Thursday, January 21, 2010

A Thursday Night Blog : Consequences and Expectations of Character

There are two things that are dominating my thoughts right now. The first one is the Saints NFC Championship game and the other is the New Orleans mayoral election. I have a lot to say about the mayor’s race but I will do that next week. I have something to say before the Saints take the field but that’s coming on Saturday. I have avoided all football related media this week. I’m still working on my energy and positive chi flow for the game. I’m using local hip hop artists and brandy to assist me. That means that whatever this post ends up being you need to deal with it because it might make sense and it might not. We will see when it’s over.

I believe that all human nature and tendencies are the same no matter what the environment or circumstances are. I am a very bias Charles Barkley fan. He was one of my favorite players growing up because he played much bigger than his height. Back when I could still play ball without medical attention I used to mimic his game. As much as I love Charles I have to admit that he’s kind of reckless. He’s been arrested for DUI. He threw a guy through a window. He damn near lost all of his money in Vegas. I am watching Lebron and Kobe on TNT right now. Despite that he’s still is hosting Inside the NBA and has been on commercials since this game started. Every time one of those commercials comes on I think about poor Tiger Woods in hiding at a sex rehab clinic and losing endorsements. Tiger and Charles hang out together and I am sure Tiger is sitting in his room at the rehab center shaking his head. Despite all the wild stories about him the fact is Tiger never told anyone he was a saint. He never told anyone anything. It really doesn’t matter. Charles can be wild and crazy while Tiger can’t because the consequences of your actions depend on other people’s expectations of you and your character.

It didn’t matter how many women came out after the first one. People expected him to be above that kind of behavior in general so even the idea that he was fooling around was a big deal. That’s how it is in the world. I know some of you have a sibling that gets away with all kinds of stuff that barely gets a whisper. You can get mad and say one cuss word that sparks a family meeting and sends your grandmother to the emergency room. I hate to put it this way but it’s much easier to be that guy that people expect to act crazy. I believe you should present yourself as a person above the foolishness but you have to understand that comes with a lot of pressure to keep up every day.

That’s the Democrats problem. People don’t really expect them to get in there and put up a fight. They are the gentle and caring party. They want to do things with dignity. They carry themselves like a pre-car crash Tiger. They are boxed in by the expectations for their behavior. The Republicans are like Charles Barkley. They are in your face with who they are. They say what’s on their mind and they don’t care who they offend. Since everyone is accustomed to them acting that way, they stretch the limits as far as they can go without much backlash. At this point they can’t do what their opposition does because if they do people will be looking around wondering what got into them and they would get some backlash. I think the Democrats need to do something to help them the way Tiger’s drama helped him. They need to pick a fight and carry on in a way that is so out of character that when it’s over no one will expect that soft ass behavior all the time. Maybe then can actually control the message when they present an idea they think is good for the country instead of sitting back and getting slapped around.

5 comments:

Susanna Powers said...

I've noticed that it's not so much the merit of an idea that gets the idea implemented, but more of who expressed it, and how much in favor they are. This is how it works in my workplace. What would really be an advancement for our country is if we could get past the "cult of personality" all the way to the actual merit of ideas. Clearly this will take a while! Thanks & your post makes sense. sp, n.o.

Kevin L said...

Cliff - you might enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMlPE1lV_5Y&feature=player_embedded

As soon as I saw it, the first thing I thought of is that I have liberal friends on Facebook, and I have Conservative friends. And my conservative friends (well, some of them, anyway) regularly post political stuff, some of it pretty obnoxious, and my liberal friends never do. Literally never. I mentioned it to a liberal friend, and she said she tries to keep stuff like that off her FB page, and keep things light. Which I agree with - I generally do the same, until recently, when I got fed up with the obnoxious stuff from my conservative friends. But this video reminded me of that same FB situation - the liberals don't want a big fight, and they're trying to keep things pleasant, but the conservatives are making no attempt at all to keep things pleasant. The video says it all in a nutshell.

I'm very conservative, myself. But I voted for Obama, and I still support him. I think he's doing a great job in extremely difficult circumstances. And it also seems to me that a great number of conservatives have just simply lost their minds. I mean - Sarah Palin? REALLY?!? Give me a break.

GENTILLY YARD ART said...

re: tiger

one of the great things about america is if you do a sincire mia culpa / my bad the country will alow you to reinvent yourself and start over.

re: the dems

they really need to get a backbone and fight for what's important to the people they say they rep.

they will allways be percievied as the kid on the playground untill than.


sidenote one:

look what the supreme court did this week . it's time for some serious loin girding up in this bitch we call america or it's game over.

side note two:

saints are gonna win sunday. we've been thru too much with this team to have it come down any other way.

your fan , rick in gentilly.

K. said...

I wish the Democrats would fight. Every time the Republicans have the votes for a filibuster, the D's throw up their hands. Make them filibuster, especially when they oppose popular legislation.

As a Spurs fan, I have a soft spot for Sir Charles: He was the first analyst to tout Manu Ginobili as a coming star. Back during the 2003 playoffs, I read a pundit piece opining that there was no way the Spurs could beat the Lakers with someone named Manu Ginobili on their roster. A few days later, Barkley said that he didn't think that the Lakers could handle the then unknown bench player and that that would be one of the differences in the series. Guess who was right?

Clancy DuBos said...

Cliff,
I hope you don't get tired of me saying, "Great post again," because it always bears repeating. If you can write like this on brandy and hip-hop ... man, I can't wait to read you on fine Cabernet and Mozart! Your comments on expectations and performance (particularly within the family dynamic) hit home more than you can imagine. God bless and Go Saints!