"There is not time, and certainly there is not energy enough, for those persons who have to decide, to direct and to govern, also to have to explain their reasons and motives for all that they do."
-- Arthur Helps, The New York Times, April 7, 1872
The date is not a misprint. Arthur Helps was a British writer and dean of the Privy Council. His comment is timely once again.
One of the threats that both business and government decision-makers face today is excessive caution caused by the current epidemic of excessive criticism. The justly deserved criticism leveled at BP in recent weeks stands out because it is, in fact, justly deserved. But so much else that passes for informed commentary is either us-against-them partisanship or pure nitpicking.
Former President George W. Bush was crucified by the left over his handling of the Iraq war, hurricane Katrina and the AIG bailout. Critics like The New York Times' editorialists showed little or no regard for the difficult choices Bush had to make.
Current President Barack Obama is now being castigated from the left over the Afghan war and mauled from the right over his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, again with little or no regard for the difficult choices he has had to make.
Management of companies like General Motors, General Electric and Microsoft has endured much the same from stockholders, business writers and members of Congress.
We hear the constant drumbeat of self-serving criticism and self-proclaimed expertise in part because of the demands for something new and interesting to say that are placed on politicians and the media. It does not help that the Internet offers a ready forum to anyone with an ax to grind or a half-baked opinion to foist anonymously on others.
Political candidates, bloggers, columnists and talk show hosts seem compelled to offer something of interest, and the easiest something to offer is after-the-fact criticism. So we fill the air, the blogs and the opinion pages with charges and countercharges, suggesting along the way that if only WE were in command the world would be a much better place.
But why does so much of this excessive criticism fall on receptive ears? Why are so many Americans conditioned to believe that so many decision-makers make so many awful decisions? What is the standard to which decision-makers are now being compared? Does anyone really think that the country would be in better hands if someone like right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck or left-wing "opinionist" David Sirota were in charge?
As far as I can tell, apart from fictional characters, no one makes the very best decisions all of the time or even most of the time when confronted with pressure-of-time constraints, conflicting demands and irresolvable uncertainty. It may be that politicians and business leaders have helped to bring the criticism on themselves by affecting an air of supreme confidence and unerring judgment. It may also be that the general public has been too heavily influenced by those who get to write the script.
Please do not get me wrong. Criticism has a place. But a constant barrage of semi- informed criticism has dangerous side effects, not the least of which is the unwarranted erosion of public confidence in leadership. Healthy skepticism is fine. Semi-informed or politically motivated second-guessing too often goes too far.
Right here in Alaska major go-no-go decisions must soon be made with respect to future offshore drilling and the construction of an in-state natural gas pipeline to serve Alaskans. These are immensely difficult and complex projects that cannot be explained without getting into the kind of technicalities that only those in the know can really understand. Any decision that is made will quickly become the target of one faction or another. For Alaska's sake, let us hope that those who must decide have the courage to do so despite the certain threat of the kind of criticism that is all too prevalent today.
David M. Reaume is a Washington state-based economist who was based for many years in Juneau. His opinion column appears every month in the Anchorage Daily News.
DAVID REAUME
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