On the Confluence of Peace and Attunement
Irrespective of your political affiliations one must admit that the genius of President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was based in his ability to communicate and remain attuned with the pulse of the people. As a constitutional law professor, he could have easily reverted to the legalistic jargon, in which he is surely well versed, but he chose to speak so he could be understood. It was important that his ideas were accessible and easily transmitted.
One must recognize that communication, in its most potent manifestation, involves comprehension and recitation. Individuals must understand what was said and be able to reinterpret this information in their own words. If both parts are satisfied — that is, comprehension and recitation — then the idea will easily be transmitted. If both parts are not satisfied, then the transmission of an idea will be labored.
The clearest analogy for this phenomenon is one’s familial structure. Comparing how a family is run to how the government is run is as old as Aristotle. My wife and I, in planning and budgeting for our monthly expenses, have a realistic understanding of our joint income and the expenses we have each month. My children, however, are oblivious to these facts; and were they privy to the full implications of just how precise we have to budget our lives, they would effectively lose their childhood.
Though the analogy isn’t exactly the same, one must recognize that there are functions of the government that we just shouldn’t be privy to. Granted, transparency is certainly advantageous for inquisitive citizens, but there is a strict difference between merely possessing knowledge and being able to implement knowledge.
Take for example the peace maintained in my home. My wife and I, like many Americans, are under financial stress. Financial stress invariably seeps its way into the home, which poses the threat of disrupting the peace. In order to maintain the peace, we cannot always be discussing the financial crisis. I know the economy is bad. I remembered that 500,000 people are losing their jobs a month. I understand there are outside forces seeking to destroy our freedoms.
There is that great scene in Men in Black where Agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones says, “There's always an alien battle cruiser, or a Corellian death ray, or an intergalactic plague intended to wipe out life on this miserable little planet. The only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about it!”
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