Saturday, October 10, 2009
Short Term Gains vs. Long Term Planning
Over the last two nights, while trying to write a piece about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce dust-up in progress over climate change legislation I fell asleep at the keyboard here and there and woke up with writing that had such insight as the following:
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along with other pearls of intellect as
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I had grand ideas about tying Western thought and reliance of short term goals devoid of long term vision to the American business philosophy. I would then compare it to Eastern thought and it's current approach to geopolitical expansionism via the business markets.
It's a good thing I fell asleep. I would have been guilty of rash generalization against the Chamber of Commerce. The arguments taking place there have more layers than the pastry parts of a Napoleon- aptly titled Mille Feuilles (1000 leaves) in it's native France.
I am right about the lack of long-term vision in Western business and politics, but it doesn't apply to the arguments currently going on at the Chamber of Commerce. I am also right about the subject matter putting people, including this writer, to sleep.
An example of short-term policy and lack of long term planning: The U.S. handling of Iran. We sponsored a coup. We installed Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in hopes that we'd get cheap oil forever. He took this installation as an invitation to subjugate his people, developing a deeply feared secret police force and engaging in torture of his countrymen. The torture could be inflicted for what would be thought of pretty small offenses by American justice standards. As far as American foreign policy is concerned, in our desire for cheap resources that would help our economy grow, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was our kind of guy. American government and big business didn't care much about what was going on inside Iran as long as the oil flowed, and flowed cheaply.
Forever lasted until 1979, when he kicked the bucket and the Iranian Revolution installed the Ayatollah Khomeini, a man who, along with his followers, didn't like the American government very much, mostly because of the coup of 1953 and the reign of terror inflicted upon the Shah's opposition that followed. Now, instead of an American-friendly government, we've had 30 years of animosity so deep that we now have lots to worry about from this former ally.
While researching this post I discovered a website that has a population clock for the People's Republic of China. The stuff you can find on the internet is truly amazing. The population goes up a tick roughly every four seconds. At this writing the population is well over 1.3 billion.
I bring this up because part of my argument was going to include China trade and Mao's promise to dominate the West, especially the U.S.A. This is a case of long term planning. Long term planning that is coming to fruition, though students of Chinese civilization and history will no doubt attribute more to Deng Xaioping's economic reforms than to Mao.
The bottom line is: China is taking over. After all, they just bought Hummer from G.M., so can the end of U.S. economic domination be far behind? I can feel the tremors emanating from the Republican core now. They may have to join the boycott of Hummer automobiles by Lefty Liberals and Tree-Huggers. A truly horrifying prospect.
////////////////////////////////////////////////
along with other pearls of intellect as
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff and ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
I had grand ideas about tying Western thought and reliance of short term goals devoid of long term vision to the American business philosophy. I would then compare it to Eastern thought and it's current approach to geopolitical expansionism via the business markets.
It's a good thing I fell asleep. I would have been guilty of rash generalization against the Chamber of Commerce. The arguments taking place there have more layers than the pastry parts of a Napoleon- aptly titled Mille Feuilles (1000 leaves) in it's native France.
I am right about the lack of long-term vision in Western business and politics, but it doesn't apply to the arguments currently going on at the Chamber of Commerce. I am also right about the subject matter putting people, including this writer, to sleep.
An example of short-term policy and lack of long term planning: The U.S. handling of Iran. We sponsored a coup. We installed Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in hopes that we'd get cheap oil forever. He took this installation as an invitation to subjugate his people, developing a deeply feared secret police force and engaging in torture of his countrymen. The torture could be inflicted for what would be thought of pretty small offenses by American justice standards. As far as American foreign policy is concerned, in our desire for cheap resources that would help our economy grow, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was our kind of guy. American government and big business didn't care much about what was going on inside Iran as long as the oil flowed, and flowed cheaply.
Forever lasted until 1979, when he kicked the bucket and the Iranian Revolution installed the Ayatollah Khomeini, a man who, along with his followers, didn't like the American government very much, mostly because of the coup of 1953 and the reign of terror inflicted upon the Shah's opposition that followed. Now, instead of an American-friendly government, we've had 30 years of animosity so deep that we now have lots to worry about from this former ally.
While researching this post I discovered a website that has a population clock for the People's Republic of China. The stuff you can find on the internet is truly amazing. The population goes up a tick roughly every four seconds. At this writing the population is well over 1.3 billion.
I bring this up because part of my argument was going to include China trade and Mao's promise to dominate the West, especially the U.S.A. This is a case of long term planning. Long term planning that is coming to fruition, though students of Chinese civilization and history will no doubt attribute more to Deng Xaioping's economic reforms than to Mao.
The bottom line is: China is taking over. After all, they just bought Hummer from G.M., so can the end of U.S. economic domination be far behind? I can feel the tremors emanating from the Republican core now. They may have to join the boycott of Hummer automobiles by Lefty Liberals and Tree-Huggers. A truly horrifying prospect.
