Unbased first published on July 8, 2015
Basketball. Buzzer beaters. Shots at the basket that drop just as time expires. Winning is based upon largest number of points scored within a set amount of time.
Baseball. Runs scored in a set number of innings, which are alternate turns at offense and defense. There are no time limitations. Highest number of runs scored within the game framework wins.
Volleyball. First team to score prescribed number of points, wins. Time is not a limiting factor.
Sports. All have goals which must be reached before winners are declared. Rules insure winners and losers. As far as I know there are no popular sports which go on interminably with no winners or losers. Without those parameters, winners and losers, enthusiasm for team or group activities soon dies.
Society needs to learn that lesson and apply it in areas besides sports. Too much of America’s bureaucratic excess depends upon playing endless games without solid goals. No winners, no losers. No objective that can be reached with satisfaction.
Income inequality. Somewhere there must be someone who earns precisely the right amount of money. Soon as Progressive politicians find him/her we’ll have a shining goal. We’ll know exactly how much rich folks must give up in taxes. Conversely, we’ll know exactly how much we must bill the government for in order to reach that prescribed level. True income equality demands that hard number goal for which we all must strive.
Chesapeake Bay. Water quality. Nutrient levels. Dead zones. What nutrient levels are proper for Bay waters? What are the numbers in parts per million for various identifiable nutrients. What is the verifiable level for which we strive? How will we know when we can ease pressure on capital expenditures to achieve goals we’ve already met?
Global warming. Several weeks ago I wrote about controlling Earth’s temperature. America has technical ability to change that temperature. Several other countries can do it too, but what is the goal? What is the temperature for which we shoot? Who gets to select the proper temperature and police it? Again, there’s no hard goal to achieve. No way to identify winner and loser.
Greenhouse gas production. What is the precise level of atmospheric carbon dioxide we must not exceed? At what point must we turn off automobile ignitions and flip home electricity switches. Who will decide who must first be inconvenienced or eliminated through energy withdrawal?
Without solid logical verifiable goals, it’s too easy to move goal posts. Too many social issue goal posts are moved by bureaucrats who are hired by politicians. Bureaucrats don’t like goals met because their jobs might end if that happens.
Ultimate competition. World War II. Hard objectives were defeat of Germany and Japan. We did that and came home winners.
Since WW II, only one of several wars has had a clear objective. In Desert Storm, President George H.W. Bush led us to free Kuwait from its invasion by Iraq. We sent forces of Saddam Hussein packing back to Baghdad and Bush brought us home.
Korea, we held the 38th Parallel, but didn’t destroy the enemy’s will to fight. Vietnam. we fought till we just got tired and came home. Afghanistan and Iraq II and still fumbling along without a goal in sight. ISIS doesn’t even have a place we can conquer, so we’ll likely be chasing them around forever.
Without goals and objectives to measure progress by, we’ll not know the satisfaction of jobs well done.
