Nerve Endings Firing Away

Few weeks before going into surgery for a bypass operation, Bill Clinton lashed out subtly at George W. Bush by citing this wonderful one-liner – wisdom and strength are not opposing values. With just a play of few words, he laid bare the illogical argument that Bush has been trying to sell on his campaign trail. The race is the closest ever for a Presidential election after the epic Nixon-Kennedy battle in 1960. Although both the candidates seem erringly similar, Time Magazine says that “For this President [Bush], the essence of wisdom lies in knowing when not to change” The steadfast refusal to change policies even when they are deemed a grand failure highlights the Bush Administration. Rumsfeld still remains in charge after the Abu Gharib scandal. The justification for the Iraq war has steadily changed from trying to locate weapons of mass destruction to eliminating the terror link between Saddam and Al-Qaeda before finally resting on the vague — the world is a safe place without Saddam. Bush has repeated avoided questions on the justification of Iraq war and instead has touted his refusal to budge as a key strength. Typical arguments of a bully, these seem to go down well with the masses. Change is equated with compromise and countless lives are still lost in Iraq when even a minor revision of policies can cause a sea change. Clinton, on the other hand, believed in using change to determine level of success. Such ability to adapt is lambasted by conservatives as being too wavering, earning Kerry an untrue nickname of Flip-Flop Kerry.

Away from the political rhetoric, do we often confuse refusal to change with being steadfast in our beliefs? We grow every minute of our lives as we meet new people and experience different conditions. All experiences constantly make us evaluate our beliefs, even the most hardcore ones. Some of us simply refuse to even consider that these principles or beliefs may be long overdue for a change. They simply make “ad hoc modifications” to justify sticking to their obsolete principles. As Phoebe ribs Ross in one “Friends” episode that, can he even for a moment admit that there might be a teeny-weeny chance that he might be wrong, we often try to avoid even questioning our beliefs.

We, of course, weren’t born with those beliefs but formed them when someone instilled them in us or simply certain experiences helped us define our identity. But have we stopped growing after that we refuse to even accept that our beliefs might not have weathered the brunt of age. Isn’t there a teeny-weeny possibility that it might be time to change? Economics even had a technical term for it — sunk cost. Accept the loss, learn from the experience and move on. I admit that the line distinguishing between being stubborn and being steadfast is very fine but only with questioning ourselves, we have come so far. Is being stubborn and mistaking that quality as being steadfast, a desirable trait?