Pogo is back on the comic pages, and we should be grateful. One can never forget this funny little oppossum`s immortal words: ”We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
These words of wisdom kept coming back to me during the vice presidential debate. The standard of success for Dan Quayle was getting through the evening without making a major mistake. For Lloyd Bentsen, it was reminding the audience of Quayle`s inexperience.
Quayle stumbled but didn`t fall on the oily surface laid down so skillfully by Bentsen. For that, Republican standardbearer George Bush was delighted. Democrats were delighted, too, because Bentsen got off some good one-liners at Quayle`s expense.
As for me, I sat there and wondered: Is this the best America has to offer? What is it about this nation`s political system that finds virtue in mediocrity and pays lip service to excellence?
After all, this is supposed to be a capitalistic economy, one in which the market rewards people for intelligence, creativity, energy and excellence. We trust the proposition that the cream usually bubbles to the top, because the market puts a premium on qualities that help turn a profit.
The weeding-out process in politics is different. Because of television, politics has become overwhelmingly visual and less substantive. Viewers no longer seek resolution of the day`s major questions. They seek conflict, as they see when watching a football game.
The best performers trade in black-and-white symbols.
Thoughtful, creative, energetic people know there are no easy answers and have some sensitivity for the complexities of today`s economy. But they would be fish out of water in a political debate today. Public discourse has been totally devalued, retreating to the level of simplistic sloganeering.
The disturbing fact is that the American people put up with it. It raises the ultimate question of whether the general level of intelligence, energy and creativity is on the decline in the U.S.
That occurred to me the other day when Great Britain`s Grand Metropolitan PLC had the audacity to offer shareholders of Pillsbury Co. 50 percent more for their stock than they could get from the financial market.
It`s a rude slap in the face to the management of an old-line American company. What genius does Grand Met possess to make Pillsbury a better performer? If such ideas currently exist, why hasn`t Pillsbury already put them into effect in behalf of its own shareholders?
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What Grand Met`s offer declares, to our discomfort, is that Pillsbury and many other U.S. corporations have lost a dedication to ideals that made them great. The pursuit of high, competitive standards has been sidetracked.
Certainly the performance of American business in the last decade confirms a pattern of decline. One cannot attribute this malaise to dollars-and-cents questions alone. In fact, just the opposite. More often than not, economies rise and fall on the energies of people.
America is a long way from making a successful transition to a service economy. Technology has made many skilled jobs obsolete. New occupations are created by installing new technology, but this requires changes by our educational system. Too small a segment of the American population is involved in the high-skill work made possible by the new machines.
The Baby Boom population gave American corporations a surplus of workers. It was cheap labor that permitted them to avoid employment of technology that would put them at the leading edge, competitively speaking. As a result, education has been devalued by the demands of the workplace.
Rising to the top is not as easy as it was in a more innocent America. It takes more scratching and clawing now, and even then there are no guarantees of success. Many young Americans have learned to lower their expectations about the future. They do not expect to earn more, relatively speaking, than their parents.
A generation that doesn`t expect much in the way of rewards is not by nature energetic and creative. Why put a high premium on intelligence when even a master`s or doctor`s degree does not yield a ticket to a good-paying job?
Yes, Pogo was right. The enemy lives right there in the mirror.