In praise of not screwing up
by Mira and Charles on December 15th, 2009No, this isn’t about Tiger Woods. It actually comes off a Time piece on the ’00s, “the decade from hell.” The piece is about how we (that is, the nation and the world) went wrong in the last ten years. And boy, did we go wrong. As you well know.
But what does this have to do with the stuff we do here at Chestnut Hill? A lot, it turns out.
At one point in the article, the authors say that actually we have ourselves to blame. How’s that? Here’s a quote:
“If you look at the underlying causes of some of the most troubling developments of the decade, you can see some striking common denominators. The raft of financial problems, our war with radical Islam, the collapse of GM and much of our domestic auto industry and even the devastation brought about by Katrina all came about at least in part or were greatly exacerbated by:
Neglect. Our inward-looking culture didn’t heed the warning signs from around the world—and from within our own country—that Islamic terrorism was heading for our shores.
Greed. Our absolute faith in the markets, fed by Wall Street, combined with the declawing of our regulators to undermine our financial system.
Self-interest. The auto industry disintegrated while management and labor tangoed from one bad contract to the next, ignoring their customers and their competition, aided and abetted by their respective politicians.
Deferral of responsibility. Our power grid needs an upgrade and our bridges are falling down because we have not mustered the political and popular willpower to fix them.
Well, that about says it all. A good lesson, whether you’re a decade or a person. It’s really all about paying attention to what’s most important.
If we pay attention to this, both our own lives and the whole coming decade will turn out very well indeed!
