Some thoughts on… Raising Expectations
What a historic moment! America has elected a President who has brought back pride and honor to the position. And the vote was overwhelming. A global love affair with the Commander in Chief has begun and is moving past the honeymoon stage to the recognition of day to day realities. The cabinet is being chosen and key decisions on the economy are being conducted. The haste is appropriate, and expectations are high for a Chief of State who by many (present company included) is seen as a ray of light in the darkening gloom.
But why are we raising our expectations of what can be accomplished? We know that the Chief Legislator can never complete all that needs to be done to get out of our current mess.
An expectation is defined as the situation that is most likely to happen. Upon the election (and subsequent re-election) of W. it seemed our goals of what a President could achieve were lowered to an unfathomable level and then were celebrated as accomplishments
- Osama bin Laden couldn’t be captured (mission accomplished)
- We could conduct a war in Iraq and be hated by the world (mission accomplished)
- An all-time high fiscal surplus could be turned into a fiscal deficit (mission accomplished)
- Prisoners could be detained without civil liberties and publicly humiliated (mission accomplished)
- Spending on education and health care could be dramatically reduced (mission accomplished)
And we as Americans allowed this to happen. We protested but we didn’t demand a higher level of accountability. We saw this gradual decline as inevitable, unmovable, or inherent. We implicitly conspired and collectively lowered our expectations of Government.
Outside of my parents, two family figures influenced me significantly while I was growing up. The first was my paternal grandfather. A gentle soul he taught me many things during our trips to Bangladesh – how to go shopping in the fresh vegetable market with mud up to my ankles; how to hold a chicken while its head was chopped off; how to haggle with a motor-taxi; how to play gin rummy like a pro. He was also a scholar who received a Masters degree from the US back in the 1940’s when it was rare for people to leave Bangladesh. His clothes were impeccable when he was young, he had a sweet tooth and loved good food, and with my grandmother he raised my father and five siblings through the separation of Pakistan from India and Bangladesh from Pakistan.
His tutelage was gentle and always pushed the borders. If I was scared to hold the chicken upside down (so that blood would rush to its head and it wouldn’t squirm as much), he would initially hold it with me and eventually let go. If I was hesitant in the muddy streets, he would walk ahead to show me the dry path. When I made a stupid mistake with the cards, he would point it out and then let me play again. His challenges for me were high, and he always expected me to attain them. In his youth, he had won two gold medals in mathematics. One was stolen by the Pakistani soldiers during Bangladesh separation, the other he promised to give to me if I excelled in school. It made me study my Advanced Calculus in the hot heat of a Dhaka summer even harder.
My mother’s eldest brother, passed away this last week. Her father died when my mom was five years old, and my uncle took the responsibility of running the extended family in Assam which included five other brothers. Our visits to Assam were as frequent as to Dhaka, every two years, and Goalpara, India was definitely more fun to visit. The family lived in a remote town and the houses were on a large expanse of land which was the communal plot. Life was slower and much safer there, and so it was easy to spend time just talking the day away.
Avuncular, knowledgeable, and sometimes strict, my uncle would quiz me on various topics of interest – How does a computer work? Why does skin repair itself? Who just won Wimbledon? His style was inquisitive and platonic. He knew answers to many of the questions but he wanted me to express my viewpoint and learn himself. After every dialogue, in an earnest and strained voice he would say, “We have great expectations of you; You need to be a great man”. My boro mama (term for eldest maternal uncle in Bengali) didn’t study past college and primarily stayed in India, and yet he always demanded that we educate ourselves to the highest level possible. His message was revelatory and unwavering – push yourself and impact the world.
From them both I learned that setting high expectations is in many ways believing and loving the person. We don’t set high expectations for people who we don’t believe can accomplish them. Obama through the campaign has already cleared some high hurdles. He ran the most organized campaign in recorded history; he gathered more financial support than any other candidate through small and large donations; he came from behind to defeat the incumbent in the Democratic Party, Hilary, and then the incumbent party of the Presidency.
A half hour before his acceptance speech on Nov 4 and just after McCain had spoken, the Chief Diplomat - elect sent an email to his supporters thanking them for their hard work and giving them credit for the success. He also started a website (http://www.change.gov/page/content/americanmoment) soliciting suggestions to make the administration better.
Incredible! Transparent leadership? Participatory democracy? A humble Presidency? Why not set the expectations as high as possible again for the US?
Generate the most Nobel Prizes of any country
Assume the role of financial lender of last resort
Maintain the best academic institutions in the world that are a magnet for the brightest talent
Provide basic health care to all residents
Increase dependence on sustainable energy resources
Regain stature for global, moral leadership
Preserve the dollar as the currency of the world
Incent the most innovative industries and patents
Provide humanitarian assistance to the world’s needs
We should not only expect this of our government and our Chief Executive – we need to demand it. It is unacceptable that we have set our own sights so low that we say it is a success when a vice-presidential candidate can get through a debate without making a fool of herself.
The higher we aspire the more we lift ourselves as a nation to the challenge of achieving the goals. What do we have to lose? If we don’t attain our ambitions, we will have at least reached higher, and can we really be any more disappointed than we have been for the past 8 years?