My favorite football team, the BYU Cougars, just fired Jaime Hill. Mr. Hill had coached the defensive backfield, then was promoted to defensive coordinator. He had that job for a couple of years before being fired. Now he happened to be a black man at a mostly white university so I'm sure you can guess what some people are saying. To Hill's credit he has not played the race card, at least as far as I know. However others have, accusing BYU of picking on the minority coordinator.
In thus playing the race card those accusers ignore a few facts. First, BYU is off to a 1-4 start, its worst in many years and the defense has given up way too many points. Then there are the comments from former BYU defensive players. According to them, Hill was a great position coach before being promoted to coordinator. However he seemed out of his depth in the coordinator position. This seems to be a manifestation of the Peter Principle, he was apparently promoted to a job he could not do well. His play calling was suspect at best. Worse, his volatile personality drove several players to quit the team and others nearly left. He simply was not a good fit for that particular job.
I'm sure Mr. Hill will get another job soon and I wish him well there (unless he's coaching against BYU). However the reports I've seen lead me to believe that it was wise to dismiss him from the BYU program. I doubt the color of his skin had anything to do with that dismissal. In sports, coaches who don't get good results are fired regularly.
Hill’s firing is only one manifestation of the tendency of many in the media and elsewhere to play the race card. Any time someone from a minority group or a woman is fired, some people assume that it was because of race or sex. The examples are myriad. Van Jones left the Obama administration after his communist background and blaming of Bush for the 9-11 attacks came to light. However Jones is black and many assume he was targeted for his skin color. Even more common is the tendency to call anyone who opposes Obama's programs racist. It is common for Obama supporters to overlook the fact that some people just don't like his czars, his profligate spending, his increasing of government power, etc.
There are many reasons people oppose Obama. While some do not like his skin color, there are many more who don't like his politics. Playing the race card may score political points but it is simply wrong unless there is actual evidence of racism.
Illegal aliens are another issue often creating false accusations of racism. Surely there are some who want to keep out specific races. However there are many others who want border control because of the number of gang members and drug dealers entering the country illegally, or because of the jobs illegal aliens take away from citizens. Opposition to illegal aliens is not automatically racist.
How effective is playing the race card in politics? Unquestionably it does get people riled up. However it is not at all clear that it changes votes. The people who get riled up probably already oppose the alleged racist. Meanwhile the supporters of that target will also get energized. And I think voters are getting wiser in this regard. The undecideds seem to be becoming skeptical about the race card. It has been overused and is wearing thin. The leftist news media and others still swallow it but they are becoming isolated in that regard. That is a positive sign.
I hope we can all continue to regard accusations of racism with skepticism. While racism does exist so do false accusations of racism. We must ask for solid evidence and look to see if there are other explanations for events that may appear racist.
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Monday, October 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Big Lie
“Tell a big enough lie and people will believe it because they think nobody would dare say such a thing if it weren't true.” That advice, often attributed to Hitler's dictatorship, seems to have spread around the world. It pains me to say this about my country, but it also seems to have infected the U.S. presidency and congress.
For four straight weeks in October President Obama mentioned his health care reform in his weekly message. In each of the four messages he went so far as to claim that the people and congress were coming together to provide bipartisan support for his plan. I do not understand how anybody could believe that claim. Doubts have been growing, even in Obama's own party, and that was obvious before Obama made his claims. Either he is completely out of touch with reality or he is telling a big lie.
It saddens me to make such an accusation within my own country, just as it saddened me when Nixon was shown to have engaged in a cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Unfortunately the facts are there. Nixon did participate in the cover-up. Obama did tell a flagrant lie, claiming people were coming together to support his plan when the opposite was true.
Worse, that was not an isolated incident. On 24 October, Obama claimed that the “reform” would help save small business in the country. Somehow imposing higher costs on those companies is supposed to help their bottom line? You gotta' be kidding! Can he be that out of touch with reality or is he telling us another big lie?
Though there is not yet a single, finalized health care reform plan, it is clear that all the plans Obama and his followers support would add costs, either through taxes or through forcing employers to provide insurance. Companies with that additional expense would be competing with imports from China, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, places where wages are low and employer-paid health coverage hardly known. The result will be the near destruction of small business in this country.
Obama is not alone in this. Sen. Max Baucus claims that there is a “sense of inevitability....we're going to pass health care reform and it's going to lower costs, provide better health insurance coverage.” Sorry Max, there is no sense of inevitability except as you create one. Nor is it all that obvious that government meddling will lower cost or provide better coverage. I’m not sure if you are that out of touch with reality or if you’re telling another big lie, but it has to be one or the other. What you claim is completely wrong.
Al this is reminiscent of teen-age peer pressure. “Everybody's doing it, why don't you?” It appears to be an attempt to steamroll the opposition by creating a false impression that the “reform” is inevitable. Reasoned discussion takes a back seat. Instead the message is that we better get on board, join the bandwagon, do what everybody else does without thinking it through.
There was a time when we expected honor in our elected servants. While the story of Washington and the cherry tree was not true, it does illustrate an expectation that the people we hire to run the country should tell us the truth. Sadly that expectation has changed and we now go so far as to say that the way to tell if a politician is lying is if his lips are moving. That must change. We, the voters, must put a stop to this nonsense. We must contact our representatives and tell them to stop lying. If they refuse we must publicize that, then fire them at the next election – or recall them before that election if recall is available.
No democratic government can long survive unless the voters can trust their representatives.
If you like my blog, please tell others.
If you don’t like it, please tell me.
For four straight weeks in October President Obama mentioned his health care reform in his weekly message. In each of the four messages he went so far as to claim that the people and congress were coming together to provide bipartisan support for his plan. I do not understand how anybody could believe that claim. Doubts have been growing, even in Obama's own party, and that was obvious before Obama made his claims. Either he is completely out of touch with reality or he is telling a big lie.
It saddens me to make such an accusation within my own country, just as it saddened me when Nixon was shown to have engaged in a cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Unfortunately the facts are there. Nixon did participate in the cover-up. Obama did tell a flagrant lie, claiming people were coming together to support his plan when the opposite was true.
Worse, that was not an isolated incident. On 24 October, Obama claimed that the “reform” would help save small business in the country. Somehow imposing higher costs on those companies is supposed to help their bottom line? You gotta' be kidding! Can he be that out of touch with reality or is he telling us another big lie?
Though there is not yet a single, finalized health care reform plan, it is clear that all the plans Obama and his followers support would add costs, either through taxes or through forcing employers to provide insurance. Companies with that additional expense would be competing with imports from China, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, places where wages are low and employer-paid health coverage hardly known. The result will be the near destruction of small business in this country.
Obama is not alone in this. Sen. Max Baucus claims that there is a “sense of inevitability....we're going to pass health care reform and it's going to lower costs, provide better health insurance coverage.” Sorry Max, there is no sense of inevitability except as you create one. Nor is it all that obvious that government meddling will lower cost or provide better coverage. I’m not sure if you are that out of touch with reality or if you’re telling another big lie, but it has to be one or the other. What you claim is completely wrong.
Al this is reminiscent of teen-age peer pressure. “Everybody's doing it, why don't you?” It appears to be an attempt to steamroll the opposition by creating a false impression that the “reform” is inevitable. Reasoned discussion takes a back seat. Instead the message is that we better get on board, join the bandwagon, do what everybody else does without thinking it through.
There was a time when we expected honor in our elected servants. While the story of Washington and the cherry tree was not true, it does illustrate an expectation that the people we hire to run the country should tell us the truth. Sadly that expectation has changed and we now go so far as to say that the way to tell if a politician is lying is if his lips are moving. That must change. We, the voters, must put a stop to this nonsense. We must contact our representatives and tell them to stop lying. If they refuse we must publicize that, then fire them at the next election – or recall them before that election if recall is available.
No democratic government can long survive unless the voters can trust their representatives.
If you like my blog, please tell others.
If you don’t like it, please tell me.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The President's Education Speech
(NOTE: I was working and did not hear Obama’s speech to the schools. What follows is based on the text of that speech as published on the web.)
OK let's be clear at the outset. The president's school speech was generally pretty good, though it did have its share of political grandstanding and some misconceptions. He hit most of the right things and tried to encourage children to apply themselves to learning. I especially liked the part about how the students must be responsible for their own education, that's something I often use when I teach a class. I've been known to start the first class by saying, “My job is to teach; your job is to learn. Your job is more important
I believe the president made a few minor errors, but that is forgivable. However he also left out some important items, and their absence made his speech much less effective than it should have been. In his focus on the knowledge and information society he forgot that not every child will grow up to be an engineer, a nurse, or a lawyer. Some will become painters, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other types of craftspeople. What about the children who want those careers? They were completely left out. Based on Obama's speech they could well decide that education is not important for what they want to do. That would be a serious mistake.
Unfortunately not only the president, but many other people seem to think that the crafts are a lower status occupation not requiring any intelligence. They want to concentrate on jobs requiring a four-year college degree. That is a grave error (and could put our economy in the grave).
As John W. Gardner said, “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
We need people to build our buildings, wire them for electricity, put in the plumbing, paint them etc. In fact I suspect that the average plumber does more for our health than does the average physician. Plumbers help us get pure water and dispose of germ-laden body waste. Without their work, disease would run rampant. Plumbing and other crafts are essential to our economy and our way of life.
Nor are crafts the place for the weak of mind. Most such jobs require regular use of math and geometry. They frequently require creative solutions to unforeseen problems. Uneducated plumbers will give us pipes that don't hold water. Worse yet, public denigration of the crafts will direct young people to other pursuits and leave us with no plumbers and no pipes. Also no electrical wiring, no carpentry, no welding of metal structures. Our society and economy will collapse.
We need people to do the craft jobs and there are young people who prefer to work with their hands. They should be encouraged and prepared to do it right. I still remember in secondary school when we were learning about some geometrical concepts, including calculation of various areas. A classmate raised his hand and asked, “How will I ever use this stuff, I want to be a cat skinner?” (Bulldozer operator)
The teacher' wisely responded, “If you work for somebody else, you probably won't use it. However if you have your own equipment you'll use it all the time to estimate how much dirt you will have to move.”
What that teacher said is true of all the crafts. Painters, carpenters, welders, plumbers, all use their minds as much as they do their hands. If those minds are not prepared, the hands will make mistake after mistake.
We must regard craftspeople as the national asset they are. Joe the plumber, Eli the electrician, Will the welder, all are in good careers, careers necessary to our economy. In fact they have the added advantage that their jobs are unlikely to be outsourced. A company may hire a computer programmer in India. However that company won't be hiring someone in India to plumb their new building in the U.S. or to paint its walls.
I'm reminded of a manager I used to work for, call him Bill. He was a very educated man and also very family oriented. His son was apparently equally talented, good at academics and sports. He could have gone to college on an athletic scholarship as Bill had done. However what the son wanted was to run an excavation company. Bill's reaction was to first be certain that this was his son's real interest. He then helped the son get set up with the equipment and skills he needed. That son will probably never be famous, but he enjoys his work and his job isn't going to be exported.
So, Obama missed the mark on that one. The crafts are every bit as important as any other job in our economy. Those young people who are interested in such jobs should be encouraged to prepare themselves well for the work they will do.
If you like my blog, please tell others.
If you don't like it, please tell me.
OK let's be clear at the outset. The president's school speech was generally pretty good, though it did have its share of political grandstanding and some misconceptions. He hit most of the right things and tried to encourage children to apply themselves to learning. I especially liked the part about how the students must be responsible for their own education, that's something I often use when I teach a class. I've been known to start the first class by saying, “My job is to teach; your job is to learn. Your job is more important
I believe the president made a few minor errors, but that is forgivable. However he also left out some important items, and their absence made his speech much less effective than it should have been. In his focus on the knowledge and information society he forgot that not every child will grow up to be an engineer, a nurse, or a lawyer. Some will become painters, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other types of craftspeople. What about the children who want those careers? They were completely left out. Based on Obama's speech they could well decide that education is not important for what they want to do. That would be a serious mistake.
Unfortunately not only the president, but many other people seem to think that the crafts are a lower status occupation not requiring any intelligence. They want to concentrate on jobs requiring a four-year college degree. That is a grave error (and could put our economy in the grave).
As John W. Gardner said, “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”
We need people to build our buildings, wire them for electricity, put in the plumbing, paint them etc. In fact I suspect that the average plumber does more for our health than does the average physician. Plumbers help us get pure water and dispose of germ-laden body waste. Without their work, disease would run rampant. Plumbing and other crafts are essential to our economy and our way of life.
Nor are crafts the place for the weak of mind. Most such jobs require regular use of math and geometry. They frequently require creative solutions to unforeseen problems. Uneducated plumbers will give us pipes that don't hold water. Worse yet, public denigration of the crafts will direct young people to other pursuits and leave us with no plumbers and no pipes. Also no electrical wiring, no carpentry, no welding of metal structures. Our society and economy will collapse.
We need people to do the craft jobs and there are young people who prefer to work with their hands. They should be encouraged and prepared to do it right. I still remember in secondary school when we were learning about some geometrical concepts, including calculation of various areas. A classmate raised his hand and asked, “How will I ever use this stuff, I want to be a cat skinner?” (Bulldozer operator)
The teacher' wisely responded, “If you work for somebody else, you probably won't use it. However if you have your own equipment you'll use it all the time to estimate how much dirt you will have to move.”
What that teacher said is true of all the crafts. Painters, carpenters, welders, plumbers, all use their minds as much as they do their hands. If those minds are not prepared, the hands will make mistake after mistake.
We must regard craftspeople as the national asset they are. Joe the plumber, Eli the electrician, Will the welder, all are in good careers, careers necessary to our economy. In fact they have the added advantage that their jobs are unlikely to be outsourced. A company may hire a computer programmer in India. However that company won't be hiring someone in India to plumb their new building in the U.S. or to paint its walls.
I'm reminded of a manager I used to work for, call him Bill. He was a very educated man and also very family oriented. His son was apparently equally talented, good at academics and sports. He could have gone to college on an athletic scholarship as Bill had done. However what the son wanted was to run an excavation company. Bill's reaction was to first be certain that this was his son's real interest. He then helped the son get set up with the equipment and skills he needed. That son will probably never be famous, but he enjoys his work and his job isn't going to be exported.
So, Obama missed the mark on that one. The crafts are every bit as important as any other job in our economy. Those young people who are interested in such jobs should be encouraged to prepare themselves well for the work they will do.
If you like my blog, please tell others.
If you don't like it, please tell me.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
This and That
Hot air rises. That might explain some of the people who hold high political office, and even some business leaders.
It's discouraging to think of how many people laugh at what they regard as blind faith in religion. Yet many of those same people blindly accept politically correct ideas such as the nonsense that men and women have identical thought patterns. Such people even forced the resignation of a Harvard president who had the temerity to suggest looking at science instead of blindly accepting the politically correct belief.
As the football season starts we'll again hear commentators referring to “skill positions.” What they mean by that is the publicity positions, positions such as quarterback or running back that get lots of attention. Every position, from offensive center to defensive linebacker is a skill position.
If you improve something enough you will eventually break it. That common engineering saying applies elsewhere as well, including in government.
If the opposite of pro is con, what is the opposite of progress?
I drove by a golf course the other day. Grass all neatly manicured and sprayed for every conceivable pest. Water and sand traps carefully planned. Other vegetation likewise carefully planned and manicured. Then on the radio I heard an advertisement about how wonderful golf is because golfers get to experience Nature.
The Obama family spent months deciding which breed of dog to get for a White House pet. That is more time than the president wants to allow congress to decide on things like health care and energy policy, bills that run to thousands of pages and will have serious effects on the whole country.
Some claim that a clever saying proves nothing, but even that clever saying is wrong. A clever saying proves that someone came up with a clever saying.
It's amazing how many people laugh at the idea of an omniscient creator, then act like government officials are not only omniscient but automatically moral enough not to misuse their powers.
What can you find in most camping stores? The most modern sleeping bags and packable mattresses. Tents made of the latest materials. High tech water purifiers. Global Positioning System devices. The newest camp stoves. It's interesting how much technology it takes nowadays to get back to nature.
It's rather interesting how many “consumer advocates” want to prevent consumers from acquiring what they prefer to acquire at the prices they are willing to pay.
What a difference it would make if “community organizers” would organize people to clean up their neighborhoods, get educated, and get jobs instead of organizing them to demand tax-funded benefits.
Much has been said about the greed of banks and credit card companies. Yes they are greedy but let him who is without sin cast the first stone. What about the greed of people who bought things they didn't need with money they didn't have using loans they could not repay?
If common sense is so common, please explain why men have to wear dark wool suits in the summer and why women have to wear shoes apparently designed by the Marquis de Sade.
A businessman who sells something people want at a price they are willing to pay is regarded as selfish. Meanwhile a politician who takes people's money in taxes and spends it on something most don't want may be called a statesman. What's wrong here?
Extrapolating can lead to common human errors. Racism exists in our society, even racist cops. However that does not mean that every white cop who stops a black driver for speeding is racist.
Our society rewards heroes, people who rescue others. That is all well and good, but what do we do for the people who prevent problems so that rescue is not needed?
It's discouraging to think of how many people laugh at what they regard as blind faith in religion. Yet many of those same people blindly accept politically correct ideas such as the nonsense that men and women have identical thought patterns. Such people even forced the resignation of a Harvard president who had the temerity to suggest looking at science instead of blindly accepting the politically correct belief.
As the football season starts we'll again hear commentators referring to “skill positions.” What they mean by that is the publicity positions, positions such as quarterback or running back that get lots of attention. Every position, from offensive center to defensive linebacker is a skill position.
If you improve something enough you will eventually break it. That common engineering saying applies elsewhere as well, including in government.
If the opposite of pro is con, what is the opposite of progress?
I drove by a golf course the other day. Grass all neatly manicured and sprayed for every conceivable pest. Water and sand traps carefully planned. Other vegetation likewise carefully planned and manicured. Then on the radio I heard an advertisement about how wonderful golf is because golfers get to experience Nature.
The Obama family spent months deciding which breed of dog to get for a White House pet. That is more time than the president wants to allow congress to decide on things like health care and energy policy, bills that run to thousands of pages and will have serious effects on the whole country.
Some claim that a clever saying proves nothing, but even that clever saying is wrong. A clever saying proves that someone came up with a clever saying.
It's amazing how many people laugh at the idea of an omniscient creator, then act like government officials are not only omniscient but automatically moral enough not to misuse their powers.
What can you find in most camping stores? The most modern sleeping bags and packable mattresses. Tents made of the latest materials. High tech water purifiers. Global Positioning System devices. The newest camp stoves. It's interesting how much technology it takes nowadays to get back to nature.
It's rather interesting how many “consumer advocates” want to prevent consumers from acquiring what they prefer to acquire at the prices they are willing to pay.
What a difference it would make if “community organizers” would organize people to clean up their neighborhoods, get educated, and get jobs instead of organizing them to demand tax-funded benefits.
Much has been said about the greed of banks and credit card companies. Yes they are greedy but let him who is without sin cast the first stone. What about the greed of people who bought things they didn't need with money they didn't have using loans they could not repay?
If common sense is so common, please explain why men have to wear dark wool suits in the summer and why women have to wear shoes apparently designed by the Marquis de Sade.
A businessman who sells something people want at a price they are willing to pay is regarded as selfish. Meanwhile a politician who takes people's money in taxes and spends it on something most don't want may be called a statesman. What's wrong here?
Extrapolating can lead to common human errors. Racism exists in our society, even racist cops. However that does not mean that every white cop who stops a black driver for speeding is racist.
Our society rewards heroes, people who rescue others. That is all well and good, but what do we do for the people who prevent problems so that rescue is not needed?
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The Powers and Perils of Charisma
Today’s blog returns, at least partly, to the political arena though this applies in many aspects of life.
John Kennedy, Adolph Hitler, Barak Obama, Jim Jones, Bill Clinton, David Koresh. What do all those people have in common? Charisma. Each and every one attracted a following of dedicated supporters. However, some of those supporters can be more involved with a personality cult than with critical thinking. Too often they don't look at where their leader is taking them.
Charismatic leaders need to be careful lest they mislead their followers. The rest of us must be equally careful to avoid being misled. If we understand the problem and remain aware of it, that will help both leaders and the rest of us.
Charisma is a very powerful personality trait and can be used for good or ill. Sports coaches, military leaders, motivational speakers and similar people can use charisma to get people to perform beyond their normal capability. However charisma can also be dangerous. Jim Jones convinced his followers that they should drink poison. Hitler created one of the worst regimes in the history of the world. David Koresh led his followers into a fiery disaster. In each of these cases, people followed a charismatic leader. This unthinking followership leads to groupthink, a condition in which agreement becomes more important that what is right or true.
I saw a good example of this while I was at the army's jump school in Georgia. The commander of that school was a colonel who was a great leader and teacher. His charisma got everybody fired up to learn and to perform the unnatural act of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. It was the best training I got during my entire time in the army. However that commander was never going to get another promotion because of previous misuse of his charisma. He got a group of paratroopers fired up to jump even though the wind was high enough that regulations prohibited a jump. Some were injured and a couple were killed, all because he led them to act without thinking.
One of the best-documented examples of this comes from the Bay of Pigs fiasco early in the Kennedy presidency. Irving Janis describes this in his two books about groupthink. (The second book is really just an expanded version of the first.)
One of the major reasons for the Bay of Pigs decision was that Kennedy's charisma made staff members want to agree with what they thought he wanted. The decision to go ahead with the invasion was made essentially in a vacuum with no contrary opinions or information allowed. Dissenters were silenced and no effort was made to obtain outside information. The decision-makers acted on the assumptions that the Cuban military was ineffectual and that the Cuban people would rise up and help the invaders. Both assumptions were seriously wrong and experts in the State Department knew they were wrong. Nobody consulted those experts.
A study of the meetings leading up to the Bay of Pigs invasion presents a picture of staff members enthralled with a charismatic leader. This caused them to tell him what they thought he wanted to hear. Robert Kennedy even functioned as a "mindguard," telling at least one staffer that he should not speak his mind, but instead should get behind the president on the decision. Such decision-making problems are obviously dangerous. Why hire smart people as advisers and then allow them to be silenced?
To Kennedy's credit, he and his staff learned from the Bay of Pigs. When the Cuban missile crisis arose, they corrected their previous problems. Kennedy even went so far as to deliberately absent himself from many meetings to avoid giving people any hint as to his own preferences. His staff also made an effort to question all information and decisions. No person or opinion was ignored, nor was any person or opinion automatically accepted. The result was no groupthink and a much better decision.
The above illustrates the dangers a charismatic leader presents. A leader must, absolutely must, make good decisions if he is to help his followers. However charisma tends to block critical thinking among subordinates. It also causes voters to vote on the basis of personality instead of selecting a politician for good decision-making skills. For those reasons, charisma is a dangerous characteristic. Rock stars and other entertainers may be charismatic, but we should be very careful about charismatic leaders.
Each of us should recognize when we are following someone because of charisma. Then we should mentally step back and evaluate where that leader is taking us. Are his positions well thought out? Realistic? Really what we want and should do? We should do our own critical thinking before putting ourselves in the care of such a person. Had the paratroopers mentioned above thought before just following the jump would probably have been canceled and the deaths avoided.
Charismatic people have a great responsibility as well. They need to recognize their power to mislead and make an extra effort to be sure people think critically before following. The methods used by Kennedy and his staff during the Cuban missile crisis provide a good example of how to do it right.
Charisma can be a useful tool to get things done after a good decision is made. However it can interfere with decision-making and lead us to charge off, enthusiastically, in the wrong direction. We must be careful to avoid that kind of decision-making.
John Kennedy, Adolph Hitler, Barak Obama, Jim Jones, Bill Clinton, David Koresh. What do all those people have in common? Charisma. Each and every one attracted a following of dedicated supporters. However, some of those supporters can be more involved with a personality cult than with critical thinking. Too often they don't look at where their leader is taking them.
Charismatic leaders need to be careful lest they mislead their followers. The rest of us must be equally careful to avoid being misled. If we understand the problem and remain aware of it, that will help both leaders and the rest of us.
Charisma is a very powerful personality trait and can be used for good or ill. Sports coaches, military leaders, motivational speakers and similar people can use charisma to get people to perform beyond their normal capability. However charisma can also be dangerous. Jim Jones convinced his followers that they should drink poison. Hitler created one of the worst regimes in the history of the world. David Koresh led his followers into a fiery disaster. In each of these cases, people followed a charismatic leader. This unthinking followership leads to groupthink, a condition in which agreement becomes more important that what is right or true.
I saw a good example of this while I was at the army's jump school in Georgia. The commander of that school was a colonel who was a great leader and teacher. His charisma got everybody fired up to learn and to perform the unnatural act of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. It was the best training I got during my entire time in the army. However that commander was never going to get another promotion because of previous misuse of his charisma. He got a group of paratroopers fired up to jump even though the wind was high enough that regulations prohibited a jump. Some were injured and a couple were killed, all because he led them to act without thinking.
One of the best-documented examples of this comes from the Bay of Pigs fiasco early in the Kennedy presidency. Irving Janis describes this in his two books about groupthink. (The second book is really just an expanded version of the first.)
One of the major reasons for the Bay of Pigs decision was that Kennedy's charisma made staff members want to agree with what they thought he wanted. The decision to go ahead with the invasion was made essentially in a vacuum with no contrary opinions or information allowed. Dissenters were silenced and no effort was made to obtain outside information. The decision-makers acted on the assumptions that the Cuban military was ineffectual and that the Cuban people would rise up and help the invaders. Both assumptions were seriously wrong and experts in the State Department knew they were wrong. Nobody consulted those experts.
A study of the meetings leading up to the Bay of Pigs invasion presents a picture of staff members enthralled with a charismatic leader. This caused them to tell him what they thought he wanted to hear. Robert Kennedy even functioned as a "mindguard," telling at least one staffer that he should not speak his mind, but instead should get behind the president on the decision. Such decision-making problems are obviously dangerous. Why hire smart people as advisers and then allow them to be silenced?
To Kennedy's credit, he and his staff learned from the Bay of Pigs. When the Cuban missile crisis arose, they corrected their previous problems. Kennedy even went so far as to deliberately absent himself from many meetings to avoid giving people any hint as to his own preferences. His staff also made an effort to question all information and decisions. No person or opinion was ignored, nor was any person or opinion automatically accepted. The result was no groupthink and a much better decision.
The above illustrates the dangers a charismatic leader presents. A leader must, absolutely must, make good decisions if he is to help his followers. However charisma tends to block critical thinking among subordinates. It also causes voters to vote on the basis of personality instead of selecting a politician for good decision-making skills. For those reasons, charisma is a dangerous characteristic. Rock stars and other entertainers may be charismatic, but we should be very careful about charismatic leaders.
Each of us should recognize when we are following someone because of charisma. Then we should mentally step back and evaluate where that leader is taking us. Are his positions well thought out? Realistic? Really what we want and should do? We should do our own critical thinking before putting ourselves in the care of such a person. Had the paratroopers mentioned above thought before just following the jump would probably have been canceled and the deaths avoided.
Charismatic people have a great responsibility as well. They need to recognize their power to mislead and make an extra effort to be sure people think critically before following. The methods used by Kennedy and his staff during the Cuban missile crisis provide a good example of how to do it right.
Charisma can be a useful tool to get things done after a good decision is made. However it can interfere with decision-making and lead us to charge off, enthusiastically, in the wrong direction. We must be careful to avoid that kind of decision-making.
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