Failure

Failure is the one ingredient that is necessary for progress. Without failure, there can be no success. Failing to correct what goes wrong dooms us to repeat the experience. Others have said the same thing more eloquently than I, but the importance of failure and how it guides us personally, socially, and politically cannot be overstated.

Scientists call their endeavors to elicit the truth of a theory ‘experiments’. It is the experimental failures that lead scientists to make the necessary adjustments for success. The failures of their learning progress may even lead to other discoveries that create more theories. Progress is achieved by taking advantage of mistakes. Failures are a guide to success.

Whether we are talking about people, inventions, nations, or the world collectively; it is in learning the lessons from our failed attempts to get it right that leads to success.

Our cultures are littered with failures that have been proven to not serve the interest of the citizenry. Among societies’ failures we can include the feudal system, authoritarian regimes including kings and dictators, the rigid capitalistic model, the communist model, patriarchal and matriarchal models, and the socialist model. All have been tried and failed because of their inadequacies. The democratic model is survivable only because it gives the people a non-violent method to make changes to the different environments that the people find themselves in.

Humans are tribally centric. There is no ‘one size fits all’ set of rules that fits everybody’s needs. It is for that reason that total centralization of power just doesn’t work. The American founders realized this when they formed the United States. Local governance empowers individuals with the ability to make decisions affecting their ‘tribe’ or community without the involvement from people who are not affected by their decisions. And, as long as the local and state decisions do not contradict the umbrella agreement agreed to by all the States known as the Constitution, everybody feels that they are a part of the whole, yet independent.

The government formed by the founders also allowed for mistakes. They built into the Constitution a method for us to correct and make adjustments for the passage of time and human progress. The method the founders built into the Constitution is the amendment process.

Our Supreme Court, made up of generally well meaning judges, bring to the bench their different personal philosophies. Their decisions can alter the way we live. Because of the potential for a fanatical viewpoint to become prevalent on the Supreme Court, each justice has to undergo Senate approval. That process is supposed to ferret out any individual with a bias or desire to change the society according to their personal philosophy. Our system of justice selection is not perfect, but until a better method comes along, it is the system we rely on. The system does make mistakes and the Court has had its share of radical justices who made it to the Supreme Court for political reasons. Justices sometimes see the role of the court is to make changes to the society at large through their legal decisions rather than defer the issues not found within the Constitution to the Legislature for enactment on the issue. The Constitution does not embody every facet of human activity. That is why we have a legislature that is supposed to represent the will of the people. Several issues have been made into law that no legislation was ever written.

What has this all to do with failure? Starting today, it should be recognized that whenever the will of the people is circumvented, that the harmony of the whole is disrupted. Divisive decisions made without regard to the wishes of the public have broad and unsavory consequences. The decisions about abortion and prayer in school are examples of divisive issues that should have been codified by the legislature and the legality of that legislation decided upon by the Supreme Court. By working the issues through the people’s representatives, we empower the people with the responsibility for those decisions. Supreme Court Justices making decisions are not answerable to the people. They take it upon themselves to create law instead of deferring the matter for legislation where the people writing the legislation are held accountable by the voters.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with those decisions is not relevant to this discussion. The thrust of this dissertation is to point out that the will of the people was circumvented and created unnecessary divisions within in our society. The angst felt by the people who disagreed with those decisions would have been avoided if the Congress would have done their job by proposing legislation or allowed the amendment process to proceed so that the will of the people could be respected. Instead, the Congress failed in their responsibility and the matter was left in the hands of the Supreme Court. These are failures by a legislature afraid to rock the boat and satisfied kicking the can down the road without having to face their voters.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court seems perfectly willing to make changes in our society via their legal decisions. The Supreme Court does not have to face re-election and therefore have job security regardless of how they vote on an issue. The Congress uses the Supreme Court to handle tough decisions because it keeps their hands clean from having to expose their true position about an issue. In essence, the Court becomes the shield for congressional inaction. The court can make decisions about controversial issues without the voter’s involvement. This process disenfranchises large bodies of American citizens and is a failure of Democracy. Failure begets failure and will not change until Americans of all political stripes put an end to career politicians.

Career politicians spend most of their time running for the next election to hold on to their very lucrative and powerful positions. Please support term limits.

We’ve suffered through these failures and now it is time to correct their cause. Please understand that power is very corruptive whether it’s a corporation, our courts, or by our elected politicians. Our failures are guidepost for the American people to learn from. If we do not recognize and learn from our failures, no progress is possible, worse, failure is repetitive.

End Failure Part 1

Cheers,

-Robert-

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Failure Part2

Part 1 discusses the failure of a system having career politicians. But in the end, we are responsible for those failures. It is we who keeps re-electing them. The longer a politician is in Washington, the craftier he/she becomes. The wizened politician learns the ins and outs of inserting unrelated amendments into a bill that raises his stature with his voting base, but has to be paid for by those outside of his home territory. This action keeps the politician in office because we think he is doing a ‘good job’. If we force the Congress to pass term limits, we will have made a correction to what we have now and force a different outcome from the repetition of mistakes that the Congress continues to make. Remember, failure is only a guidepost. It does not have to be remedied. No, we can live with our failures to correct problems and continue to repeat them.

But this is part 2. - Failure is also a winnowing process. It takes strong people to overcome failure and make the necessary corrections to arrive at their destination. When individuals become discouraged and settle for less than their objective, failure becomes imbedded and accepted by those individuals. Expectations become lower as well as self-esteem.

It is true that everyone doesn’t strive for the same results. Early attempts at endeavors that fail give rise to the acceptance of failure. Whatever our position on the ladder of economical success happens to be, we are at that position because of how much failure we are willing to accept. The more aggressive among us don’t tolerate failure very well and climb higher up the ladder.

Life starts out with high expectations, but the outcome of those expectations depend on how determined and prepared we are to face the obstacles that have to be faced. Preparation is the leverage needed to lessen the opportunity for failure.

Preparation has its own set of requirements. To properly prepare for a venture takes work and sometimes a lot of work. If you have the goal to do well in school, then you know that preparation for your studies will challenge you for your time away from life’s other distractions. One conclusion that you can make about minimizing failure in life is to have a strong work ethic.

One of the most damaging parts of our society to individuals is our practice of trying to help those of us who fail to help themselves. The help we render to those who are not very responsible becomes addictive to them. Failure has already become their way of life and no amount of help can rediscover that spark. The numbers of people who realize their sad predicament and make the necessary corrections for themselves is pitifully small. No, I am not suggesting that we allow these people to just starve. But they need encouragement. Progress on their part has to be a part of the price for accepting help.

Rehabilitation is more than just a word. Self-confidence has to be reignited with the poverty trapped people in our society. It is the ‘how’ to do it that remains to be answered. This goal can be achieved if we look upon the problem as just another obstacle to be overcome. There has to be a recognition that self-esteem cannot be given to a person. Only achievement can produce that result. With encouragement from the broader population, the spiral of low self-esteem can be overcome. The things we take for granted like paying the electric bill can be a monumental achievement for a person who is struggling just to live. These small steps by a person in the poverty trap of welfare need to have these achievements recognized. If we were to pay the electric bill for the person, that person has no way of being proud of it.

Doing things for people just makes them feel even more inadequate. And, that type of help is addictive. It just further aggravates the problem. A hand out isn’t even a band-aid for the problem of low self-esteem. Sure, the helped person would be appreciative but there is still that part of a person’s dignity that realizes they are failures. Handouts only serve to bolster the egos of the ‘helpers’ whether it is an organization like ‘Habitat for Humanity’ or sponsors of ‘Soup Kitchens’, the result is still demeaning to the recipient. Other solutions need to be found so that the poor can develop that sense of achievement. This problem is not about the givers, it is about helping those in need realize self-worth.

I repeat, continuing the failed solutions that we now employ only bring about more failure. Failure begets failure. We should resolve to recognize our failures and correct them. Remember successful societies overcome failure, those who don’t, perish. It is that simple.

Cheers,

-Robert-


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