about that

Orwellian Timing

2009-06-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

I finished reading 1984 last week while on vacation with my family, and was struck by the timelessness of its lessons. Unfortunately, I was also able to watch those lessons demonstrated through the sad state of Iran, whose rulers' daily efforts to squelch protests were so closely paralleled in the book that it no longer felt like fiction.

The book clearly demonstrates the tendencies of totalitarianism, and is a statement of the authors frustrations with socialist movements within his time (specifically Russia), which he believed betrayed the socialist ideal. Orwell's frustration seems to be the frustration of many socialists of the period, who observed the horrific actions of socialism's practitioners and yet did not want to disown their own socialist ideology. Realizing Orwell was still a defender of socialism (democratic socialism, that is) while reading this book was very strange to me, as it seemed he grasped precisely how socialist movements would be corrupted, and why they have almost universally failed - at least in their purest forms.

For me, this book is best read through the lens of Hayek's "The Road To Serfdom", where he provides a thorough explanation of why socialism will lead to the same political reality as a fascist state.

Great read, though. On to Animal Farm.

My future son...well, at least in temperament

2008-10-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

McCain Getting Pummeled on the Marketing Front

2008-07-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

vs.

"Tell a story that is memorable and remarkable and worth listening to. Seduce your customers, because that's exactly what they want you to do."

Seth Godin, on marketing

I'm realizing that, barring some cataclysmic change on the national or international stage, my choice for president '08 is going to be made right before election day. This is the first election I really care about, and I don't feel it's an easy decision. We have two very good candidates, and unlike the last election, where I felt the decision was more obvious (Bush had to at least try to finish the war), I feel clarity over who is the best candidate. I will admit to some bias. Truth is, I really like Obama and feel like I'm looking for an excuse to vote for him with a clean conscience. I also predicted he would be our next president before he declared he would run, mostly because he seems like such a great guy. But I'm worried about his policies, which is certainly no small thing. I think McCain is alright, and I like his toughness, as well as his service, and his pre-campaign policy.

All that to say, I'm doing my research. I'm pouring over the plans of each candidate, reading up on constitutional theory, trying to look empirically at the economic situation, thinking through the actual dynamics of health care plans, and even reading "The History of the American People," just to gain some perspective. I will write more about all that later, but at this point I just have one question.

Why is McCain so out of touch with the emotions of the American people? I love this guys policy perspectives - well, before he started drifting right. I trust he will drift back again. But on a more surface, simple, marketing level - what the hell is he doing? It's starting to feel like his campaign is being run by a bunch of old-fashioned, out-of-touch political science geeks. It's like a local car salesmen is running for president. I want a reason to vote for the guy, to cheer for him, to get excited. I don't want it to only be about policy. His ability to sell himself is about as clumsy as the Republican tagging machine here in Colorado (where Mark Udall, a Democrat running for Senate, is laboriously and annoyingly referred to by the Republican party leaders as "Boulder Liberal Mark Udall"...I'm bothered, and I'm for the other guy!) I don't hold McCain directly responsible for the incompetence of his marketing machine (though he is definitely responsible). But it increasingly feels like, if I vote Republican, it will be out of a strong exercise of mental discipline. Let me give two quick examples.

Early in the campaign, I signed up as a supporter of both Obama and McCain, so that I could get all the e-mails from their staff and stay up-to-date with what they were telling their volunteers. On June 19th, Obama announced he would not participate in the public campaign finance system, sending out a friendly e-mail with a message from David Plouffe, his campaign manager. The icon to the right accompanied the message, and became the image associated with the "Declaration of Independence from a Broken System." As you can see, the graphic contained daily updates detailing how they were blowing past every stated goal of grassroots fund-raising. Regardless of the flip-flop and political maneuvering, it was certainly fresh, and in a way, inspiring. Barack (as he refers to himself in his e-mails) made the announcement through a video, which made the grassroots feel of the decision even more potent. This guy is still a community organizer to the core. And he's good at it.

On the same day, I got an e-mail from the McCain camp, called "The McCain Update." I'm not really sure who "The McCain Update" is supposed to appeal to, but it's certainly not the youth or the baby-boomers. Outside of being entirely official with trite efforts at friendliness (like reading announcements at church on Sunday morning), McCain offers the opportunity to recruit friends and help "Team McCain" generate some creative ideas under the "Let's See Your Creativity!" section, where supporters are invited to design McCain posters.

But the part of the e-mail that I'm still laughing about (though I was originally appalled) is the "Pork Invaders" game which, I'm guessing, is a play off of Space Invaders, though not nearly as cool. The idea is that you fire vetoes at "pork spending projects" as they fly across the screen. I'm not joking.

Presidential race. Leader of the most powerful nation on earth. Pork Invaders?

So you tell me. "Declaration of Independence" or "Pork Invaders." Who do you think won the press battle on June 2oth?

The second example arrived today, as I awoke to watch Obama give a press conference in Amman, Jordan. It wasn't groundbreaking, but it was thoughtful, informed, and very presidential. The guy handles himself well, even though he isn't nearly as good when he doesn't have a written speech in front of him. Barack is making big news right now because of his travels oversees, and unfortunately McCain has, up to this point, based his campaign on his foreign policy experience. Too bad, then, that most people oversees want Barack to win, and a little goodwill abroad goes a long way (as Thomas Friedman pointed out in his New York Times piece.) Barack recieved a nod from the Iraqi Prime Minister regarding his plan for Iraq, and now it seems everyone (including Bush!) is talking about withdrawal timelines - something Barack has been talking about all along.

The McCain Update today is focused on a new TV ad that attacks the media for their doting coverage of Obama. No one denies that this is true - the press are in love with Obama. I don't entirely fault them. As I pointed out above, I buy into the argument that Obama is a substantially more interesting candidate. The idea of the e-mail is to get supporters to vote on an ad that plays clips of the media discussing how much they love Obama, all while playing a love song in the background. The only issue is that, for two minutes straight, this commercial does nothing but show people loving and praising Obama. I understand what McCain's camp is trying to say, but what worries me is the commercial itself. The strongest sell is by referral - people that are already excited about the product. The last thing McCain needs is even more people on TV talking about how great Obama is. For all those on the fence, it only confirms that there is genuine excitement and hope surrounding this candidate, and all McCain accomplishes is highlighting that excitement while assuming American moderates will disapprove.

I unfortunately have to bring up the embarrassing speech McCain gave after Obama's victory speech. With the green background, 12 supporters, and "A Leader We Can Believe In" - blatantly stealing Obama's line - emblazoned from banners, it was a depressing night for Republicans. McCain looked like he was about to die in the middle of his speech, given immediately after Obama delivered a powerful, historic oration as the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party.

I understand the Republican strategy of putting the spotlight on the weak candidate - placing him under the microscope, letting him crack under pressure. It worked 4 years ago against Kerry. But Obama is not Kerry. Obama is an extremely intelligent guy with serious depth, who's good at what he does, and is, quite honestly, inspiring to many Americans. He has surrounded himself with very impressive economists to assist with domestic issues, and has won the support of thoughtful, and often conservative, experts for his foreign policy positions. This guy isn't going to crack if McCain makes the race all about him. He'll ride the wave to victory while McCain is forgotten.

McCain needs to do something soon. He is still surprisingly strong in national polls (only trailing by a few points). He has to hire someone who can run a real presidential media campaign. Because it's going to take a professional miracle worker for 71 year old tough-as-nails McCain to win the media battle against fresh, inspiring, headline-making Obama.

Update: Gergen is right - Republicans know how to campaign, and it finally seems that McCain is benefiting from it. I'm not sure anything could go better for McCain than Rick Warren's forum, where Barack seemed to confirm what most people fear about him, and McCain - though not coming across as particularly nuanced - was strong, funny, and even endearing. Now we know why Obama turned down all those town hall meetings. This one is going to be neck and neck, and Rick Warren provided McCain with the miracle he needed to get in the race.

Why Obama Is the Best Candidate...for India

2008-06-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

In 2006 I predicted that Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States. I had reasons for believing it then, none of which involved solutions to the most pressing issues America is facing. Mostly, it had to do with his inspiring personality and perspective, coupled with his grossly uninspiring opponents. And America is in need of inspiration.

But after viewing this video, I thought, why be so selfish? America needs inspiration, but certainly not as much as India does. We only earn on average 100 times what they do. Couldn't we share a little of our most promising and accomplished young leader with the people who really could use him? This would be true American benevolence, the kind Obama expects of us.

I have reasons to believe Obama could not only win, but would be the best candidate India could ask for. Think about it: he leans socialist, but not so much that he disregards all economic common sense. He's a populist, and India really loves those. He's about 13 different religions, and so is India. His name reflects African, Arabic, and even Jewish roots - that's almost as confusing as Indian names. Also, he likes to talk things through - is there a better Indian legacy than non-violence? And, since less than 10% of the Indian population pays taxes, there would be a natural check on the universal health care system! So vote Barack Obama for Indian Prime Minister. India needs change, and Obama brings change they can believe in.

Observations on a Tyranny

2008-06-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

Another missed opportunity for Mugabe to do the right thing for Zimbabwe.

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, I was frustrated to see that the opposition leader in the Zimbabwe elections was considering stepping down. Today he did that, and I have to rant a rave a bit in order to get it out of my system. While certainly no expert, I have been watching this election process with heightened interest, as my own travels in Africa have brought the travails of this continent close to my heart. But this is not the only cause for my interest, as this Zimbabwean election farce is an enlightening political education for those of us who are too young to have witnessed the fall of dictators and tyrants in the first eighty years of the last century. So, when older Americans around me speak of the near instability of the world, I think they just have a Red Scare hangover, that we live in a new age where, as Marx put it in his fascinating predictions of globalization, "The cheap prices of its (bourgeoisie capitalism's) commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image." Right. And so all of Friedman's followers sit and watch with fascination as business unites and homogenizes the world.

Which, I must say, in light of situations such as that in Zimbabwe, I am in support of, though in a highly qualified sense. In a very simple way, I am a supporter of this "homogenization" because I think we have some things to offer the world, and that the world has some things to offer us. How we bring that "offering" about is a horribly and frustratingly complex question, but I am in no mood to acquiesce to the "euro-centric"-phobes who have surrendered any claims to "right" and "truth" due to their simple education on the lack of blatant absolutes in the world. It is a pragmatic ideology that proposes a solid truth while accepting that it might not stand under the full weight of "absolutist universalism." In other words, we do what we can, when we can, trying to make the best decisions we can. We hold certain truths to be self-evident to most men, but we certainly don't expect any uniform response to them.

In this respect I admit an amount of ignorance, for however much I appreciate the value of my global travels, what I feel to be an understanding of the complexities in the human mosaic and the influence of varying social structures and histories in the development of diverse values and cultures, I still sit staring at the newspaper with my jaw to the floor when I read things like this exchange between a New York Times correspondent and a leader of the ruling party in Zimbabwe:

A member of ZANU-PF’s Politburo, speaking anonymously about its secret deliberations, said in an interview that the party had no intention of giving up power through the ballot box.

“We’re giving the people of Zimbabwe another opportunity to mend their ways, to vote properly,” the Politburo member said. “This is their last chance.”

If voters fail to return Mr. Mugabe to office, the Politburo member told a Zimbabwean journalist working with The New York Times, “Prepare to be a war correspondent."

And what was my Western, liberally-educated response? "What an idiot!" How could somebody so deeply misunderstand the basics of democratic liberalism - even if they only utilize democratic language to save face in front of an interested public? I understand that Zimbabwe has many deep and complex issues to cope with on its road to stability and prosperity, and these might muddy the waters of liberal ideology, but it doesn't have a choice. The American revolution, which in many people's minds stopped being revolutionary decades ago, is still relevant wherever tyranny reigns in the world. And it still reigns in Zimbabwe, where I've read many dismissals of liberalism as we know it as "not practical given the African situation." From my limited readings of American history, it seems clear that political and economic liberalism was a pragmatic and morally informed response to the complexities of ruling a diverse society. The American experiment is a quest to balance the demands of liberty and order, which appears to be the exact issue that many other nations are dealing with - including Zimbabwe. Which isn't to say that the American system will work everywhere: I am well aware of the unique confluence of people and events that brought about the success of America. But there are principles which can be gleaned from the experiment, especially as these nations are laying the foundation for their future.

I must say this makes me grateful for George Washington, who firmly established the principal importance of a consistent transition in executive power. I can't begin to list the things that have gone wrong in Zimbabwe, but the most obvious one to a non-expert is the lack of diversity and restraint in the executive role. Perhaps, ultimately, this election was a step in the right direction, as the voice of the people clearly called for change. What they got was violence and oppression. Mugabe has reinforced his legacy as a dictator who arrogantly believes he knows better than the people do, but whose last eight years in power have proven that almost anyone, including an enraged mob, has a high probability of ruling better than he has. And he has left one young American more firmly entrenched in his opinion that liberalism and democracy, applied with strict restrictions on power, is the only practical means of governing men both morally and effectively. Hopefully, the day will come soon and I can say with all Zimbabweans, "The king is dead. Long live...Zimbabwe."

So Little, So Graceful

2008-06-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

On her first day, Hadessah discovered that life doesn't always go
as planned, but that a calm demeanor and good looks go a long way towards weathering any storm.

When labor started last Friday, May 3oth, we anticipated holding our baby girl by early Saturday morning. So you can imagine how it felt as we watched the sun rise and were no closer to having Hadessah with us. I never thought that the cheerful chirping of birds would sicken my stomach, but as the mountains lit up with the fiery orange of morning, all I wanted was to fight back the dawn, to go back to the beginning and have the simple, straightforward labor we had planned on.

Luckily, Hadessah is much more of an optimist than I am, and is already teaching me lessons about working through adversity. I'm not going to recount the things that went wrong in the labor, other than to state that it was quite clear to everyone involved that it was nobody's fault. Even at the hospital, as we watched one nurse after another try to hide the frustration in their face as they grew increasingly hopeless of the prospect of a natural birth, everyone agreed that everything, everything, had been done. But while we grew fatigued and frustrated, there was one little girl that was doing just fine. Like a little princess, she maintained her composure while the whole world fussed over her - I half suspect she was enjoying it and had a smile on her tiny face.

It was remarkable, as labor drew towards 26 hours, that every time Hadessah's heart rate was checked, she was stable and apparently unstressed. Afterwards, every test they ran confirmed that she was tremendously healthy and not stressed in the least. So it seems she has already learned one of the most important lessons - when things don't go as planned, stay calm, keep making decisions, and fight to bring about the good in the situation. Now we have a healthy mom and a healthy baby, largely due to the fact that everyone involved acted with grace under pressure. And Hadessah was the most graceful of all.

Tapping out...for Sabbath

2006-11-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Sunday is finished. Life has changed drastically for my family and I since Wednesday. I can clearly remember the moment when my dad was receiving information that 'accusations' were being brought up by some crazy guy in Denver. We all laughed.

Two days later, we wept.

And now, five days later, I'm tired. Both physically and mentally, I'm ready for a break. I think my family has made it through the initial hard stage (the next will be drawn out over several months), the church is strong, my friends are faithful. So maybe tomorrow I'll go fishing. Maybe I'll clean the house. Maybe I'll try to wrap my head around how different life will be from what it was.

But whatever it is, I think I will probably do it alone. Because I discovered something about myself in the last three days - I process alone. It's the only place I relax. If I'm around others I feel like I have to take care of them, but when I'm alone I can let God take care of me. So I'll hit the mountains tomorrow, maybe climb, probably fish, but begin to process what's next. I'm sure it's premature, but perhaps it will be a start. Unless I'm catching a lot of fish, then I'll just be thinking about that.

But, for a day at least, I'm going to tap out from the wildness of all that's been going on.

Apparently, from the content of this writing, I've already tapped out a little.

Ah, Sabbath. Here I come.

Vicissitudes of Life

2006-11-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been sitting in a street corner Italian coffee shop in Rome on a flawless day reflecting on the vicissitudes of life and the ancient timeless quality of humanity while sipping your perfect espresso when suddenly an annoyingly small SmartCar comes screeching onto the curb, slams into your table, throws espresso everywhere, scatters all your most brilliant thoughts, smashes you to the ground and you wake up in a hospital three days later with no real memory of how it had all happened but you laugh a little and cry a little about the unending creativity of the vicissitudes of life?

Neither have I.

But I think I might know what it would feel like, and I think there are quite a few people who do as well. Because life is full of sudden and surprising change. So much so that we can expect it, and should prepare ourselves for it.

I'm seeing the value of having a core set of ideas about the world bear fruit now, in one of my families deepest trials. Because it has been ingrained in all of us that humans struggle with sin, that we are each horrific sinners (whether we realize it or not yet), and that it's incredible that God has the level of grace that He does. Because of this, I can extend this grace of God to others, and this understanding gives me context for dealing with the sin of others within my family. Granted, I still need to process in a healthy manner, going through the emotions of betrayal, anger, sorrow, loss, frustration, empathy - they all need to be there. But beneath all these emotions can be a core conviction that humans will be humans, that God is still God, and his message of grace will keep being affirmed throughout all the vicissitudes of life.

TV Addiction

2006-10-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'm addicted. My gateway drug was American Idol, a show that demonstrates my natural propensity for addiction merely by the fact that I watched every single one. 'House' came second, it's intelligent script and captivating lead causing me to forfeit good reading time to watch the bitter doctor in action. Friends told me that if I was already watching, then I might as well check out '24'. That's when I began to think I might have a problem. Late nights - groggy mornings - forgotten work - testy attitude towards anyone that might threaten my watching. My downhill slide picked up pace as some of my 'new friends', you know, people with similar tastes for addictive watching, got me hooked on 'Lost'. I just bought a season pass on iTunes to watch all the new episodes because I lead a meeting on Wednesdays and won't be able to watch. How long until my addiction leads to dangerous behavior in other areas of my life? How long until Jack Bauer and Sawyer rip my family apart? I've thought of joining a group, but all the groups I know of just end up watching together. There's no hope. Wait...'Lost' download completed. This will be the last time. The last episode. I promise...just one last time.