Okay, first, a little history lesson here:
During World War II, the Nazis created a code for military messages that they thought was completely unbreakable.
No doubt about it, it was a fabulous code machine. Even so, the British were able to break the code, and they read a large number of Nazi military messages. During the Battle of the Atlantic, the British knew where all the German U-boats were. This was very helpful in either sinking them or diverting convoys around them. During the Battle of North Africa, the British knew when and where every supply ship for Rommel’s forces was leaving Italy. They were able to intercept and sink almost every single ship. The only time the allies could not read German messages was just before the Battle of the Bulge, as by that time the Germans finally figured out that maybe there was something wrong with the code. oops. Too late.
A similar thing happened in the Pacific. While we weren’t able to pinpoint the attack on Pearl Harbor, American code breakers were able to decipher Japanese messages that led to the victory at Midway over a massively superior Japanese force. Had the Japanese been a little more cautious, perhaps they would not have placed so much reliance upon their own code machines. A mathematician with no experience in cryptography said it was fine as is and no one thought about it after.
As I have mentioned before, I am quite the World War II history buff, and something that most people don’t know about World War II is that the Germans had superior just about everything. Had they managed their resources a little more sensibly, they could have won World War II. No kiddin.'
One of the biggest things that tripped them up was (drum roll please)… a lack of humility. They were so sure of the superiority of their code and their weapons that they never stopped for a moment and said, “Gee, I wonder if we're making a major mistake here? I wonder if this thing will actually work as well as the makers tell us it will?" Granted, their confidence was understandable. They were, in many ways, the most advanced nation on earth at the time, at least in terms of military technology. They had also been taught from birth that they were genetically superior to other people. They were so convinced of their overall superiority of technology and training that they never stopped to wonder if anything might not go as planned. The end result, as you know, was disastrous defeat.
Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it, and I’m seeing a similar pattern manifesting itself in our modern day-to-day lives. There was a guy on TV talking about the BP oil spill, and he said, “these were good people making a whole a lot of dumb mistakes.” I suppose I agree with that, but one of the reasons they made these dumb mistakes is because they lacked humility. They were so convinced of the superiority of their technology that they never stopped to consider that it might not be perfect. Their lack of humility, not a lack of brain power, made them reckless. I don’t believe this was just a couple of people, I believe this is a systemic problem. This event is just one very ugly oil-covered canary in the coal mine.
I see another similar pattern in the economic meltdown. There were many factors at play, greed being a primary element, but one of the primary factors was a lack of humility. These wall street bankers had convinced themselves that they couldn’t lose. They became reckless.
So this leaves me wondering, how and where do we, or can we, teach humility to our present and future leaders? Many of them have it, but apparently many of them do not. So much effort is put into protecting our best and brightest from hard shocks that they end up lacking something that’s terribly important to possess if you are to be an effective and successful leader, and that is firsthand experience with the hard consequences of failure. We don't get great leaders by protecting kids from shock, we get it by exposing them to it and seeing which ones can cope better.
One of the things one learns in the professional music industry (at least I did), believe it or not, is humility. This is because there is no quick fancy “out.” Every once in a while, you have to go out on stage and play your instrument in front of a whole lot of people, and if you make a mistake, it’s out there for everyone to see. Knowing that mistakes happen, knowing that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, is, unfortunately something we gloss over or even suppress in the typical modern educational experience. "Helicopter parents" protect their kids from getting B’s, much less F’s. I have a friend who teaches in public school, and she tells me that she cannot give any students less than a B grade any more because the blowback from the parents is just too severe.
I realize that nobody wants to deal with an irate parent who wants their kid to be perfect and go to college. Unfortunately, passing them on becomes systemic, and corrupts everything. Encouragement and support and recognition are great, but other than sports, where do schools provide an opportunity for a kid to have their face rubbed in the mud of hard reality with no escape?
If kids never experience a bad irretrievable result from anything they do, should we really be surprised when the oil rig they’re in charge of goes kaflooey?
The leaders of Germany and Japan were convinced of their superiority, and they led their countries to total ruin. I often wonder if a similar pattern is being played out today. I am not comparing our government/corporate leaders with Hitler or Hirohito in terms of their character or intentions. Those people were criminally insane. What I am saying is, normal, well-intentioned human beings are highly capable of misleading themselves. Like teenagers with a freshly minted driver’s license, most of us are thoroughly capable of believing we are invulnerable or “it will happen to the other guy, not me.” When I was a kid they made us watch movies of real blood-soaked accidents to try to convince us otherwise. We don't show kids those movies any more. Too bad.
I just wish our leaders (government and corporate) had a little more experience with failure, and a little more humility.
Of course, I could be totally wrong about all of this.
© Justin Locke
