The campaign noise has gotten so bad that I’m wary of opening my apartment door in the morning. For the past few days, our doorknob (and all the others in the hallway) has been tagged with reminders to vote early (and a suggestion about the candidate who should receive that vote). Television, radio, newspapers, street corners, and doorknobs- the election noise is overwhelming. What I find most irritating (besides the ubiquity) is the increasingly simplistic rhetoric directed at very complex global problems.
Harvard psychologist Robert Kegan wrote a book a few years ago, the title of which I think captures this eloquently: In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Kegan offers example after example of the choices and challenges that confront people in the workplace and personal lives and how these challenges require people to stretch their thinking, their perspectives and their comfort zones in order to encompass all that the task or challenge requires. According to Kegan, most people struggle to keep up without understanding why the challenges are so challenging. In the case of election rhetoric, the sound byte culture prevails and it appeals because simple answers allow voters to feel comfortable and secure. Black and white thinking doesn’t require a stretch; a person simply agrees with one side or the other- no weighing, evaluation or discomfort is required.
Both candidates are promoting themselves as agents of change. An article in a recent issue of Business Week, “What Change Agents are Made Of”, by Jack and Suzy Welch, caught my eye. The article offers some characteristics of such agents and an interesting quote: “True change agents have a track record of seeing around corners…”(http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_42/b4104096917161.htm?chan=magazine+channel_opinion). Seeing around corners requires the “power, vision, bravery and support” to take eyes off the sidewalk where we now stand. I want to think some more about this. I don’t disagree with the Welch’s characterization of these rare agents but I want to know more- how do these people get to be this way?
