Le Sequoit

Condy O, I Need You So!

I’ve been listening to a lot of discussion about the Cabinet changes of our present regime. Condy as Secretary of State? Not that important really; this has got to be one of the easiest jobs in the world!

To be Secretary of State for this regime all you really need is a copy/fax machine and an intact middle finger! But, seriously...

I played a little hoop in high school. Actually I spent most of my brief career hoping I wouldn't get in for the last two minutes of a rout and be utterly embarrassed in front of everyone, but as usual I paid a lot of attention.

To my coach the most important aspect of our season, the thing he wanted to read in the local paper, was that we were a well coached team. I remember thinking to myself that in a rebuilding year this seemed to be more important to him than talent, or at the very least, imagination.

This thought recurs as I consider what is going on with the Bush administration. There is clearly an impression that discipline and loyalty are being rewarded during this post-election reorganization. Antagonists and the grudgingly neutral are moaning that the core administration is isolating itself further behind a thickening fog of like-mindedness while others' reactions range from "Duh!" to something like these are the soldiers of American righteousness.

I think of that basketball season. I wonder if an emphasis on loyalty, discipline and regimentation must to some extent come at the expense of talent, imagination and receptiveness. I wonder if, while the appointees and civil servants are focusing on the "x"s and "o"s of the neo-cons, that teams from a consolidating Europe and an emerging China aren't running fast breaks left and right in ways we will recognize a bit too late.

posted by sequoit @ 6:29 PM