[crouton] Nathaniel Trost: A Flood of Emotion

[crouton at lists.powerblogs.com]

Posted by Nathaniel Trost:
A Flood of Emotion
http://crouton.powerblogs.com/archives/archive_2005_09_04-2005_09_10.shtml#1125964609


   Well, Labor Day already. The combination of a holiday weekend, people
   squeezing their last relocations into the summer moving season and
   random whatnot have conspired to create a truly awesome piece of
   Garbage Jenga in the dumpster across the way.
   The past week proved an acceptable blend of getting things done and
   recuperation. I always have the nagging thoughts that I Should Have
   Done More, but it is getting easier to fight off those guilt attacks
   as I get older. I'm still working on finding motivation to feel
   energetic and zesty when getting out of bed tomorrow morning though.
   Katrina coverage on the net has proved to be a depressing psychic
   drain. Most of my virtual 'haunts' are dominated by otherwise bright
   people who seem to lose all ability for rational thought or critical
   thinking once Certain People enter the picture in any way shape or
   form. I A) love thinking about logistical issues B) have a pretty
   thick skin and C) find dissecting major endeavors and figuring out
   what went right and what went wrong fascinating. Trying to do that in
   the current climate leads to being branded an "apologist"
   "spin-doctor" or worse.
   One of the dark sides of our culture is the emphasis of style over
   substance. You can look good and empathetic on camera and be doing an
   incredibly incompetent job and be defended vociferously. You can be a
   buffoon on camera and things under you can be going about as well as
   be expected and you will be savaged. Of course, sometimes you can be a
   buffoon on camera and incompetent in practice. The Katrina disaster
   has given us examples of all three.
   There is no 'victory' or 'good enough' response to a tragedy of this
   magnitude. All you are doing is trying not to make it worse than it
   absolutely has to be. Any time you are reacting to a disaster, you are
   going to run into three categories of failure in preventing loss of
   life or misery:
   Failure due to impossibility
   Failure due to chaos
   Failure due to incompetence
   Where I lose my temper is where people refuse to acknowledge the
   existence of the first two categories, or are so fixated on the third
   that due to ignorance or partisan bias want to lump everything into
   the last category. Of course, once it becomes about scoring political
   points, zealots on the other side of the fence want to push the third
   category out to the first two.
   None of this helps the current situation, much less lends itself to
   reflection, analysis or improvement.
   If I were to suggest one link to those who seek a better understanding
   on the logistics of disaster relief, or of how things work on a
   local/state/federal level, what the military role is, etc. [1]this
   would probably be the link. Or rather the link to a collection of
   links Van Steenwyk can express some strong opinions, but when he says
   "I've been a battalion S4 in combat, an HHC XO for dozens of major
   moves of a hundred miles or more, and an HHC company commander for six
   hurricane mobilizations." I'll tend to give his opinions some serious
   weight.
   I guess I'm just an apologist.
   An apologist who has starting playing WoW again. *sob*

References

   1. http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2005/09/if-there-were-ever-any-doubt-about-how.html