America’s Bad Behavior Spawning Machine Took it on the Chin this Week — though I Doubt that Anyone Noticed — and That’s the Spiritual and Social Point

© 2012 Peter Free

 

07 August 2012

 

 

Two points to this essay

 

(1) If we do not recognize moral greatness, we cannot emulate it.

 

(2) If we do not perceive magnificent achievement, we cannot extend its influence.

 

 

It is easy to become so jaded that we accept bad behavior and reprehensible ethics as the new normal

 

But there are counter-examples, whose importance the media and American culture can be counted upon to miss.

 

These last two days, there have been two such.  One personal.  The other the epitome of extremely motivated organizational teamwork.

 

 

Example One — personal ethics of the highest standard — pediatric surgeon Dr. Donald Liu

 

Dr. Donald Liu knowingly sacrificed his life to save two drowning children:

 

A surgeon plunged into Lake Michigan's waters roiled by rip tides and rough waves to save two young boys, but died despite his wife's frantic efforts to revive him with mouth to mouth resuscitation, police and his wife said today.

 

© 2012 Adriana Pratt, Hero Surgeon Dies in Lake Michigan Rescue Despite Wife's Efforts to Revive Him, Good Morning America (06 August 2012)

 

The moral message?

 

Liu was a passionate man and when he knew something was right, he didn't hesitate.

 

© 2012 Adriana Pratt, Hero Surgeon Dies in Lake Michigan Rescue Despite Wife's Efforts to Revive Him, Good Morning America (06 August 2012)

 

 

Example Two — NASA’s brain and organized brawn did what no other group of people on this planet could have pulled off

 

NASA’s Curiosity landing on Mars.  An organizational and technological tour de force of awe-inspiring proportion.  But only if one recognizes the extraordinary engineering, scientific, and organizational challenges that it presented.

 

 

The meaning of these two examples — what we are too unaware to see, we miss

 

In regard to Curiosity (pun intended), when we miss the significance of extraordinary events, we lose the opportunity to raise the standards of our own performances and goals.

 

I noticed that the press (filled with science ignoramuses) and the public (populated with mostly the same) almost universally missed the magnificence and the organizational-motivational-educational significance of what had happened literally under everyone’s noses.  The extraordinary Curiosity landing effort was relegated to another, relatively minor, technological story by the press.

 

In regard to the Dr. Liu, who had dedicated both his life and his death to children’s benefit — his example will immediately be overwhelmed by the volume of scummy behavior that characterizes seemingly most of what goes on at the upper levels of politics and business.

 

 

The moral? — When awareness is lacking, spiritual and social learning are impossible

 

Dr. Liu’s life and death are obvious moral signposts.

 

NASA’s Curiosity example seems not — but is.

 

American culture will (almost certainly) miss the significance of both, while continuing to celebrate the lure of narcissism, avarice, and superficial divisiveness.