultimately unwise) restraint in not pushing into Baghdad, but he and his advisors completely missed the point that leaving foreign (read, 'Western') troops permanently stationed on hallowed Muslim soil would have decidedly non-positive consequences. Like giving Bin Laden all the motivating PR he needed to recruit his suicidal terrorists.

And don't say the 90's economic boom. At best that was a collection of events that resulted in a flood of money that floated a lot of boats, but not all boats. And there's really no one person or administration to credit for that boom, certainly not Bill Clinton, nor either bracketing Bush.

And what has happened in the new millennium that is unabashedly positive and can be traced to enlightened or intelligent leadership? Well, the new era didn't have long to develop before 9/11 came along and left us with a table run of demoralizing failures.

Many of us hoped the tide would turn with the obviously intelligent, erudite, Barack Obama taking our lead, but that doesn't seem to be happening. You can't always judge a book by it's cover, sometimes competence may be only superficial.

So what are we good at? We can't run the country, report the news, or manufacture anything. We can't get an oil company to plug it's leaking well. We can't build levees that won't fail.

I guess we are good at comedy, and satire, and just plain laughing at everyone and everything. Jon Stewart, Colbert, that's what we do well.

Or maybe I'm just not being cynical enough, expecting competence to manifest in success. Maybe competence doesn't guarantee success, and it's all down to dumb luck.

In which case all of our past leaders may have actually been competent, but unlucky.

Not the press, though, they are still idiots.