Elections and the Smear Campaign–Weapon of the Future

Watching the Democrats employ the ultimate smear campaign against Mitt Romney has been the most disappointing campaign I have ever witnessed. 

Democrats in recent months have accused Romney of being a felon, a tax evader and now a direct contributor to someone’s death from cancer.  I understand that Mr. Axelrod and Mr. Obama have used this technique quite successfully in previous campaigns and so they are bringing out the big guns one more time

Sadly, Mr. Obama did promise never to resort to such tactics as noted below in a campaign speech from 2008 but you know what they say about how you can tell if a politician is lying.

 

2008 Democrat campaign trail

 

Some liberal democrats that I have tried to discuss this with using data and facts have tried to silence me with yelling, screaming and death threats.

Yes, the days of the ultimate weapons of choice to win an election or a debate have arrived.  Campaigns have always been dirty, but these unsubstantiated allegations by “unnamed sources” are a new low.

The way I see it, there are only a few things left for Romney to be accused of:

1. Wife battery

2. Pedophilia

3. A desire to reinstate slavery as a personal affront to the President once he is out of office.

4. That gun-toting Republicans will be ordered to shoot Democrats randomly in public places should the GOP lose the upcoming election.

But let’s explore this a little.  Maybe I am wrong.

Maybe these guys are on to something.

Perhaps if we consider some scenarios that ring closer to home that we will be able to see the power and wonder of this technique.

Bidding For Business

You might consider my competition, Mr. Prospect.  Hopefully he will have dug himself out of the court case with his last client by then.  What are the details?  Oh, I can’t say. That’s confidential information.

Business Relationship That Ended

Of course I couldn’t work with that guy any more.  I don’t work with guys sleeping around on their wives. Who is he fooling around with?  I can’t say because I wouldn’t want to hurt his family.

High School

Dear Mr. So-and-So.  Here’s a picture of you and my fellow student so-and-so (you don’t know that it’s photoshopped).  I’m expecting to have a good year in my senior year, if you catch my meaning.  I’d hate for this picture to get onto Facebook by accident.

School Yard

Mommy, Sarah keeps picking on me!.  That’s ok, Dear.  The next time Sarah picks on you, tell all the other kids that her Daddy touches her where he shouldn’t and she will stop picking on you.

Bored Soccer Mom

Can you believe that she said she didn’t like my new purse?  Maybe if she didn’t spend her time snorting lines of coke at home that she might still have some semblance of taste.

Sprinkle in some social media as we embrace this and we’re reaching the masses with our “powerful” message.

Yes, the possibilities are endless.

But wait!  What about the example we are setting for our youth?

Screw ‘em – they’re just a bunch of devil-worshipping, drug-dealing, lazy people, aren’t they?  They don’t care.

The Reality

Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t believe this about young people.

But there are three things I do believe when it comes to our youth.

1. We emulate our leaders in thought, word and action.

2. That which we tolerate today we embrace tomorrow.

3. The legacy that we are leaving for our youth and the models of behavior that we want them to emulate leave a LOT of room for improvement.

I believe we can and must do better and that we must hold ourselves and our leaders, whether in politics, business, religion or anything else to a much higher standard.

What do you believe?

Or worse …. do you even care?

Someday you will.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS  Here is what David Rothkopf, a well-known Democrat, thinks of the current Democrat campaign - Reid's Romney smears an insult to voters. 

Sometimes the greatest insult of all to someone is when their intelligence has been insulted or they are being used but they don’t know it or don’t stand up to fight it.  But then again, people who suck it up incessantly without question make for the perfect electorate, don’t they?

Truth Seekers: Beware Ye Who Enter Here

One of the characteristics about the career I have been blessed to have is that it has given me access to a lot of “interesting” people.  With access to such “interesting” people, I have been able to explore a curiosity of mine for some time, to seek the truth regarding a significant, impactful piece of information that I have felt should have been disclosed to the public many years ago.

As I have moved ever-closer to “the truth”, I have discovered a few things:

1. What I thought was the truth is in fact a truth, a subset of a larger set of circumstances that I wasn’t aware of (and actually wish I didn’t know).

2. Having gotten very close to the truth that I sought, I don’t know what to do with it and in fact, I wonder if I should have pursued it in the first place.

3. Some people, in an effort to hide the truth, are much more passionate about defending it than the ones who seek it.  They may also live by a completely different set of values and ethics when defending it.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

A lot of people who have knowledge of my pursuit have expressed a keen desire for me to spill the beans, with cries of bravado that “we must embrace truth at all cost”.  Of course, spilling the beans doesn’t impact them adversely and so it is easy to root for me from the sidelines.

Some even appear to enjoy the excitement of a “Hollywood moment’, feeling like they are Jason Bourne taking on the system and that in the end, the hero gets the girl, some really cool cars and the gratitude of the world before riding off into the sunset.

Uh huh. 

Having experienced the offer of witness protection as a key witness to the prosecution in a fraud trial some years ago, I can assure you that the reality of such situations is nowhere near as fun and exciting as Hollywood might suggest.

I have discovered, surprisingly since I work hard to help clients plan for unexpected outcomes, that I have been caught off guard with the point that I have reached and that I need to pause and reflect on what I should do next. 

My grandiose plan that I intended to manifest when I reached my destination is proving sorely insufficient and now I find myself in the not-so-enjoyable place of knowing something that I would probably be happier not knowing and in a position where I may not be able to make any change of positive value.

I can’t forget what I have learned and yet wonder if is it even possible to move forward based on what I now know?  Better yet, should I move forward, given that moving forward potentially creates great risk for me and others close to me as I explore a world that plays by a different set of rules?

For someone who has built a career around strategy, measurable outcomes and solving difficult problems, such a position presents a difficult challenge that I must solve.

I am reminded of the importance of not assuming that we know the entire truth when we set out upon a journey.  Oftentimes, information is not revealed until later in the journey and so it is important to not cloud our initial intentions and passions with insufficient information.  Had I known in advance what the big picture looked like in this situation, I may not have explored it at all.

I am also reminded about the importance of preparedness – that there is a strong possibility that a significant change in intention and execution may be in order upon arrival at one’s destination.  It may also be a fact that once one has been exposed to certain events and information, pretending nothing happened is not an option and that choices must be made.

It’s like learning about a planned Mafia hit and deciding one wants to secretly observe and photograph it for “the big scoop”.  Sneaking into the planned location and observing the hit as it’s made, you observe someone famous pulling the trigger and then suddenly you are discovered.  Having been caught, you assure the criminals that if they let you go, you promise you won’t tell anyone what you saw.

Yeah … right.

I know a lot of people who have “dreams of truth”, based on limited or inaccurate information, that they passionately, aggressively and sometimes blindly or ignorantly follow to make their truth known.

They can’t wait to get what they wish for.

The problem is …… they might just find it.

Hopefully they are prepared for it.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS Those who fall into a “truth” by accident or have it thrust upon them unexpectedly get a pass on being prepared in advance.  They have my deepest sympathy or heartiest congratulations, depending on the nature of the event!

Truth or Fiction–Perception and Life Experience

People who know me well know that I’m as pragmatic as they come.  In fact, I am sometimes perceived as one of the toughest skeptics in business because of my demand of others to back claims, beliefs and ideas with hard data and research. As I have often said to others when they approach me with a business intention and a gut feeling that they will make a bazillion dollars without a shred of evidence, strategy, research or planning, “it sucks when reality gets in the way of dreams”.

This afternoon, as I completed a stack of paperwork for clients and had a moment to pause, a conversation I had many years ago with my now-deceased father-in-law came to mind and it caused me to reflect upon it.

He had an interesting career.  He was a decorated B-25 pilot in WWII (appearing on the cover of Life magazine at the time) and went on to serve his country in the USAF, Strategic Air Command and Air National Guard before retiring with the rank of Colonel.

He was sharp as a tack, uber-pragmatic and had zero tolerance for “BS artists”.  He loved his country and while I knew he worked on some “interesting projects” at Wright Patterson AFB and other locations, he never shared his work or the secrets he was privy to.

However, he did have one interesting story that I have often thought about and for some reason as I completed my paperwork today, it came to mind.

One night we were sitting in his living room with its gorgeous views of the mountains.  He had been partaking of a little Scotch and we had been enjoying some idle chatter about everything and nothing, including recent advances in military technology.

Suddenly he got really serious, looked at me with his piercing eyes and asked me “Where do you think most of our recent advances in military technology have come from?”

I stopped for a moment, shrugged and said “With so many contractors working for the government, it’s not hard to see how smart people can create this stuff”.

Without hesitation, he asked again “It doesn’t come from here.  Where do you really think it comes from?”

Sensing that I had guessed poorly the first time, I responded “I don’t know.  Did we steal it from someone else, maybe the Russians or the Chinese?”

Getting a little agitated, he said “I just told you that it doesn’t come from here.  Where do you think it comes from?”

I had no response now, since if we didn’t create it and we hadn’t “borrowed it” from someone else, I had no suggestion.

He  persisted and asked me again where I thought it came from.

It appeared that he wanted me to guess something without actually telling me.  I was starting to get the idea of what he was inferring but I wanted to hear it from him and so I played dumb.  We explored the topic for a little while before he called it a night and went to bed. 

The next morning over breakfast, he looked at me across the table and said “I probably had a little too much to drink last night and may have said a few things I shouldn’t have said.  Anything we discussed last night is not to be discussed further”.

I made some crack about sharing it only with my closest friends and he hit his fist on the table and said “God damn it,  I’m not kidding.  It’s in your best interests to forget what we spoke about”.

The look in his eyes told me he wasn’t kidding and I assured him that I would be quiet about it.

Over the years, I have only shared this story with a few close friends but I have never shared it publicly until now, even thought what I am sharing is only part of what we discussed.

Even as I write this, I have no idea why I am sharing it on a blog where I muse about about leadership, strategy, technology and living.

However, as I think about that late-night conversation, a couple of quotes come to mind by people writing off things as impossible:

"Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible." - Simon Newcomb, 1902

"There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will." -- Albert Einstein, 1932

So when I think back to the night when my father-in-law and I debated the mysterious, controversial origins of modern military technology and I think of brilliant people in the past who said that many of the things that we take for granted were once believed to be impossible, I wonder …..

Is it possible that in many situations, the difference between what we delineate as truth or fiction has nothing to do with what we are judging but is entirely based on the life experiences of the person doing the judging?

Perhaps if we were to come to this realization, we would stop looking at proving everything as right or wrong but instead, would use such opportunities to fill gaps in our knowledge.

As perhaps my father-in-law tried to do with me, the uber-left-brained skeptic who insists upon hard data before moving something from the “fiction” box to the “truth” box.

And besides, implying that modern military technology has its origins from “somewhere / someone else” is just fiction.

Isn’t it?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

The Secret of the “Soothsayer”

I was contacted this morning by a young lady representing a Northeastern newspaper, looking for a comment on the accuracy of some of my predictions in recent years, most notably the downturn in September of 2008, the current economic struggles and some company successes and failures that I predicted contrary to the predictions of others.

She seemed to be fascinated that the things I have gone on public record about appear to have manifested as predicted and within the window that I predicted and she wanted to know how I did it.

In my reply, I mused about the potential sources of my predictions, namely:

1. Perhaps my Wall St. background and connections give me access to information not generally available.

2. Maybe its my recent work in predictive analytics, using math models to predict human behavior and the results of that behavior.

3. It would be nice to claim that I had a red-phone directly to God, but I don’t.

4. I can’t profess to have any belief in tea leaf reading and other forms of divination so that’s not it.

5. It could be my 20+ years providing strategy and global technology architecture, in a world where optimism must be balanced by pragmatism and where the art of listening is critical to providing solutions that work.

6. Maybe its my upbringing in a small community in eastern Canada, where common sense was bred into us (and beat into us if we still didn’t get it).

Yes, they may have all played a role (except for the red-phone, which hasn’t been installed yet but I have ordered one). :-)

But then I mused, that maybe, possibly, it is because ….

1. I can read.

and ….

2. I accept that information is just information.  It becomes good or bad news depending on what I choose to do (or not do) with it.

and finally ….

3. I am not afraid to ask questions and to speak frankly about the responses that I receive.

Many people, in an effort to escape the squeeze of daily life, prefer to ignore most the important information around them, filling their life with distractions that are more time-waters or mind-deadeners than anything.  If it looks like bad news (even though it is just information), they avoid it or embrace the mantra “I only read positive, reaffirming material”.

When I absorb information, I like to explore it, question it, evaluate it and analyze it, filtering out stuff like why some famous person spends $28,000 a week on her hair.  Many times, my questioning makes the owners of the information feel uncomfortable, since my questioning reveals avenues that they hadn’t explored or truths that they hadn’t or don’t want to acknowledge.  They forget that these truths aren’t good or bad – it is still only information until they make choices that turn it into good or bad news.

When I ask questions, I have a purpose behind them that was well described by my friend Bill H. when he said, “I am not trying to question your faith, I am trying to build mine”.

And finally, I am not afraid to speak my mind about the results.  I try to present the information objectively, fairly and responsibly, but I share it all the same.  If the emperor has no clothing, I have no qualms about saying it, as long as it is presented in an appropriate fashion.

Many people today hunger for optimism – if the news is good they want to hear from you as a fellow optimist but if it is bad news (as they perceive it), then they don’t want to hear from you with cries of “away from me, you pessimist”.

But I believe this is an unfortunate state of denial that doesn’t allow us to manage our lives in a better fashion and is largely responsible for how we have arrived where we are today.

And so when I examine things in front of me, whether it be the state of the economy or examining an organization to help them be successful (or warn them if the inevitable collapse is approaching), I strip the subjective fluff out of the information and view it as just that.

Information – pure and raw.

And then I ask a lot of questions until I am satisfied that I understand what I am looking at and can make appropriate choices with it.

The information is not good or bad until we make our choices as to how we will use it.

But if we ignore the information or our right and responsibility to understand it, question it, analyze it and apply it, then the results are VERY predictable.

And that’s not pessimism.

It’s reality.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Time to Wake Up and Smell the …

Some interesting headlines in the news this morning ……

• 1 in 7 Americans are now using food stamps or some other type of assistance (source).  I guess it is good to see that the economic recovery is well underway in America and that the average citizen has nothing to worry about.  Maybe the lawmakers are so far removed from this that in absence of pain on their part, they assume all is going well.
• US military used the name Geronimo as the code name for bin Laden, proudly announcing they had killed “Geronimo” when the task was completed (source).  No disrespect intended to our indigenous people, right?  Yeah …… sure.
• President Obama plans to use a Ground Zero speech to propel his personal political future (source).  Because there’s nothing better than leveraging the loss of thousands of innocent people for personal gain, is there.  Bin Laden is dead … but this changes little for many people who would rather have their loved ones home, alive and well.

While I am usually tremendously optimistic about the future of America, the possibility of such a future doesn’t just happen because America is a great country, because it has positive momentum towards unlimited potential and because it’s leadership is solely focused on the great citizens of America and not on their own personal gain.

It’s because the wonderful people of the great country that is the United States of America have always been known for doing the right thing and not just following the rhetoric being dished up to them by anyone, home or abroad.

But when I see headlines like the ones I note above, I can’t help but wonder if those wonderful people aren’t paying attention, since I don’t hear the public outcry demanding that things improve.

Or maybe these wonderful people are so crushed just trying to survive that they are unable to worry about these types of headlines.  After all, isn’t it easier to be consumed by the features in the next “smart phone du jour” than the future of one’s country?

If only such priorities improved the potential of the country.

The fact of the matter is that until we find the strength, courage and desire to hold our leaders accountable for providing accurate, transparent, authentic, respectful information and leadership, then we are not assured of being able to make the best decisions possible in our lives.

And when this happens, the opportunity to create continued growth and optimism is limited or delayed, creating additional difficulty for the millions of great Americans who are good, honest, hard-working people trying to create a better world for themselves, their families and their country.

So when the rhetoric or misinformation flies, it is indeed time to “wake up and smell the coffee” and to call it the way we see it, demanding better of our leaders  just as better is demanded of us by them.

Otherwise it may not be coffee we are smelling … and that’s not helpful for anybody.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

My Musings-in-a-Minute version of “Time to Wake Up and Smell the …” is the same as this one and can be found here.

Truth Welcome Here

As I walked into my favorite coffee shop today, my eyes fell upon a sign that is common in many establishments.

It said “Welcome here” and showed symbols of all of the primary credit cards that have become commonly known around the world.

If we as a species hung a “Welcome here” sign welcoming visitors to Earth, what types of things would we say are welcome?

Would truth be one of them?

We live in a world where we claim to cherish truth as a primary value but often it seems that it is only a primary value when it is convenient; when being truthful doesn’t conflict with some other intention or need.

Many people laugh at the conundrum of some areas where truthfulness is challenged – the classic “do these pants make me look *whatever*” where we accept that either a “yes” or a “no” puts us in a compromised position.

However, it seems more and more these days that truth, especially when it comes to realities that may be painful to accept, are viewed as pessimism. In these situations, unless we can spin something into a positive light, we often feel like we are better off not saying anything at all for fear of being criticized as not being a positive person or being afraid (as politicians think) that people wouldn’t be able to handle the truth.

“Stuff” that needs to be addressed doesn’t fix itself in the meantime.

I was talking to someone about the amazing rescue of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped for more than 60 days and remarked that over the same period, 1.6 million children under the age of 5 died from tainted water around the world and this didn’t even make the press.

They were quite offended by this, claiming that the rescue was a great triumph of humanity while there is nothing that can be done to save the children and so to mention such a thing was incredibly pessimistic.

The truth is that the Chilean rescue was something we could watch on TV, we could pray or hope for their rescue and sit back comfortable in the knowledge that we weren’t directly responsible for their plight or their rescue.  We could just enjoy the show.

As for the children who die around the world from tainted water, the truth is that their story could have a better ending, if we had the will to fix it. 

And that’s the great trouble with truth, whether it be on a political level, a corporate level, a societal level, an ecological level, etc.

It has this nasty way of reminding us of our responsibilities to ourselves, to others and to the planet – of reminding us that there are still some things that need fixing in this world and that WE own the problem and the solution.

A former client of mine and a wonderful human being sent me a note the other day where he used an expression that really struck me.  He said he was a “tactical pessimist and a strategic optimist”. I refer to this as a realist with an optimistic outlook – people who acknowledge that while significant challenges exist, our potential to overcome them is even greater.

There will always be challenges – in business, in government, in relationships, in our health and in the world at large.  The best way to tackle them is to acknowledge they are there.

When we acknowledge they are there, we have an opportunity to collaborate towards proactive solutions.

Being truthful to ourselves and others is often painful.

When we choose to not be truthful, we know that the truth always comes out eventually.

When it comes out on our own terms, it is often much less painful than if allowed to eventually make its way to the surface.

Easier said than done … but an important goal to strive towards nonetheless.

To be truthful, our world is counting on it.

Can it count on you?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

To see my Musings-in-a-Minute version of “Truth Welcome Here”, please click here.