Steven P. BarrettFAILURE’S HARDLY THE END, PT. II: PUTTING ON NEW FACES (LINK)
July 10th 2008 16:46
Steven Barrett
There's an old story about Lincoln, who when pointed to somebody was given the excuse "Well, he can't help his face or the way he looks." To which Lincoln replied, "Yes he can help the way he looks." Lincoln, who wasn't exactly "packageable" by today's shallow standards offered a significant piece of wisdom we'd best not overlook.
In fact, it's a lot more significant than it might appear at first glance, especially those who might be more inclined to study Lincoln strictly from a historical vantage point ... and I'm one, too. He's a fasciinating man in many areas. But in this particular instance, and taken from the perspective of a person prone to depression (as was Lincoln) -- what the "Great Liberator" said was far-reaching -- in and out of politics, and for all times to come.
We can affect how we come across to others. How we choose to appear, and how these appearences, however subtle or profound, affect others is a matter of significant concern for all of us. Just look at FDR's battle with polio and how it affected him not only as a rising young politician struck down in the prime of life, but during a time when crippled politicians were finished. He refused to budge, and his normally sunny disposition, which was indeed tested at Campobello -- where he contacted it -- was considerably revived as he grew more personally determined to overcome its limitations. In so doing, he also carried with him that attitude with him to Warm Springs, GA, where he eventually became known as "Dr. Roosevelt" for what his (determined) infectious positive attitude was able to do for the many other polio patients using the facility. He'd often throw himself in to water games with the other patients, even after becoming president. (Imagine that today. But it's not impossible.)
FDR deliberately decided not to allow his crippled legs to cripple his personality and famous uplifting smile. Though Al Smith, then nicknamed the "Happy Warrior" was nominated to run as the Democratic nominee in Houston in 1928, he owed his nickname to FDR, the real "Happy Warrior" for the speech FDR made during that convention -- standing painfully with heavy metal braces, no less -- for the first time publicly since coming down with polio, and called Smith, the first Catholic nominee, the "Happy Warrior."
History would soon demonstrate who the real "Happy Warrior" was and what he was able to do with his ability to project this substantive image, notwithstanding the many odds against his ability to do so.
Think of the ramifications for the nation if FDR had the same personality of Herbert Hoover who'd worn gloom all over his face -- yet he, not Roosevelt, was the first to use the Federal government to start programs to help "do something," however piecemeal. Well, no matter what Hoover did or thought he had started, he'd undercut his entire efforts by his own demeanor and glum attitude of hopelessness.
Hoover was a giant in the "business of eradicating poverty" before he even ran for office. He was practically a one-man Marshall Plan after World War I. But he underestimated the depth of the Great Depression in both economic and psychic terms. In so doing, he also relied too heavily on the private sector to come to the rescue. It wasn't and he didn't see how incredibly hard-hearted and callous the private sector bosses had become.
Millions of affected Americans had simply grown weary of what they perceived to be Hoover's do nothing attitude and glum surrender to the sad realities of the times. What they weren't privy to was Hoover's recognition as to just how visciously callous the plutocrats had become. While they made their millions before the Great Crash of 1929, and lost millions as well, they still had most of their wealth, the mansions, WASPs only clubs, and so forth. Many in our upper class became as decadent as their aristocratic counterparts in Europe. Incredulously enough, when Hoover introduced his relatively small programs, the upper classes turned on him. Small wonder he knew the game was then rigged and even as President he was a prisoner of a thoroughly intransigent "private property/management solves all" mentality.
I get the chills thinking about this and other recent schemes being pulled off by businesses use to get around our government and out from under our Flag, in order to maintain their "competitive advantages." Think of this the next time you go to Wal-Mart or another "big box" store and see the "Made in Some Third World Satrap" by locals working at near slave wages, or even scandals perpetrated under our Flag on American soil such as Saipan, that former -- and properly disgraced -- House Majority Leader Tom Delay R-TX, called a "petrie dish" of the American economy during one of his sleaziest junket.
Good thing for Hoover that he never lived to see the likes of Tom Delay or his buddies, especially Jack Abramoff in action. Hoover had enough misery stemming from within his own party's Guardians of Plutocracy.
One of the best books ever written about FDR (and the psychology of realistic positive leadership in action) is Doris Kearn Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time" about the Roosevelt written from a personal perspective about the Roosevelt family and how it's makeup helped in just as many ways to bring this nation out of its deeply dangerous funk.
FDR was no fool when he took the oath in 1933; no more than Lincoln was in 1861. Both men faced the deepest and darkest times we ever faced and how those two men -- in just the short span of hours, no less -- managed to transform their nation's psychological turnarounds that kept the nation from falling apart in the other crises, defeats and external challenges that were to face their respective administrations.
There's no way to adequately describe or measure "what might've" happened if they hadn't demonstrated their inate abilities to transform the necessary people around them to pull their nation up by the arms -- so-to-speak -- and say, "Hey, it's tough, but we'll make it." Librarians put these "what if" scenario types of books in the "science fiction" sub-catagory, and for good reasons. It is almost too "spooky" to even think of what could've happened if Lincoln couldn't have put together as strong an administration as he did considering all the obstacles facing him; and of course, we were facing a possible Weimar collapse of our own in 1932 and early '33 before "Dr. Roosevelt" came to town and through one "failure" after another, he kept at it, largely through his own positive attitude that'd been tested personally as well as politically beforehand.
Had it not been for all those "failures" even FDR admitted to, and his superb ability to project a realistic positive attitude, there's no way he could've gotten the people outside of his most trusted inner core of advisors, particularly Frances Perkins, to have stuck together long enough to pull this country together enough to face the huge demands the war was to place on the private sector, esp. in 1942 when the president was practically demanding--for sound reasons--an astronomical number of planes, tanks and ships.
The key was to get the "glums" out of people and off of their faces. The song "Happy Days Are Here Again" was a "Tin Pan Alley" song, not originally wri tten for (Democratic) political purposes. Yet Roosevelt adopted its title, words and catchy tune. In fact, from 1932 to 1972, everytime the rollcall reached the "magic number" -- the halls would erupt, and the band would strike up "Happy Days Are Here Again" in tribute to "Dr. Roosevelt."
My how times and parties have changed. Many key far -- and I mean far --l eftist wonks have forgotten a central part of their own party's most enduring legacies in the historical efforts of common people to overcome economic hardhips. Perhaps I'll give them some benefit of the doubt for being too shame-faced for realizing you can't support legalized baby killing and singing genuinely uplifting songs.)
Most insulting for FDR's memory was Reagan using it during his 1980 coronation in Detroit, and I won't go down that long road. But I'll say this for Ronald Reagan, he did learn from FDR, whom he strongly supported when he was a young and very active liberal, almost leftist, Democrat. He knew well how to project a positive attitude. Trouble was, his was as phony as the day is long and for many of all the wrong reasons insofar as his economic policies were concerned. (I do believe he was on-target concerning foreign policy, however.)
How we project ourselves does indeed affect everyone, from the toddler needing our parental assurance, to the people I help at a local food pantry at my family's church. These people haven't two extra nickles to rub together and they're desperate for a reassuring smile -- and I've barely got a two nickles and a penny, but that's not their fault if my times are tough. But it will be my fault if I let my "glums" affect how I treat them , or allow what's bothering them to upset me to the point where even I can't be of help to them. To their credit the poor are almost universally a lot more appreciative for whatever they get than many college professors and other academic administrators, bigshots, etc. around this area -- take for granted, especially the younger professors who are benefitting from the sacrifices and battles fought by their older predecessors.
Tough times, depression (bipolar, mine; melancholia, Lincoln's; polio and it's moments of discouragment, FDR's) -- rocky marriages, divorces, kids' deaths, abuse, financial ripoffs, rash and unfair outsourcing, firings, and so forth -- anyone of them can affect us all. Even losing out in a beauty contest.
Roger Simon's message is that by being able to compete in all of the areas, not just the "good looks" aspect, but the academic and artistic talents these young women are expected to have and share -- the process has made them winners already. The ones who have really lost are the ones who misjudge these young and brave contestants -- us.
In the public arena, we deserve the cynical cycle of packaging and repackaging we get because we've allowed ourselves to be deluded by it, and not taking the time to say, "Wait, these are real people ... and no matter how repulsed I feel towards some of their political views and past actions ... at least they're getting off their couches and marching their duffs to their telephone/writing desks or marching out of their homes to do something.
The most demanding people in politics are the ones who watch the most television and do the least: period. Every year in and out. And they're often the biggest frowners. I'd rather lose still wearing a smile on my face knowing I did something than to stare glumly at myself in the mirror asking "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who was the laziest procrastinating crab of them all?"
Lincoln was right. People can help how they look; and they must. (That's probably where we (writers, or political activists, whose tasks range from plotting strategy to making "get out the vote" car-pooling calls, indeed a VERY important job) stand against the doleful doubters in the "woe is me/we" crowd full of this, that or some other form of social or inherited traits or disabling factors they often convert into excuses in no time flat.
I'll never get rid of my bipolar depression, anymore than I'll get rid of hypthyroidism, alcoholism or other things that have rendered me permanently disabled insofar as holding down a regular job. (While to some it may seem sad, it's far from the end of the world!) All of us can and MUST take responsibility for ourselves insofar as taking control of whatever disables us, lest it eventually cause slow deaths. Hell, good friends, I'm planning on kicking some serious butt when I'm 96 and told my wife on several occasions she's got "good news and bad news" -- the good as having me around for at least another 25 years -- and the BAD, well ...I'll be around. That's the attitude we need to change our faces.
Though I sound ever so full of cheer and "piss and vinegar" this a.m. -- I know tomorrow I could be facing a "down day." We all do and will. On the other hand, dammit all no matter how down I might get from time to time, I can't and refuse to allow myself the [B]selfishly and murderous false luxury[/B] of wallowing in it, thus pulling others down. The only and absolutely only excuse I can allow for myself or anyone else in similar straits is a mishap on medicines that particular day, esp. if it's hot and overwhelmingly humid and I'm just too sapped to even think rationally enough to pull myself up psychologically. But that's when it's okay to temporarily pull out a white flag and call it a moment or day. We do it if we're physically sick, right? And meds can do that to us.
I'm not a "shrink," but I've learned enough hard lessons to follow their advice. Not as well as I should've nor as often. So long as I'm trying and doing what I can to help others try, I'm also doing what I can to affect how my face looks. And that'll help me, you, and anyone we love change their faces and chances for the real beauty pageant open to all of us: Life.
There's an old story about Lincoln, who when pointed to somebody was given the excuse "Well, he can't help his face or the way he looks." To which Lincoln replied, "Yes he can help the way he looks." Lincoln, who wasn't exactly "packageable" by today's shallow standards offered a significant piece of wisdom we'd best not overlook.
Abe Lincoln
Could a guy with this face get elected today? It didn't bother him, though.
In fact, it's a lot more significant than it might appear at first glance, especially those who might be more inclined to study Lincoln strictly from a historical vantage point ... and I'm one, too. He's a fasciinating man in many areas. But in this particular instance, and taken from the perspective of a person prone to depression (as was Lincoln) -- what the "Great Liberator" said was far-reaching -- in and out of politics, and for all times to come.
We can affect how we come across to others. How we choose to appear, and how these appearences, however subtle or profound, affect others is a matter of significant concern for all of us. Just look at FDR's battle with polio and how it affected him not only as a rising young politician struck down in the prime of life, but during a time when crippled politicians were finished. He refused to budge, and his normally sunny disposition, which was indeed tested at Campobello -- where he contacted it -- was considerably revived as he grew more personally determined to overcome its limitations. In so doing, he also carried with him that attitude with him to Warm Springs, GA, where he eventually became known as "Dr. Roosevelt" for what his (determined) infectious positive attitude was able to do for the many other polio patients using the facility. He'd often throw himself in to water games with the other patients, even after becoming president. (Imagine that today. But it's not impossible.)
FDR deliberately decided not to allow his crippled legs to cripple his personality and famous uplifting smile. Though Al Smith, then nicknamed the "Happy Warrior" was nominated to run as the Democratic nominee in Houston in 1928, he owed his nickname to FDR, the real "Happy Warrior" for the speech FDR made during that convention -- standing painfully with heavy metal braces, no less -- for the first time publicly since coming down with polio, and called Smith, the first Catholic nominee, the "Happy Warrior."
History would soon demonstrate who the real "Happy Warrior" was and what he was able to do with his ability to project this substantive image, notwithstanding the many odds against his ability to do so.
Hoover & FDR, 1933
Think of the ramifications for the nation if FDR had the same personality of Herbert Hoover who'd worn gloom all over his face -- yet he, not Roosevelt, was the first to use the Federal government to start programs to help "do something," however piecemeal. Well, no matter what Hoover did or thought he had started, he'd undercut his entire efforts by his own demeanor and glum attitude of hopelessness.
Hoover was a giant in the "business of eradicating poverty" before he even ran for office. He was practically a one-man Marshall Plan after World War I. But he underestimated the depth of the Great Depression in both economic and psychic terms. In so doing, he also relied too heavily on the private sector to come to the rescue. It wasn't and he didn't see how incredibly hard-hearted and callous the private sector bosses had become.
Millions of affected Americans had simply grown weary of what they perceived to be Hoover's do nothing attitude and glum surrender to the sad realities of the times. What they weren't privy to was Hoover's recognition as to just how visciously callous the plutocrats had become. While they made their millions before the Great Crash of 1929, and lost millions as well, they still had most of their wealth, the mansions, WASPs only clubs, and so forth. Many in our upper class became as decadent as their aristocratic counterparts in Europe. Incredulously enough, when Hoover introduced his relatively small programs, the upper classes turned on him. Small wonder he knew the game was then rigged and even as President he was a prisoner of a thoroughly intransigent "private property/management solves all" mentality.
I get the chills thinking about this and other recent schemes being pulled off by businesses use to get around our government and out from under our Flag, in order to maintain their "competitive advantages." Think of this the next time you go to Wal-Mart or another "big box" store and see the "Made in Some Third World Satrap" by locals working at near slave wages, or even scandals perpetrated under our Flag on American soil such as Saipan, that former -- and properly disgraced -- House Majority Leader Tom Delay R-TX, called a "petrie dish" of the American economy during one of his sleaziest junket.
Good thing for Hoover that he never lived to see the likes of Tom Delay or his buddies, especially Jack Abramoff in action. Hoover had enough misery stemming from within his own party's Guardians of Plutocracy.
One of the best books ever written about FDR (and the psychology of realistic positive leadership in action) is Doris Kearn Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time" about the Roosevelt written from a personal perspective about the Roosevelt family and how it's makeup helped in just as many ways to bring this nation out of its deeply dangerous funk.
FDR was no fool when he took the oath in 1933; no more than Lincoln was in 1861. Both men faced the deepest and darkest times we ever faced and how those two men -- in just the short span of hours, no less -- managed to transform their nation's psychological turnarounds that kept the nation from falling apart in the other crises, defeats and external challenges that were to face their respective administrations.
There's no way to adequately describe or measure "what might've" happened if they hadn't demonstrated their inate abilities to transform the necessary people around them to pull their nation up by the arms -- so-to-speak -- and say, "Hey, it's tough, but we'll make it." Librarians put these "what if" scenario types of books in the "science fiction" sub-catagory, and for good reasons. It is almost too "spooky" to even think of what could've happened if Lincoln couldn't have put together as strong an administration as he did considering all the obstacles facing him; and of course, we were facing a possible Weimar collapse of our own in 1932 and early '33 before "Dr. Roosevelt" came to town and through one "failure" after another, he kept at it, largely through his own positive attitude that'd been tested personally as well as politically beforehand.
FDR, Positively Infectious
Had it not been for all those "failures" even FDR admitted to, and his superb ability to project a realistic positive attitude, there's no way he could've gotten the people outside of his most trusted inner core of advisors, particularly Frances Perkins, to have stuck together long enough to pull this country together enough to face the huge demands the war was to place on the private sector, esp. in 1942 when the president was practically demanding--for sound reasons--an astronomical number of planes, tanks and ships.
The key was to get the "glums" out of people and off of their faces. The song "Happy Days Are Here Again" was a "Tin Pan Alley" song, not originally wri tten for (Democratic) political purposes. Yet Roosevelt adopted its title, words and catchy tune. In fact, from 1932 to 1972, everytime the rollcall reached the "magic number" -- the halls would erupt, and the band would strike up "Happy Days Are Here Again" in tribute to "Dr. Roosevelt."
My how times and parties have changed. Many key far -- and I mean far --l eftist wonks have forgotten a central part of their own party's most enduring legacies in the historical efforts of common people to overcome economic hardhips. Perhaps I'll give them some benefit of the doubt for being too shame-faced for realizing you can't support legalized baby killing and singing genuinely uplifting songs.)
Most insulting for FDR's memory was Reagan using it during his 1980 coronation in Detroit, and I won't go down that long road. But I'll say this for Ronald Reagan, he did learn from FDR, whom he strongly supported when he was a young and very active liberal, almost leftist, Democrat. He knew well how to project a positive attitude. Trouble was, his was as phony as the day is long and for many of all the wrong reasons insofar as his economic policies were concerned. (I do believe he was on-target concerning foreign policy, however.)
How we project ourselves does indeed affect everyone, from the toddler needing our parental assurance, to the people I help at a local food pantry at my family's church. These people haven't two extra nickles to rub together and they're desperate for a reassuring smile -- and I've barely got a two nickles and a penny, but that's not their fault if my times are tough. But it will be my fault if I let my "glums" affect how I treat them , or allow what's bothering them to upset me to the point where even I can't be of help to them. To their credit the poor are almost universally a lot more appreciative for whatever they get than many college professors and other academic administrators, bigshots, etc. around this area -- take for granted, especially the younger professors who are benefitting from the sacrifices and battles fought by their older predecessors.
Tough times, depression (bipolar, mine; melancholia, Lincoln's; polio and it's moments of discouragment, FDR's) -- rocky marriages, divorces, kids' deaths, abuse, financial ripoffs, rash and unfair outsourcing, firings, and so forth -- anyone of them can affect us all. Even losing out in a beauty contest.
Roger Simon's message is that by being able to compete in all of the areas, not just the "good looks" aspect, but the academic and artistic talents these young women are expected to have and share -- the process has made them winners already. The ones who have really lost are the ones who misjudge these young and brave contestants -- us.
In the public arena, we deserve the cynical cycle of packaging and repackaging we get because we've allowed ourselves to be deluded by it, and not taking the time to say, "Wait, these are real people ... and no matter how repulsed I feel towards some of their political views and past actions ... at least they're getting off their couches and marching their duffs to their telephone/writing desks or marching out of their homes to do something.
The most demanding people in politics are the ones who watch the most television and do the least: period. Every year in and out. And they're often the biggest frowners. I'd rather lose still wearing a smile on my face knowing I did something than to stare glumly at myself in the mirror asking "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who was the laziest procrastinating crab of them all?"
Lincoln was right. People can help how they look; and they must. (That's probably where we (writers, or political activists, whose tasks range from plotting strategy to making "get out the vote" car-pooling calls, indeed a VERY important job) stand against the doleful doubters in the "woe is me/we" crowd full of this, that or some other form of social or inherited traits or disabling factors they often convert into excuses in no time flat.
I'll never get rid of my bipolar depression, anymore than I'll get rid of hypthyroidism, alcoholism or other things that have rendered me permanently disabled insofar as holding down a regular job. (While to some it may seem sad, it's far from the end of the world!) All of us can and MUST take responsibility for ourselves insofar as taking control of whatever disables us, lest it eventually cause slow deaths. Hell, good friends, I'm planning on kicking some serious butt when I'm 96 and told my wife on several occasions she's got "good news and bad news" -- the good as having me around for at least another 25 years -- and the BAD, well ...I'll be around. That's the attitude we need to change our faces.
Though I sound ever so full of cheer and "piss and vinegar" this a.m. -- I know tomorrow I could be facing a "down day." We all do and will. On the other hand, dammit all no matter how down I might get from time to time, I can't and refuse to allow myself the [B]selfishly and murderous false luxury[/B] of wallowing in it, thus pulling others down. The only and absolutely only excuse I can allow for myself or anyone else in similar straits is a mishap on medicines that particular day, esp. if it's hot and overwhelmingly humid and I'm just too sapped to even think rationally enough to pull myself up psychologically. But that's when it's okay to temporarily pull out a white flag and call it a moment or day. We do it if we're physically sick, right? And meds can do that to us.
I'm not a "shrink," but I've learned enough hard lessons to follow their advice. Not as well as I should've nor as often. So long as I'm trying and doing what I can to help others try, I'm also doing what I can to affect how my face looks. And that'll help me, you, and anyone we love change their faces and chances for the real beauty pageant open to all of us: Life.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
I have another friend who is diabetic, but otherwise healthy and she is so down all the time, most people don't even want to hear from her. She's a great engineer of her own miseries and refuses to do anything about it. I've been trying to cheer her up for years... Maybe someday it'll work...
The real beauty is inside. It is displayed by attitude. The real strength isn't in althletic abilities, it's found in courage.
Sad to say, but there is mighty little of either beauty or strength to be found in our current presidential candidates.
Comment by Anonymous
On the other hand, I know of people in their 40s and 50s who might as well pay me to write their obits ahead of time.
Eleanor Roosevelt said FDR's success in getting people to keep moving forward, pushing and trying was due to the fact that there was still "a little boy" remaining inside him. How true. God, have I seen some dead young men, and I've been there myself thanks to bipolar when I allowed it to overtake my attitude, thus better judgment. It's a condition, not a sentence. But try telling that to some people.
Saddest cases of them all are the junkies, and I'm not referring to the painkiller addicts, though they'd better keep a real tight eye on where they're headed. It took Rush Limbaugh to his cliffside. He should be thankful he was caught since I'm sure that helped to bring his situation back in control.
But look at so many others, the coke, heroin and stronger marijuana addicts. Hell, I can't even stand to see the sight of anyone getting a needle much less knowing people use heroin daily and hourly much in the same fashion, through dirty needles! And the cost to them and their families ... if they have any less. It's also more potent. The other day some UMass kid used some and died damn near instantly.
If there's a hell on earth, these people are living in it, and by the time they're cooking this stuff up in their homes or garages, they're "cooked." I've seen some tough things in life, not a combat zone, but tough things. On the other hand, I don't know if I could ever get over the sight of somebody I once cared for or chummed with. whose life was turned inside out, upside down and burned throughout on that stuff.
However difficult life might get for some of us, nothing, absolutely, nothing -- and I'm covering a hell of a lot of ground here -- is worth that kind of self destruction.
There is so much to live for, if only people decide to live.