A Nation of Small People Led by a Very Small Man
Because I've always enjoyed the adages and old 'saws' with their elements of profundity, and passed down from grandparents and parents, years ago I started my own collection of memorable quotes. There is one regret about my collected favorite, however, and that is I do not recall the originator's name. Nevertheless, here it is:
Great people talk about ideas. Mediocre people talk about events. Small people talk about people.
It is impossible to refute the observation that we have evolved into a nation of small people. Simply review the news stories that get the most mention and air time. Next give a look at television's weekly schedule of offerings or the situation comedies and soap operas that hang around for years and years. After that, take some time to really listen to the lyrics of popular songs of all types, from basic ballads, through country, to rock, hip hop and rap. You can also check out the titles on the bestsellers lists, particularly the listings for fiction. An afternoon spent roaming general haunts, shopping malls, or simply standing on street corners and watching cars pass while you count the number of people with cell phones to their ears might astound you. Eavesdropping on those conversations (you can hardly miss them) will confirm that there is little substance to what is being said.
Scientists will tell you that there is very little we really know about the human brain; very little we know about how it learns or retains what it knows; very little they know about it's ultimate potential. One thing they've discovered, however, is that if that peculiar organ between our ears isn't used and challenged, it will atrophy just like any unused muscle. Considering the pathetic level of literacy in our country, the general lack of interest in education of any type, the preference for being entertained over being challenged, the lack of interest in how government works, how countries interact, how to discern the difference between flash and substance, or why character is more important than appearance, is it any wonder that our uninformed electorate chose the very essence of a miniscule man to sit in the office that represents this nation in the world?
The current president of the United States is a small man. He has neither the intellect, temperament, nor discernment to manage a delicatessen, much less a country. He has never surrounded himself with knowledgeable, experienced individuals with the objectivity, character or self discipline necessary for dedicated public servants because he cannot recognize that necessity any more than he recognizes his own short comings. Perhaps he has the capacity to be an amusing 'good old boy,' for short periods but he retains too much school yard bully chutzpah to even pretend statesmanship.
As any solid and successful businessman, teacher, or motivator would tell you, a worthwhile legacy consists of the people one leaves behind, those chosen for their abilities, ethics, willingness to listen and learn, their discipline and ability to analyze in order to discard what doesn't work and gather the elements that do work. Part of that legacy is also the environment he creates in which his selected people will function, an honest environment of encouragement, of space in which to grow, of appreciation for efforts as well as their awareness of the limits of tolerance toward half efforts.
Smallness, while a descriptive word for stature, is not restricted to the physical. Small also refers to pettiness, to childishness, to vengefulness, to inappropriate humor, to telling fibs, lies and whoppers, to braggadocio, to exaggeration, to pretense and the pretentious, to cruelty and destruction, to hubris. Being small can mean a refusal to take responsibility, an inability to admit mistakes, an aversion to reviewing or altering a decision once made. Small mindedness is surrounding yourself with people just like you are because of an innate fear of being overshadowed, of dealing with the unknown, of simple discomfort. Smallness is the refusal to stand on one's own feet when there are others around to prop you up, or take the blame, or bail you out when you're incapable of recognizing your own foolishness.
Small people nearly always try to tear others down to their size. They are willing and capable of destroying citadels to integrity, honor and caring simply because such things are bigger than they are. Nothing must be allowed to exist that is larger than a small man's ego, his unquenchable thirst for acknowledgement, for admiration.
So, here we are after five years of representation by a small man and his equally small entourage. Our children, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, mothers and fathers were sent out to fight a war of choice as determined by a dysfunctional child, a war that has brought additional strife to an entire region and created more enemies than any people should have to face. Our own people have died in their homes because of a small man's complacency and the incompetence of his appointees, our poor and older citizens are being attacked on every side by cuts to long standing programs to give them ease to pay for his war. Those he sees as friends and cohorts are given financial windfalls at the expense of the middle and under classes. Limited benefits to veterans and returning service men and women from his unending war are being further cut. The indignities to the hopeful but misguided people who gave this small man power continue on and on.
Small people placed an even smaller man in power over the biggest, most advanced nation in the known world, and that nation is daily being dragged downward toward third world status. A small man has weakened an entire country. And thanks to blindly loyal small people, we must all suffer three more years of shrinking all that we once were down to his very small size.
Because I've always enjoyed the adages and old 'saws' with their elements of profundity, and passed down from grandparents and parents, years ago I started my own collection of memorable quotes. There is one regret about my collected favorite, however, and that is I do not recall the originator's name. Nevertheless, here it is:
Great people talk about ideas. Mediocre people talk about events. Small people talk about people.
It is impossible to refute the observation that we have evolved into a nation of small people. Simply review the news stories that get the most mention and air time. Next give a look at television's weekly schedule of offerings or the situation comedies and soap operas that hang around for years and years. After that, take some time to really listen to the lyrics of popular songs of all types, from basic ballads, through country, to rock, hip hop and rap. You can also check out the titles on the bestsellers lists, particularly the listings for fiction. An afternoon spent roaming general haunts, shopping malls, or simply standing on street corners and watching cars pass while you count the number of people with cell phones to their ears might astound you. Eavesdropping on those conversations (you can hardly miss them) will confirm that there is little substance to what is being said.
Scientists will tell you that there is very little we really know about the human brain; very little we know about how it learns or retains what it knows; very little they know about it's ultimate potential. One thing they've discovered, however, is that if that peculiar organ between our ears isn't used and challenged, it will atrophy just like any unused muscle. Considering the pathetic level of literacy in our country, the general lack of interest in education of any type, the preference for being entertained over being challenged, the lack of interest in how government works, how countries interact, how to discern the difference between flash and substance, or why character is more important than appearance, is it any wonder that our uninformed electorate chose the very essence of a miniscule man to sit in the office that represents this nation in the world?
The current president of the United States is a small man. He has neither the intellect, temperament, nor discernment to manage a delicatessen, much less a country. He has never surrounded himself with knowledgeable, experienced individuals with the objectivity, character or self discipline necessary for dedicated public servants because he cannot recognize that necessity any more than he recognizes his own short comings. Perhaps he has the capacity to be an amusing 'good old boy,' for short periods but he retains too much school yard bully chutzpah to even pretend statesmanship.
As any solid and successful businessman, teacher, or motivator would tell you, a worthwhile legacy consists of the people one leaves behind, those chosen for their abilities, ethics, willingness to listen and learn, their discipline and ability to analyze in order to discard what doesn't work and gather the elements that do work. Part of that legacy is also the environment he creates in which his selected people will function, an honest environment of encouragement, of space in which to grow, of appreciation for efforts as well as their awareness of the limits of tolerance toward half efforts.
Smallness, while a descriptive word for stature, is not restricted to the physical. Small also refers to pettiness, to childishness, to vengefulness, to inappropriate humor, to telling fibs, lies and whoppers, to braggadocio, to exaggeration, to pretense and the pretentious, to cruelty and destruction, to hubris. Being small can mean a refusal to take responsibility, an inability to admit mistakes, an aversion to reviewing or altering a decision once made. Small mindedness is surrounding yourself with people just like you are because of an innate fear of being overshadowed, of dealing with the unknown, of simple discomfort. Smallness is the refusal to stand on one's own feet when there are others around to prop you up, or take the blame, or bail you out when you're incapable of recognizing your own foolishness.
Small people nearly always try to tear others down to their size. They are willing and capable of destroying citadels to integrity, honor and caring simply because such things are bigger than they are. Nothing must be allowed to exist that is larger than a small man's ego, his unquenchable thirst for acknowledgement, for admiration.
So, here we are after five years of representation by a small man and his equally small entourage. Our children, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, mothers and fathers were sent out to fight a war of choice as determined by a dysfunctional child, a war that has brought additional strife to an entire region and created more enemies than any people should have to face. Our own people have died in their homes because of a small man's complacency and the incompetence of his appointees, our poor and older citizens are being attacked on every side by cuts to long standing programs to give them ease to pay for his war. Those he sees as friends and cohorts are given financial windfalls at the expense of the middle and under classes. Limited benefits to veterans and returning service men and women from his unending war are being further cut. The indignities to the hopeful but misguided people who gave this small man power continue on and on.
Small people placed an even smaller man in power over the biggest, most advanced nation in the known world, and that nation is daily being dragged downward toward third world status. A small man has weakened an entire country. And thanks to blindly loyal small people, we must all suffer three more years of shrinking all that we once were down to his very small size.
posted by kaz at 2:32 PM
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