Catching up with Carson
[ by Charles Cameron — always amazed when theology makes its way into politics ]
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I missed this when it first appeared, but wanted to capture it now I’ve found it (via a Lewis Black routine) —
It is important to remember that amateurs built the Ark and it was the professionals that built the Titanic. @my_ccu pic.twitter.com/6Nqod4sicS
— Ben & Candy Carson (@RealBenCarson) October 29, 2015
Seems the amateur theologian Ben Carson — who relies heavily on his professional status as a neurosurgeon for credibility — thinks amateurs get the job done way better than professionals. Whether that opinion will lead to better ship-building by, eg, Hyundai, Samsung and Daewoo is another question: they may or may not take note of Biblical precedent in this matter.
June 18th, 2017 at 2:41 am
Why the sudden fit of literalness Charles? It seems plain to me Dr. Carson delivered a sort of parable about how average people shouldn’t be as deferential to “professionals” as the “professionals” would like them to be. Sort of like how the renowned professional George McClellan’s record didn’t compare well with Forrest’s, a complete amatuer. Or more recently Jonathan Gruber, the great expert, saying Obamacare would work just fine vs. millions of us amateurs who rather doubted it.
June 18th, 2017 at 8:43 am
You keep busting me, Carl.
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Let me go on record as aspiring above all to the status of the amateur, the one who loves (Italian amatore, from Latin amator), and the dilettante, the one who takes delight (Italian dilettare from Latin delectare)..
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And literalness? I do so apologize!
June 19th, 2017 at 9:46 pm
Remember too, what G. K. Chesterton wrote: “the most terribly important things must be left to ordinary men themselves – the mating of the sexes, the rearing of the young, the laws of the state.”
June 21st, 2017 at 3:17 pm
There is the saying becoming increasingly popular in C-suites and upper ranks,
“amateurs talk tactics, but professionals talk logistics.”
On the other hand, how often do we see amateurs come out of nowhere to dethrone the prevailing paradigm while the incumbent supply chain is busy perfecting a self-licking ice cream cone? It’s more of a truism than some piercing proverb. Yes, they both do actually concentrate on those areas, but how much bearing it has on the end results will depend on a host of other factors.
June 21st, 2017 at 4:36 pm
There is zero reason to show any deference to the so-called professionals who are responsible for the atrocity of public housing in the USA, buildings which would cause the imprisonment of their owners and landlords if they were privately owned. Amateurs, meaning ordinary citizens with common sense, would do much better.
June 22nd, 2017 at 3:08 am
A nice synopsis of the origin of public housing in Chicago can be found in American Pharoah:Mayor Richard J. Daley – His battle for Chicago and the Nation by Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor.
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https://www.amazon.com/American-Pharaoh-Richard-Battle-Chicago/dp/0316834890
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While well-intentioned, the CHA became the landlord for some of the most dangerous and utterly hopeless housing in America – and that is in comparison with the worst streets of Harlem, Detroit, Oakland and Watts. The high rises became the cradle of a new generation of extremely well disciplined and powerful street gangs. I’m sure Dave and Mike recall when the violence was so bad that Mayor Jane Byrne moved into Cabrini-Green for a time and brought much of the Chicago Police Department with her. I recall once, as a kid, driving by Cabrini in the early evening, having gotten off course and every window was dark. Every. Single. Window. Because the shootings had become rampant. It was eerie and a CPD cruiser quickly pulled alongside my car to ask why the hell I was in the neighborhood.
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A friend of mine worked as a social worker doing visits into Ida B. Wells and was nearly killed several times by addicts in stairwells (who were not trying to kill social workers but were high as a kite and afraid he was someone coming to steal their drugs) At times the *gang leaders* gave him armed escorts so nothing would happen to him on his visits (which would draw large-scale police intervention and disrupt their drug market). This sea of violent chaos is why eventually the CHA high rises were demolished
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http://www.citymetric.com/skylines/20-year-battle-demolish-chicago-s-notorious-cabrini-green-housing-project-1575
June 23rd, 2017 at 3:52 pm
I worked with youth living in Cabrini-Green from 1973 to 2011 and still am connected to many on Facebook, including the 4th grade boy I was first matched with in 1973. A search for ‘Cabrini-Green’ on the http://tutormentor.blogspot.com will find many stories I’ve written since 2005.
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I recall Jane Byrne moving into Cabrini in 1980, and saw the acceleration of violent behavior pre 1980 to post 1980. I recall about that time a White friend responding to a shooting that killed some school kids in a suburban area saying “we need to get everyone together to talk about this”. I responded, we’ve needed people to get together and talk about urban violence for a long time.
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I have followed Zenpundit since Charles introduced it to me because of my own background and interest in history and the use of ” best available intelligence” to support decision making. I used what information I could find in my efforts as a tutor, and as leader of the volunteer-program at the Montgomery Ward headquarters, near Cabrini Green, starting in 1975. When we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993, with a goal of helping mentor-rich programs grow in all high poverty areas of Chicago, building a library of information/intelligence that leaders from all parts of the Chicago region could use to support actions they needed to take, was the strategy we adopted.
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In 2012 I created a visualization of the work needed to fill high poverty areas of big cities with needed services, and included it in an article I titled “Battle Plan for War on Poverty”. http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2012/02/battle-plan-for-war-on-poverty.html
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In April 2015 I posted an article titled “After the Riots Do the Planning” and pointed to a 1993 news story saying that “Chicago neighborhoods that were poor 20 years ago are even more entrenched in poverty today because the city lacks a comprehensive battle plan”. http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2015/04/after-riots-do-planning.html
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When I posted a comment at the end of the Thucydides RoundTable I agreed with one of the other writers who lamented that most people have not, nor ever will, read the book. I feel the same with the articles I’ve been posting on my blog and the maps and visualizations I share.
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If we don’t want to be talking about the same problems 20 years from now, perhaps from a much more negative view of events that will take place from now till then, we need to find ways to draw more people into the ideas and history of the past and into spaces where we use our collective talents and resources to innovate new paths to a different future.
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Thanks Charles, for being one who has read these often since we first met more than 10 years ago.
June 23rd, 2017 at 4:07 pm
I think you are doing invaluable, under-valued work, Daniel.