That said, he does offer up serious food for thought and it did provide a butt-stroke to my memory group in regards to a quote/scene from Dead Poets Society that, while not haunting me, makes me think, real hard, about what we do and what it means. After all, they are the youth and our future; they are our national treasure, and they deserve our best efforts, not just our best sound bites.
"They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary."
Comments
<em>Rather than looking to politicians and pundits, they need to turn elsewhere for enlightenment--to poets, for example.</em> - Andrew J. Bacevich.
To look toward art is a good instinct if it forces a person to slow down and reflect. We need more than poetry, however.
The answer doesn't lie with poetry but with the people. And they - the citizens - must pay attention. I know I must come across as a foolish person to the professionals commenting here but I can't think of what else to do but to pay attention and educate myself. And then, perhaps, to act on what I learn in whatever small way I am able.
It's nothing to do with art and everything to do with due diligence.
I'll be honest: I'm often appalled at what I read in the foreign policy blogs. Such broad pronouncements, such surety, such confidence. Based on <em>what</em>? When I ask for data, or historical examples to explain a particular theory, well, what do I get instead? A list of well-rehearsed arguments and counterfactuals. I know we can't perform lab experiments on the world but how is it that so many experts write so much and yet fail to ground what they say in anything that exists out there in the real world?
Maybe I am wrong and the messiness of the past decade is the best we can do based on the current state of social science and study of human systems. If that is the case, then we should be much more cautious about engagements around the world whether they be military or aid related. Money disturbs systems, too. It's not just soldiers and bases and things like that. I am not arguing for isolationism. I am asking for better decision making and for humility.
The answer is not poetry. It is to pay attention and to ask very hard questions. Every single time. And maybe the questions will take me in a different direction than Dr. Bacevich but I can't think of any other way.
Perhaps SWJ can contribute by exploring various decision making cultures in the military and think tanks and Washington, etc. Not a politicized "food fight" accounting but something more calm. More decent. More honest.
At any rate, I'd rather know how we got so many cooks in the kitchen and so many decision makers and so many DOD and DC constituencies and problem solvers. Less poetry. More honesty.
The whistle blowers will have to man up.
I apologize if the above is improper for this forum. I see them, too, as a physician. I see them being wheeled around and leaning on crutches and coming into the hospital with spouses and babies and moms and dads - and, sometimes, all alone. I'm a pretty cold person based on my experiences. No one doing autopsies and studying tumors professionally can be too warm a person in some ways. But I see them. It's not even the injuries that get to me. It's the youth and the hope and the look of dreaminess - still! - that I see in their eyes.