1 Boring Old Man

Question: Can we find some disincentives for Cheney to remain on this course of insanity? I really like this idea of creating disincentives for the Bushies. Disincentives..that’s deterrants to us common folk.

An Answer: Disincentives, Deterrants, Negative Consequences, etc. are the natural and normal methods that parents use the point kids in the right direction. It just makes intuitive sense that if you want to move people in a certain direction, you make the correct direction pleasurable, and the alternative aversive. Parents do such things with reward/punishment schemes, but more often by first occupying a position of respect, then shaping behavior by subtle changes in parental approval levels. There are two kinds of authority. The first is the authority of power, like that of a Major over a Seargant [delegated authority] as in "by the authority invested in me by the…" The second kind is the authority of expertise, as in "Einstein was an authority in the field of…" I guess that’s why authority is derived from the word author. The optimal kind of authority is the second kind [backed up by an ability to use the first kind when necessary], as in "speak softly, but carry a big stick." Teddy Roosevelt said it in a speech when he was Vice President in 1901, a few weeks before President William McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became our youngest President ever:

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far.” If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples. Whenever on any point we come in contact with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always strive to speak courteously and respectfully of that foreign power.

Both Bush and Cheney are examples of people surely raised this way. They are like that kind of parent themselves – their motives are rarely clearly stated, often disguised. When they want something, it’s decided in secret and then they begin to develop a strategy to get what they want. There is no speech without a hidden agenda, and they sure don’t speak softly. They reflexly balk at any attempt to shape their behavior, while they strategize how to shape the world’s. They respect no authority [U.N., Geneva Convention, Congress], and exercise only authority of the first kind – power, delegated authority, "I’m the Decider," Executive Privilege, Unitary Executive. So like similar types, Hussein for example, they "speak loudly, whether they carry a big stick or not." Disincentives would be discounted out of hand much as they discount the withdrawal of approval by the electorate. They immediately question motives – "Liberal Media," "tired of war," etc. They miss the point of Teddy Roosevelt’s speech in every dimension. So the tragedy of this Administration is that it cannot be "shaped."

I don’t miss the point of the question. It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to say, and try, were we dealing with reasonable people. Unfortunately, they are not reason-able. They see "reason" as a "strategy" to undermine their power, and any approach to change their direction as a trick. The massive irony of all of this is that "regime change," their Mantra for Hussein, is the only rational response. And I hope we do better planning for what follows than they did in Iraq. Countries coming out from under a crazy government go crazy when that regime falls. It’s one reason to think long and hard about the Democratic Nominee. We need someone who can respond to how really nuts this country is going to be after Bush and Cheney.

We need a Teddy Roosevelt…