WHAT ARE WE TO THINK of President Obama's propensity -- and that of his administration -- for selfies, moralistic hashtags, staffers who say "dude," eyerolling, sulkiness when crossed, self-obsession, tantrums, and taunts? Eliot Cohen says it's because our president and his crew are, in all respects that matter, indistinguishable from teenagers.
IF THE UNITED STATES today looks weak, hesitant and in retreat, it is in part because its leaders and their staff do not carry themselves like adults. They may be charming, bright and attractive; they may . . .
. . . have the best of intentions; but they do not look serious. They act as thought Twitter and clenched teeth or a pout could stop invasions or rescue kidnapped children in Nigeria. They do not sound as if, when saying that some outrage is "unacceptable" or that a dictator "must go," that they represent a government capable of doing something substantial -- and, if necessary, violent -- if its expectations are not met. And when reality, as it so often does, gets in the way -- when, for example, the Syrian regime begins dousing its opponents with chlorine gas, as it has in recent weeks, despite solemn deals and red lines -- the administration ignores it, hoping, as teenagers do, that if they do not acknowledge a screw-up no one else will notice.
The Obama administration is not alone. The teenage temperament infects our politics on both sides of the aisle, not to mention our great universities and leading corporations. The old, adult virtues -- gravitas, sobriety, perseverance and constancy -- are the virtues that enabled America to stabilize a shattered world in the 1940s, preserve a perilous order despite the Cold War and navigate the conclusion of that conflict.
Aside: Think George H.W. Bush. Think James A. Baker, III. And before them, Eisenhower, Truman, Roosevelt. And the greatest of all, Washington and Lincoln.
These and other stoic qualities are worth rediscovering, because their dearth among our leaders is leading them, and us and large parts of the globe, into real danger.
(Eliot A. Cohen, "A Selfie-Taking, Hashtagging Teenage Administration," wsj.com, May 12, 2014)
Along with much else, leadership requires something the military calls "command presence." To see a fine cinematic treatment of leadership, see "Hijacking," reviewed here by Unca D. A more recent movie on the same subject -- "Locke" -- also shows a leader in action. (It ]also says something useful about the collateral damage to the leader's human relationships. But that's another story.)
Unca D used to end diatribes against the Chronicle's editorial page with this question: "Where are the adults?" (See here for one example.) Mr. Cohen makes the obvious point that the same disease that afflicted our editorialists has spread to the White House and beyond.
More evidence of the declinist thesis, no?
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