Presidential Aptitude Test (PAT)

This morning the idea came to me that we should have a SAT type test for candidates running for political office, and especially for Presidential candidates.  I checked Google and this idea has come up many times before in magazines, newspapers and by other bloggers.  One of the earliest examples of this concept was a letter to the New York Times in 1992.  It’s a good idea – especially after watching the Republicans go through debate after debate this year.

Think about the severe certification process we have for accountants, lawyers, doctors and teachers?  Why shouldn’t we have minimum standards for politicians?  Now most people will say the grueling gauntlet folks have to go through in the press is the aptitude test for politicians, but that only seems to weed out people that can’t handle campaigning pressure or flush out sexual bad behavior.  It’s more of a beauty or popularity contest – like picking the King and Queen for homecoming.

Most people who have the nerve to throw their hat into the ring to become president usually have experience in Congress, were state governors, or were successful businessmen, and on a rare occasions were generals.  Now running a state is probably the closest job to the job skills required to run the country.  Personally, I don’t think the skills acquired in the Senate or House is really equal to those it take to run the country.  And although the President is the Commander in Chief, I don’t think running the Army provides the same skills either.  And I can see why some people might think a successful CEO should be good for the job of President, but that only works if you think of the country as a business, which it’s not.

I want our President to be very smart, but there’s a lot of political analysis that suggests that Americans don’t like intellectual presidents.  However, since our country seems to be going down the tubes, I think we need to think hard about the job qualifications and quit thinking of picking a president by who we want to drink beer with.

What’s really needed is a renaissance man or woman.  Someone with a MBA and CPA, and J.D.  But we’d also want someone with a Ph.D. in American History and another in World Affairs.  It would also help if this person had a medical degree and was a scientist.  Once you start thinking about all the areas the president needs to know about, it’s no wonder the job doesn’t belong to a committee of experts.  And I think most voters feel the President do get their smarts from their advisers – but wouldn’t you also think the President needs to be smart enough to know what their advisers are talking about?

If the Education Testing Service (ETS) offered a PAT test for Presidential candidates I would expect anyone I was willing to vote for to have gotten high scores in most of the vital areas.  He or she wouldn’t have to be a genius, but I want people that scores in the top 10 percent of all areas.  Is it demanding too much to think that the man or woman that leads us has to be a straight A student?

So what areas of knowledge should a potential President be tested on?  These are subjects not related to his/her personal qualities like vision, leadership, charisma, perseverance, ability to communicate, focus, ability to listen to people, etc.

  • Law
  • Economics
  • History
  • Government
  • Science
  • Business
  • City, State, Federal and World Trade
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Philosophy, Rhetoric, Logic, Ethics and Religions

Most Republicans have a myopic view of economics – cut taxes.  They also seem anti-science and anti-education.  And after the grilling reporters have been giving them for months I would think they all would do poorly on the PAT test.  However, even though Obama is considered well educated, would he excel in all these areas?  My gut hunch would be he would have the highest PAT scores except for Gingrich, who is bookish for a Republican, but he might not get all As.  I think Obama is far more scholarly than Gingrich, but I just don’t know to what depth.  Wouldn’t you love to see their test scores to know for sure?

I’ve often wondered if the true job requirements and public scrutiny keeps 99.999% of all qualified applicants away from applying for the job of U. S. President.  I also wonder how much real power the job of U. S. President can have at improving our lives and the country.  Is there a man or woman in our country that could have done a better job than Obama?  Would we be seeing strong economic growth and low unemployment if John McCain had won the election in 2008?

President Bush and now President Obama have pushed for a system to quantify the performance of teachers – people who must meet state certification laws.  Shouldn’t we expect that same kind of quantitative measures and certification for politicians?

If we tested our politicians and then compared their scores to performance over time we’d know if test scores mattered.

At the very minimum, and a just for fun kind of thing, I wished all the candidates running for President would take some standardized tests on American history and government.  I’d really like to know how they all do.

JWH – 12/3/11

The Perils of Positive Thinking

In our society we like to believe that a positive attitude will make us a success, that positive thinking will cure our ills, and make us rich.  On last week’s CBS Sunday Morning featured “Just How Powerful Is Positive Thinking” that said belief in positive thought is wrong.  Of, they admitted that people with positive attitudes might get through chemo easier than depressed people, but thinking positive won’t cure cancer.  Then I found “When Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work” at Secret Entourage that says positive thinking only works when you have the skills and experience to back it up.  Then over at Huffington Post I found “Why Positive Thinking Just Doesn’t Work.”  If all go-getters have a positive attitude and most fail, the ones that do succeed can believe their positive attitude is what made them a success, but is it true?

We all die, so no matter how positive you are, or how holy, good thoughts and prayers eventually fail – and probably never helped at all.

Now I don’t want this essay to bring you down.   What I want us to do is think about thinking.

When people believe that thinking positive or prayer can cure disease what they are believing is thought can change reality.  When they pray for someone else they believe their thought goes to God and God reaches out and heals the other person.  We know, even without scientific studies that nearly all prayers fail – if prayers succeeded even one percent of the time we’d be living in heaven.  And scientific studies do show that prayers have absolutely no success.

What people believe when they believe in positive thinking is that they have some kind of power to influence reality with their thoughts.  That positive thinking generates healing vibes or creates an aura of success.  If you think about this it’s pretty obvious that if it worked everyone would be rich, successful, happy and healthy.

Obviously altering reality takes more than thinking and wishing.  If willpower could conquer disease Steve Jobs would still be with us.

After Steve Jobs died I watched a bunch of documentaries about him and on the surface you would think he’d be the poster child for positive thinking because of his amazing string of business successes.  And Jobs does give us the answer.  He said if you can see what’s possible you can work to make it happen.

Thinking will let you see what’s possible, but it’s work that makes it happen.

If you have a disease work the hardest you can to get the best medical treatment possible.  If you want to get rich, work harder than anyone else.  If you want to be an artistic success practice for 10,000 hours.  If you want to make great scientific discoveries, work at it like a fiend with relentless concentration.

I’ve dreamed of writing a novel for over forty years.  Finishing NaNoWriMo last month illustrated perfectly the limits of positive thinking.  Working 2-4 hours a day got me finished.  And I only finished a first draft.  If I want to produce a novel that’s worth reading by book buyers than I need to put in 25 times as much work, or more.

Thomas Edition said “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration” – which I’ve heard my whole life.  I just wished I had learned it’s meaning back when I was seven.  I’d love to think I’ll finish my novel, but I know with perfect certainty that positive thought does me no good.

I’d like to think I can think my way out of my spinal stenosis – but I can’t.  What helps it is physical therapy – even more than drugs.  There are no magic pills either.  I’d like to think I can loose weight, but I’ve been thinking about that for decades and it hasn’t work.  Sometimes nothing works.

It’s not a question of positive thinking but how far can I push myself.  The fascinating question is:  Can I push myself further than I can imagine?

Like Clint Eastwood said as Dirty Harry, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” 

All of this is why I love “The Star Pit” by Samuel R. Delany.  It’s a science fiction story about wanting to go further.  It’s hard in life when we see people go further than our own limitations.  The reason why the belief in positive thinking is so universal is we all can see success, riches and abundant health in other people, so thinking it’s possible for ourselves is seductively easy.  To seductive.

And finally, reality is relentlessly harsh.  Some people work their asses off and never succeed.  There’s limit to work too.  There’s limits to everything in this life.  We just have to keep pushing those limits.

JWH – 12/1/11

Protestor Insensitivity

Newt Gingrich tells the OWS protesters to “Go get a job right after you take a bath.”

To me that has all the sensitivity of telling the peasants “Let them eat cake.”

In a time when millions desperately struggle to find a job, it’s very insensitive to tell anyone in this country to “Go get a job” as if jobs were freely available.  If more people had jobs we wouldn’t have protesters, or is that too hard for you Mr. Gingrich to understand?  As someone wanting the job as our leader, I don’t think you are doing your job of understanding what America needs.  Of course, conservatives have one answer for all our ills – lower taxes.  In good times, it’s lower taxes, in bad times it’s lower taxes, during war time it’s lower taxes.  Mr. Gingrich, I don’t think you hate the protesters because they don’t have jobs, you hate them because to solve their problems requires raising taxes.

Do all Republicans study the same group speak manual?  I hear this get a job and take a bath line all over now from folks on the right.  It’s the same automatic response I heard in the 1960s.  Hey, pay attention, today’s protesters aren’t hippies, look close at this film, the protesters are well dressed and clean.  They are normal students, and according to one professor they are extremely good students.  The only reason they might need a bath is to wash off the pepper spray.

But back to the issue of telling people to get a job Mr. Gingrich – the protestors actually are working at their job of protesting the wrongs in our society.  This has been a nasty job that few people would take for years because we’ve all been too busy getting ahead in life and not paying attention to how things are actually working – which is badly.  Now we’ve discovered that millions of people in America are out of work, one in six are on food stamps, and the rich are getting so rich they are leaving very little money in the GDP to be divided by the 99%.  Someone needs to be protesting.  Hell, it should it should be your job Mr. Gingrich, but hey, you already work for the 1%.  Republicans are quite industrious at protesting Barack Obama, but they total slackers at protesting the real problems in America.

When our leaders fail us and economic times are bad, there are lots of jobs in the protesting profession.  Anyone wanting the job of President in 2012 better get used to protesters.  Mr. Gingrich, you know history.  The OWS protesters are cute bunny rabbits compared to the violent mobs of angry poor we’ll be seeing if you keep downsizing the government and cutting taxes.

Nor are these protesters doing their protesting job badly.  They were following the correct rules of passive resistance set down by Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King.  Everyone is focusing on the first part of this video where the officer sprays the kids with orange pepper spray – but everyone is ignoring the sublime second half of the film.  The onlookers in the crowd start chanting, “Shame on you, shame on you” and they keep chanting “Shame on you,” until the police back away and leave.  Even the police knew they had made a mistake.  Look at their faces.  Most of them knew the protesters were doing their protesting job properly, and they had made a mistake in doing their police work.  But you didn’t see that Mr. Gingrich, all you see is your lower taxes playbook and worrying about the cost of parks and bathrooms.

Mr. Gingrich, I don’t think you are doing your job properly, so shame on you.  In 2012 we need a leader who will listen to the people and see what 100% of the people need.  This leader needs to stop reading from the group think teleprompter.  Don’t tell Americans to get a job, because it’s your job to create jobs.  Shame on you Newt Gingrich for being such a lazy fat-cat politician.  If politicians had been doing there jobs millions wouldn’t be out of work today.  You need to get another job – but not the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I’m a law and order kind of guy.  I don’t want to see Kent State or 1968 Chicago again.  I hate seeing the police forced into being the bad guys during another social upheaval.  Politicians who use inflaming rhetoric attacking protesters are the trouble makers to me.  To all in that crowd that clapped for you Mr. Gingrich, shame on them too.  They don’t have a clue as to what freedom means. 

Those kids at UC Davis were clean and orderly.  Sure, at some protest rallies they get idiots who do stupid things and use a protest event to go crazy – those numbskulls you can pepper spray all you want.  But if young people, out of work people, and old people with dwindling pensions want to protest, they got a right to in this country as long as they do it nonviolently and orderly.  Give them the facilities to hold protests as long as they are willing to show up for the job.  I don’t want America to be compared to Egypt or Syria where they shoot protestors.  We should all be supporting our kids new interest in politics.

JWH – 11/21/11

My Life as a Turkey (Nature–PBS)

My Life as a Turkey premiered on Nature this week.  This is one TV show you won’t want to miss – it’s still being repeated on some PBS stations, and you can watch it online here.   Here’s the preview.

Don’t be fooled by the subject  – I know most people think of turkeys as dumb ugly birds – but this is a brilliant exploration of mind and nature.  The film is based on the 1995 book Illumination in the Flatwoods by Joe Hutto.  Hutto was given 16 wild turkey eggs which he incubated hoping that the hatchlings would imprint on his face – and they did.  He quickly learned that being a mother to the hatchlings required a full time commitment and spend all his waking time with them for six months, and followed them for over a year.

If you’ve seen the wonderful film Fly Away Home, then you’ll know about imprinting.  And even though this story is about how amazing wild turkeys are, and the power of imprinting, what really stands out is what Hutto learns about the conscious mind and living in nature.

Hutto got to integrate himself into the natural world like few people do.  He got to think like a turkey and realized these wild creatures were a whole lot more aware of things than we believed.

We think of humans as the only animal with self-aware consciousness – but new studies are suggesting that consciousness is a spectrum of awareness and even multiple kinds of awareness.  Some people suggest that animals have phenomenal consciousness – awareness of the world around them, and this is what Hutto descends into when he’s with his wild turkeys.  Through long intense observations he learns what the turkeys see in their world, and even learns their language.

This film shows Hutto becoming a Zen like guru of awareness.  Hutto  talks about how most people live in the future, always thinking about what will happen.  The turkeys live in an absolute now.  Like Ram Das teaches – Be Here Now.

But I don’t think I need to say any more.  Watch this show.  You can do it now from here.  I kid you not, you will be amazed.  No words I can say will prepare you.

JWH – 11/20/11