[Grovenet] Reputations (WAS: New postage)

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

There was a lot of speculation and talk about the roles "personalities" such
as Ismay and Captain Smith played in the Titanic disaster, but nothing that
directly led to the sinking is clear from the full transcripts of the
testimonies taken of the event both here in the USA and in England(1). 

Ismay was unwilling to die, and did whatever he needed to do to be one of
the few males in a lifeboat.

Smith was willing to take responsibility for the disaster, stayed on the
bridge, and died with his ship. It was a poignant end to a career that was
to end with his comfortable retirement with his wife after that very voyage.


Bureaucracies are supposed to be free of the influence of personalities.
That's the whole idea of a bureaucratic system that moves exactly according
to the "rules" regardless of what those administering them might think.
Often those rules are drafted to try to take into consideration different
circumstances and as long as people have to make decisions about which rules
apply, personalities will intrude. In that way a bad decision can be
something like the Titanic disaster, I suppose, except that it's rare for an
individual to step forward and accept full responsibility when the system
fails.  

I think we need more Captain Smiths in our world. If we had one in the White
House over the past six years we may have invaded Iraq just the same but
we'd not be the international embarrassment to ourselves and to community of
nations that we are today. When the WMD weren't found, he'd have admitted it
and offered to resign. 

That's what a leader does: takes responsibility for his mistakes. 

I suppose there's a lesson there. Both Ismay and Captain Smith are
remembered a century later. Ismay as a dastardly coward whose interest in
setting a crossing record may have contributed to the deaths of those
people, and Smith as a man who made a colossal mistake, accepted the blame,
and the fate that came with it. 

I suspect President Bush will be remembered to future generations too, but
not as a man who accepted the blame for anything. 

I'm glad the historical society got involved in the issue over the building
at Main and 19th. 

Ron D'Eau Claire 

(1) For anyone who isn't aware that the full transcripts of the interviews
with the Titanic survivors and others associated with the event such as the
inventor of wireless, G. Marconi are available on-line, they are here:
http://www.titanicinquiry.org/
 



-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of David Morelli
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:59 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Reputations (WAS: New postage)



On Apr 26, 2007, at 9:16 AM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

> Once in motion, bureaucracies have incredible inertia. It's one of the 
> many weaknesses of the beast, I guess.
>
> The "Titanic" was nothing compared to a government bureaucracy that 
> has made a decision...
>
> Ron D'Eau Claire

There were some personalities involved as well, as I recall.

David
_______________________________________________
GroveNet mailing list
GroveNet at rdrop.com http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet