I agree with everything Nick says here.
Donovan brings up several interesting points of accountability and responsibility. One of which is the political power one can accrue from taking responsibility - it’s one of those many counter-intuitive aspects of social life that most are oblivious to until they really consider what is going on:
Accepting "accountability" has the ironic function of increasing power. This applies in personal lives and in political struggles. Consider the power differential between "It’s your fault - you screwed up!" and "It’s my fault - I will find a way to fix it." The former redirects one’s mental energies toward proving blame, toward "holding the other accountable," toward collecting evidence and deploying that evidence as a weapon to punish the other. The latter focuses one’s mental energies toward seeking solutions to problems.
The latter also shows the rest of the social world how mature one can be - a huge benefit to a leader - everyone loves a martyr, even when it is from self-crucifixion. The bush camp kind of plays the other game, however. I feel that the cabinet is made up of movers (Rove) and scapegoats who take the fall for the president - Condoleeza, Rumsfeld, now that FEMA guy. And he dodges the largest of bullets. But people recognize that someone had to hire these scapegoats who keep messing up - since Harry Truman told us where the buck stops, the president should be held accountable for those decisions. The thing is, dood didn’t have the job thrust on him - his dad was the president - he had some idea what he was getting into, and then when he was re-elected he certainly had four years experience-worth of what he was re-upping for. So in the electoral sense, I’m responsible for my vote, but George W Bush is responsible for signing up on the ballot.
That said, as a public servant - the highest public servant, Bush is responsible for whatever he can do in his job - keeping the country and its people secure in their lives and rights. Of course I am (as we all are) accountable for whatever I can do - be it donations to relief efforts, joining up with the Red Cross, or blogging for awareness and the continuance of the dialogue about the socio-political impact of recent events on this site.
Donovan says:
First step: collect knowledge - but not the kind of knowledge that makes one an effective debater. Knowledge that leads to a second step: acting on that knowledge.
I agree with this. But I think that these words are actions too - a special kind of action, but actions nevertheless. I think that debating can be a kind of doing as well. During the 9/11 ordeal, I had evacuees from downtown stay in my dorm room. I donated time, money, space and goods to relief efforts. I was right there and doing a very little bit to help out. I’m doing the same right now with Katrina, and Rita (with levees breached again), however far away I am. It’s very little, I know, but I have faith that others are doing the same.
The question is how much is enough? Should I have trained in life-saving techniques after 9/11 so that I would be prepared should some disaster ever happen again? Probably. Did I? No. Why? many reasons. The point is how far must i push my will? Do I have to become Batman - pushing myself to the limits of human potential for the hell of it or to save people? Probably. Have I? No. But while the bulk Batman’s power comes from his will and traumatic past, we can’t over look that other fact - Bruce Wayne is damn loaded, and has a crap-ton more resources than the average ninja. It’s not his core magic, but those state-of-the-art gizmos and batarangs help.
Bush has almost no will to push himself to the limits of human potential, but he is damn loaded as well, not just with personal bank, but also with the entire resources of the Nation. He signed up for that, and I’m not going to look inward the whole time without holding the dood accountable for what he could have done, and still hasn’t - that’s his job - to do whatever he can - this "I’m only human" thing he’s doing now doesn’t cut it, and never has. We all know where the buck stops, and so does he. Maybe he could at least break even in popular opinion if he acknowledged all this crap as well. Not that that would be enough for my non-Christian heart, but I could smirk like Cassandra a little better for it.
If we sit waiting for people to "figure it out," we’ll sacrifice the opportunity to do more. And generally, it’s a long pattern of constantly acting that establishes one’s credentials and enables one to in fact do more.
I agree, but I think this blogging thing, is "doing." Enough drops do make a flood, and I submit that this blog Donovan just wrote is as good as those phone calls he made to mobilize votes.
History is written by whom? In other eras, we’d say the "winners." Today though, image is manufactured like a commodity, and history is a collection of images. We have about as much control over the crafting of those images as we do over FEMA, or Katrina for that matter - but we have far greater control over ourselves: what we see, what we think, what we say, and to whom we say it.
This is true. But something else is going on right now Donovan, and that top-down PR model ( I work in PR) doesn’t work too well any more. This is why blogging and file sharing are raising the cackles of the Fourth Estate and the RIAA so much - because grass-roots, bottom-up PR power is more relevant than commercial advertising, and a lot of business models are having to change, the same way the DNC political mobilization model has to change if that party is to be effectual once again. So if we keep it up, the accountability whispers can turn into a roar, and if we can do that, we are holding ourselves accountable for what we can do as well.
This has been Andy D, Viva WIS!
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