A Nation of Children
After a few decades in the brand strategy business, I don't take clients as often I once did. In fact, I don't even reach out to prospective clients any more. I decided to semi-retire (I still do a fair amount of expert witness work) for a couple of reasons:
1. I no longer have to consult for a living, which is a good thing, financially speaking.
2. During the tenure of my career, there was a sharp, pervasive decline in the quality of CEOs, who simply were too ignorant and unconcerned and unaccountable to their businesses. They literally weren't capable of basic business principles, like say, restoring profitability.
If you follow my blog, you can read back some ten years or more, in which I expressed real concerns about dangers of the country -- and most of the civilized world -- becoming a Nation of Children. An entire generation, completely devoid of any kind of critical thinking or accountability. Reactionary rather than assertive; quicker to blame that to solve problems. When this generation takes action, if it ever does, it's usually in the form of whining while running and hiding.
In twenty years, my typical CEO client devolved from a forward-looking captain of his ship to a whimpering, uneducated young ninny who shrinks from any kind of accountability. Having termed out, the old guard has been replaced by twits lacking of any type of business knowledge, strategy or accountability.
At the time of this writing, the Nation of Children has seriously selected candidates to lead them based on promises of free goods and services, without demanding any kind of rational explanations as to how to pay for them. It's deja vu as I recall my fifth grade elections, where candidates for class presidents expected to prevail with promises of an end to homework and ice cream for lunch.
Sadly, it seems as if nobody questions anything any more. Nobody demands rationale, proof or clear, proven results. Everyone, it turns out, is either too lazy, too ignorant or too intimidated to sit back, think, and push back for answers from a pervasive media that delights in promoting fictions as freely as truth.
Okay, so that's nothing you haven't heard before. But here's something you may not have thought about:
The primary danger with a Nation of Children is in its lack of accountability. I don't care if you're conservative or liberal, but adults don't simply believe everything they're told. Adults realize there are consequences to their actions and beliefs. Simpletons, on the other hand, just wait and endure and panic with no sense of direction.
You want to believe that a Corona virus is everything the doom prophets would have you believe? Fine. Ignore the real data. Question nothing. Trust in the manipulated "research" and skewed "studies" that are offered up as proof of badly-structured research when it's mixed with media ratings. I've lived through a lot, including Corona virus and worse. None of it is true -- or as bad -- as the media and your lazy, lemming friends would have you believe.
Of course, this is merely my viewpoint, based on my experience. You can choose not to buy into any of it. But like I said, I'm semi-retired. I'm out.
It's your problem now.
1. I no longer have to consult for a living, which is a good thing, financially speaking.
2. During the tenure of my career, there was a sharp, pervasive decline in the quality of CEOs, who simply were too ignorant and unconcerned and unaccountable to their businesses. They literally weren't capable of basic business principles, like say, restoring profitability.
If you follow my blog, you can read back some ten years or more, in which I expressed real concerns about dangers of the country -- and most of the civilized world -- becoming a Nation of Children. An entire generation, completely devoid of any kind of critical thinking or accountability. Reactionary rather than assertive; quicker to blame that to solve problems. When this generation takes action, if it ever does, it's usually in the form of whining while running and hiding.
In twenty years, my typical CEO client devolved from a forward-looking captain of his ship to a whimpering, uneducated young ninny who shrinks from any kind of accountability. Having termed out, the old guard has been replaced by twits lacking of any type of business knowledge, strategy or accountability.
At the time of this writing, the Nation of Children has seriously selected candidates to lead them based on promises of free goods and services, without demanding any kind of rational explanations as to how to pay for them. It's deja vu as I recall my fifth grade elections, where candidates for class presidents expected to prevail with promises of an end to homework and ice cream for lunch.
Sadly, it seems as if nobody questions anything any more. Nobody demands rationale, proof or clear, proven results. Everyone, it turns out, is either too lazy, too ignorant or too intimidated to sit back, think, and push back for answers from a pervasive media that delights in promoting fictions as freely as truth.
Okay, so that's nothing you haven't heard before. But here's something you may not have thought about:
The primary danger with a Nation of Children is in its lack of accountability. I don't care if you're conservative or liberal, but adults don't simply believe everything they're told. Adults realize there are consequences to their actions and beliefs. Simpletons, on the other hand, just wait and endure and panic with no sense of direction.
You want to believe that a Corona virus is everything the doom prophets would have you believe? Fine. Ignore the real data. Question nothing. Trust in the manipulated "research" and skewed "studies" that are offered up as proof of badly-structured research when it's mixed with media ratings. I've lived through a lot, including Corona virus and worse. None of it is true -- or as bad -- as the media and your lazy, lemming friends would have you believe.
Of course, this is merely my viewpoint, based on my experience. You can choose not to buy into any of it. But like I said, I'm semi-retired. I'm out.
It's your problem now.
posted by Rob Frankel at 9:58 AM
2 Comments:
No. It's not only our problem now, because our response will either create a disaster, perpetuate the problem, or maybe bring us a solution. In any case, you will be impacted by the result. With that said, I concur with your assessment. We need to become a society of adults willing to take responsibility for our future.
Thx.
I agree with you. I am constantly befuddled by what I see daily. I am very concerned about how the USA will function in 20 years. Testing standards lowered. Bar lowing its scores to people with darker skin (?) And no one is screaming.
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