I was reading an article in the New York Times about warning signs BP ignored on the DeepWater rig. To be fair, BP and Transocean are mutually dysfunctional, feeding each others’ ability to look the other way and assume the other (or someone) would fix the problems. Even the crew looked the other way. The alarm system on the rig was turned off – presumably to avoid waking crew members in case of a false alarm. That same alarm was turned off when the rig exploded. Wow.
Are we becoming Ostriches? Looking the other way, ignoring the reality around us?
Our gorernment does it. Look at the financial regulators, environmental regulators, even our representatives themselves when it comes to ethics and morality. Bad things happen and our representatives look the other way.
Our big companies do it – look at BP, TransOcean, Haliburton, GM, Toyota – the list could go on forever.
It seems to me that we’ve all become pretty good at sticking our heads into the sandbox. I do it more often than I want to admit. Sometimes it’s just so overwhelming we don’t wan to see the truth.
Sometimes we ignore the truth for personal gain. Sometimes it’s just easier to look the other way, hope that things will change, and keep our head down, After all, we have enough problems of our own, right? Wrong.
When we look the other way, we destine ourselves to bad results. If everyone’s ignoring reality, we’re all stuck in a truth that isn’t true anymore. Those old truths – of a healthy environment and honest government and responsible businesses – blind us to the actions we need to take. We sit silent, looking the other way, believing in a reality that is no longer true. Hope springs eternal.
I’m a big optimist – sometimes called PollyAnna. But that’s OK. I believe positive begats positive and negative begats negative. My life is proof of that.
I also believe we can see the truth, even negative, horrible truths, and be optimistic at the same time. I believe we can step up and face reality, act on reality, change reality – all while focused on the optimistic future.
So why are we looking the other way? What do you think???
