How
Pioneer 10 image public domain, via Gunthert
Friedman has a nice piece on ‘How‘. As in, how did we get so fucked, and why how you do things matters. I’m just riffing off one line, but I’ve always written that ‘how’ matters. As in, how you fight a war, how you run a government, these things matter. Character and integrity matter. To quote: “In a connected world,†Seidman said to me, “countries, governments and companies also have character, and their character — how they do what they do, how they keep promises, how they make decisions, how things really happen inside, how they connect and collaborate, how they engender trust, how they relate to their customers, to the environment and to the communities in which they operate — is now their fate.†Our government has so neglected the ‘how’ that I’m not that impressed with the ‘what’.
So our troops are near Kilinochchi. How did we get there? How many innocents have died and been jailed? How do our government institution function? How much money did we spend? How do we treat our own people?
These questions matter, perhaps not in the short-term, but in the long term you get totally fucked. And that’s why character and integrity matter. And that’s why it’s a shame that our national character is so stained by Mahinda’s suspension of our Constitution to fight Eelam War IV. That’s why human rights and rule of law aren’t luxuries, their the bulwark of generations.
How? who gives a fuck about how man.. The end justifies the means in the short-term. Nobody over here really cares about the long term i suppose..
Loss of accountability in the connected world.
Isn’t that what Friedman is try to say?
Geez, why does he have to be so elaborate about it?