Politics at its best
December 1st, 2006Otto Von Bismarck said “politics is the art of the possible,” by which I believe he meant that politics is the art of finding compromise. However, the phrase has alternate interpretations, and to me one of the more intriguing is that politics is also the art of shaking people from their common interpretations and showing them better ways of looking at the world they live in or could live in. Whether it is a friend, or a public figure, we are the most intriguing when we break through the tired conceptions of today and show new ways of looking at things.
Barack Obama did this with his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 when he argued that despite the common misconception of a divided America, there is One America (http://www.barackobama.com/media/dnc2004/).
Ronald Reagan shook citizens out of a feeling of left over depression from the Iran hostage crisis and into a realization of American promise with his morning in America commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-IBF8nwSY) and refuted the pro-communism argument by calling out the USSR as an “evil empire” and daring Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
In my opinion politicians are at their best when they shatter conventions, and point out what we all knew, or will come to know. Such acts are shocking when they happen, but resonate later, for a long time.
Such acts are not monopolized by one political party, or even one person. They occur frequently, and I think it is important to recognize them whether they are caused by friends, or foes.
December 16th, 2006 at 5:14 am
Is the art of the possible not also a means of exploring with people, teams and organisation, just what might be achievable in their personal or work life if they explored just what could be delivered by parking their existing pardigms, which may otherwise limit their ability to achieve for them the seemingly impossible…?