Discovering
significant bits of philosophy in unexpected places, like movies or even
commercials, has long been a fascination of mine. For instance, one of my
favorites, ‘why ask why?’ may have originated with a beer commercial but it
reminds me that sometimes we spend a lot of time, seeking an answer that is of
no true value. My favorite application for this one is life with a teenager,
why ask why indeed. It still doesn’t help much.
A
thought-provoking comparison this past week, pointed out that seeking Donald
Trump as a solution to this country’s problems is similar to putting your
brother-in-law (or brother or best friend) into a position of authority or
responsibility where ‘you just know he would be great’. You are, after all,
certain he is a smart guy, one who is not afraid to say what he thinks and who
can come up with solutions that prove he thinks outside of the box, just by all
the stuff he says all the time. On the other hand, he never sticks with any one
job for any length of time, runs through money like nobody you’ve ever known,
and can tick people off faster than rain evaporating off of a hot Ozark
sidewalk! If he could just get into the right situation, he would be great!
And so you (or
someone else in your circle of family or friends) have at some point in the
past, helped to set him up as a manager of a shop or store, a campground or
hotel, or secured a spot for him in management training at your firm where he
promptly imploded once again, as he has in the past. And so now, Donald Trump
thinks as do many of his followers, that
he, someone who has never run for elected office in his life and who has
managed to run several businesses into the ground or into court-action, would
make a good president of one of the few countries in the world that has the capability
of being self-sufficient. Do we really
want to give everything from the nuclear codes to sway over a significant
portion of the world’s petroleum supply to a man with little to no diplomatic
skills?
We may love our
brother, son, or brother-in-law who is the alcoholic, drug addict, or
predictable never-ending proverbial screw-up and we’ve even seen him do well
for years at a time, but when the pressure gets to be too much, he caves. Donald Trump may have the ego for the job as
POTUS (President Of The United States) but that is about the only inarguable
qualification I’ve seen that he has for the job.
Maybe he needs to
go back and take a bit of philosophy from another American showman who spoke at
the last Republication convention in 2012. Clint Eastwood as Detective Dirty
Harry (Callahan) uttered the immortal words, ‘A man’s got to know his
limitations’ in one of his movies from years ago. Now there’s a bit of
philosophy Donald Trump needs to take to heart.
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