Very Serious People

 I like to read some of the stories that shed light on the inner workings of people in power. 

More than their political positions, I think it's their decision making process that helps me decide if I think someone will do well in office.

Part of that relates to something I've pondered before - is it better to have a perfect plan, executed imperfectly? Or an imperfect plan, executed perfectly?

I've come to conclude the latter is better, because part of executing a plan is to continuously evaluate your results and adjust the plan if needed. An imperfect plan, executed well, should still ultimately get to the desired result - whereas a 'perfect plan', executed poorly and without any feedback mechanism to adjust for failure, probably won't.

Plus seeing their decision making process helps identify what they value, since it often involves prioritizing one thing over another. (Like Trump prioritizing the appearance that covid was under control over the reality that it wasn't. That right there is a pretty big indicator about what he values - and that 'protecting the lives of average Americans' isn't one of them.)

Anyways.

I remember reading a bit about one of those internal discussions - not the recent one with Peter Hegseth, though the search for what I recall is being drowned out by that. It was some group chat with influential people, but what struck me was that some of the opinions expressed were...

Let's just say they weren't much different from some of the idiotic statements I've heard our enlisted grunts say.

And I was thinking about why it didn't much matter when Private Joe Schmoe said it, and yet it's pretty horrifying when someone with the connections to be in a chat like that does.

I think the difference comes down to two things - seriousness, and ability to make it happen.

When Private Joe Schmoe says that they wish they could just turn the entire middle east into glass- 

a) I suspect they'd hesitate and rethink that statement if they were ever actually in the position to do so. It's easy to say bullshit you can't actually make real, but knowing your decision would actually murder numerous men, women, and children? Many of whom are perfectly innocent? I expect they wouldn't actually follow through, and any who did would show a level of callousness and cruelty and a disrespect for the gravity of their choice that means they should never be in a position to make such a decision in the first place. 

b) They also aren't in a position to actually make it reality. If they ever were to achieve such a position, I'd hope they'd have gained the wisdom and maturity to know better.

Anyways... I use the term 'powers-that-be' instead of 'elites' or 'leaders' because 'powers-that-be' is just a statement of fact. It acknowledges that they have power and influence, but it doesn't credit those powers with being better than any of the rest of us. They aren't elite, and if they are leaders they aren't necessarily good ones.

And yet realizing that some of these 'powers' who are primarily connected and wealthy men are willing to spout off stupid comments that are just as ignorant as the dumbest joe?

Yeah... somehow I still expected better of them.

People feel disconnected and distrustful of the 'Very Serious People' because such people have learned to take the responsibilities of their positions seriously. So they learn to watch what they say, to be careful in expressing an opinion, and in the process they stop seeming authentic or passionate or real.

Some of that is inevitable. After all, as an officer in the Army it would be a Very. Bad. Thing. if I told my soldiers that I thought our battalion commander was ordering us to do something unnecessarily and foolishly risky. 

They may say that to each other, privately, but the minute an officer agrees? Suddenly it gives such complaints a certain legitimacy, and raises the specter of mutiny and sedition. (And the fact that Trump never tempered his speech, and instead deliberately and  repeatedly legitimized the lies about the 2020 election is part of why I think I can never forgive him for what he has done to this nation. He's the fucking President of the United States! And he has less self-control than junior officers do! If he honestly thought it was stolen, he should have waited until he had absolute proof or kept his mouth shut... and the repeatedly lost court cases showed he never had the proof, which he probably knew. And yet he still keeps saying that shit, undermining the legitimacy of what were our duly elected leaders, and in the process undermining the very Constitution he swore to defend! And he just doesn't care!)

Ahem.

But just because someone is 'authentic' doesn't mean they're better. After all, you can authentically be an asshole.

You can just as authentically be smart, caring, and passionate about things that don't require you to be an asshole at all.

Those 'powers-that-be', at least the ones that keep appearing in news report after news report in the past decade or so, seem to be remarkably ignorant and foolish...

Which then raises the question - why the hell are they where they are in the first place?

How did things get so bad, that such powerful and connected people are so unfit for their positions?

It's sort of like what people thought when we saw the golden parachutes for failed CEO's - we accept a certain amount of inequality, accept that some people get paid more than the rest... because the ones who are being paid so lavishly are supposed to have something more than the rest of us.

Those CEOs are supposed to have talents that the random person on the street doesn't.

But if they're going to fail, and still get ridiculous amounts of money? Well, hell... any of us can do that!

It basically shows, all over again, that we're not a meritocracy at all. And that these people making important decisions about our lives don't really deserve all the money and social acclaim they have.

I'm not saying they're dumb necessarily. But going back to that 'able to execute a plan well' bit?

They're knowledge and experience may not be suited to their positions, and while they don't necessarily have to be perfect right away, I would expect them to have those feedback mechanisms that would allow them to learn and grow and do better.

Instead, we have the current wrecking crew, and all the fools cheering them on.