This comment, sans some edits, is buried elsewhere in another diary of 400 or so comments. Given its length, I thought is appropriate to make it a separate post.
I start by noting a story about Marshall Shulman, who was President Carter's Soviet Affairs advisor. At a press briefing, Shulman was asked if Carter's dealings with the Soviet Union were so complicated that the public couldn't understand it. Schulman said that was ridiculous.
The conversation eventually broke down to the point where Shulman was asked to "simply explain Carter's policy so it could fit on a bumper sticker." To which Schulman replied, "You cannot reduce foreign policy to a bumper sticker!"
But Shulman was challenged to do the bumper sticker - using two words! Schulman responded, "My bumper sticker would read: 'Accept Complexity.'"
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That same discussion concerning the complexity of foreign policy can be applied to the discussion of the BP Geyser (it is NOT {just} an oil spill).
I don't think the press, or many observers, have internalized a comment that has been made over and over again (see Rachael Maddow's show of 6/14/2010): NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE!
Not only is the situation unique, but it is also technological complex.
On CSPAN this morning (6/15/2010), a caller gave some suggestions for fixing the geyser. The CSPAN host said, we get so many calls like this, what can we make of this? Sen Bryan Dorgan noted, every idea that has been received, they have tried. The bottom line, if it was that easy, it would have been fixed by now.
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In my professional life, I've worked on many projects that have fallen behind due to various problems or issues. I've been asked at times, well, what if we give you another person. There have been times when I had to say no.
Why would I not accept the additional resources? Because at that point, the situation was so complicated that, the time to bring the added resources on-line and up to speed would have been so time-consuming, and so burdensome to manage, that it would have hindered or prevented the ability to get the work done within desired time frames.
There's probably a business school term for this, I don't know. But the thing is, there comes a point where just throwing resources at a problem itself becomes a problem. I can easily see where that is coming into play in this crisis.
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I don't want to let BP or the government off the hook, and I'm not saying that they are always acting responsibly or competently.
But there is something going on here that people don't fully comprehend: THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING, THEY ARE MAKING THINGS UP AS THEY GO ALONG.
By the very nature of that, they are going to make mistakes - a lot of them.
But instead of acknowledging this, mistakes are seen as incompetence, neglect, or a lack of concern. Or even worse: the people who are working on this are EVIL: after all, "good" people would have already fixed this thing.
All of that is unfair.
I blame the media for this. BP and the government need to be transparent. But at the end of the day, they are responsible for fixing the problem, and that's where their resources need to go. It is the duty of the press to help people understand the true nature of the problem. It seems to me that they are failing to do so. The issues I raise above, I never see discussed on TV. They need to be.
My bumper sticker on this would read: "Accept Complexity! Expect Mistakes!"
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To close: "Expecting Mistakes" does not mean "Accepting Mistakes." As mistakes are inevitably made, we should learn from them. And mistakes, where they can reasonably avoided, should not be tolerated. True negligence should be punished.
But my bottom line comes to this: everyday, I hear or read people say, "They need to fix this, and they need to fix it NOW." People need to understand that, given the magnitude of this problem, it CAN't be fixed "now." And it's the job of the press to provide that understanding.