Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Politics make bad morality This column is dedicated to Edward K. Kane, Esq., a neighbor for many decades, well known to our readers as the Old Curmudgeon, on the 4th anniversary of his death. If many of us have trouble sleeping, and wake up with unresolved problems in mind, note that this is not uncommon. It has to do with what I would call the confrontational mode of living, a change in modus vivendi connected with uncertain economic conditions, insecure jobs and the shocks of the political atmosphere. We the elders grew up with honesty and a full disclosure style of life. In business we learned not to "blindside" our partners, and learned to start negotiations by calling the other party and asking for an opportunity to discuss a possible change, e.g. takeover, job rearrangement, family reorganization and many lesser turnovers of conditions. We learned to say "let me share with you," and avoid "gotcha” surprise effects that would anger the other party and undermine the necessary negotiations. Then came the business ethos changes, hostile takeover became part of the language, and hedge funds and financing a buyout by leveraging the credit of the firm that was taken over was a common strategy. Confrontational politics in elections, both between contestants within a party and with the opposite party, with neglect of common interests became the norm, and bad results for the country ensued. Out came evidences of lying and deceit, we lost respect for politicians, and found out that esteemed role models have legs of clay. Kids started asking uncomfortable “how come they can...” questions in school, and a theory of a credible double standard of ethics in a capitalist democracy begs to be developed (call it Lying is Acceptable Rules or LIAR). Meanwhile, both we and our children have learned that full disclosure is out and partial disclosure or none (e.g. “trust me, I'm successful in all I touch") is gaining acceptance among the citizenry. All of the above is making the ‘keeping up with the news” a wrenching exercise, e.g. reading the daily disclosures in politics may be actually bad for one’s well-being. I have found that periodically getting away from it all is a health requirement, and due to unavailability of a trip to Tahiti the next best escape is watching cheap TV comedy, the cheaper the better. The inventors of The Big Bang Theory must really have had us in mind, when inventing a serial about a gang of young geeks, PHDs in abstruse subjects, who are learning to adjust to everyday life and overcome their Aspersers and other maladjustments. Besides, it is vaguely educational, disclosing hints of interesting science, and much better than alcohol (for myself, I indulge in slices of Mastroianni Bros. Inc. Italian Raisin Bread, available upstate at Wall Mark and some other good supermarkets; buy it when you see it on the M Bros bread wagon, it disappears fast). For those of us not settling for the ridiculous (it has the excuse of “how screwed up can we be if there are such smart people acting so whacky”) there are still some realistic TV serials with compassion, such as the reruns of the old Law and Order (the outgrowths specializing in crime toward women and children, and the investigative often drift into fantasy), the Closer, and some series that cheer you by showing enjoyable Florida and Caribbean settings, with humor as the bonus. Unfortunately, the great humorous feature films of the 1930s/40s are scarce on TV, a comment about the deterioration of public taste. Much of the current product is seriously gross. My old friend Edward K. Kane, a corporate lawyer known to our readers as The Old Curmudgeon, who passed away four years ago, leaving his lifetime saved gains mostly to an employee welfare trust, in latter years had the habit of rereading and occasionally quoting the wisdom of the Harry Potter books. He would, in moments of stress, call us all Mumbles, the HP name for non-magic people. That was a mature attitude, which I was reminded of recently, while making voter reminder calls in the upstate 22nd Congressional District, which has been gerrymandered over the ages, from Manhattan and Bronx (it was the old Adam Clayton Powell bailiwick , 1945-71), to an eleven-county monstrosity, looking like a crouching animal , with its head in Ulster, below Albany, and feet below Orange County, the body in the Catskills (in that area you sort of expect to see a bearded pipe smoking mountain man with a hatchet emerge from the door of any old abandoned farmhouse), and a long thin tail trashing towards Finger Lakes and Ithaca (congrats, artistic NYS Legislature, what a good imitation of a Star Wars creature and a Henri Rousseau lion!). There, in the 22nd CD formerly held by liberal Maurice Hinchey now retired. Julian Schreibman, a local man, the first in his family to attend college, an ex Ulster ADA and former terrorist prosecutor as the CIA’s AGC, is trying to upset ret. Colonel Chris Gibson, 20 year and four campaign veteran of US Army, also for many years history professor at West Point. Schreibman cites 2011 legislation items voted for by Gibson, defunding rural broadband and Planned Parenthood (both big economic issues), undermining the Clean Air Act, and protecting tax breaks for Big Oil. Gibson, also a Paul Ryan budget voter, favoring Medicare coupon and weakening Social Security, upon hearing the voices from the outsourcing-hurt Upstate voters recently publicly backed away from the latter, and may have flipped on other issues. I made 42 calls for Julian Schreibman, from his headquarters across from a property decorated with several Gibson posters. Most voters were not at home, seven were hang-ups, three were mildly pro-Schreibman, and three strongly pro- Gibson. The first, upon my trying to share info re SS and Med, laughed bitterly and remarked that there would be none, once the Chinese stopped paying for them. The next offered a flat negative; as for the third, at the mention of the Schreibman name he started calling him a liar, while Gibson was a man of honor. The callee volunteered to line up his neighbors for the GOP candidate. No discussion of issues; however, he liked Senator Kirsten Gillibrand as a lesser liar… There was another bitter comment from a callee, about the tough choice between an unreal ivory tower professor and a patent medicine salesman. The medicine reference reminded me of recently seen L’Elisir d’Amour, the Donizetti opera about a “doctor” who forged the potion with cheap alcohol to make a shy lover brave. The fake worked, when the discarded lover, ready to join the army and forget the girl, suddenly inherited a fortune and won back his love. Scary. Wally apologizes for whatever made him call the Jack Welch Six Sigma principle by a wrong name, in the 10/11/2012 column.

Labels: Chris Gibson, Elisir d'amour, Jack Welch, Julian Schreibman, Six Sigma