This week I am reading “The Frozen Hours” from Jeff Shaara, a fictional account of the first months of the Korean War. About two-thirds of the way in, General Oliver P. Smith vows “to repair the raw, ugly stupidity that sent us out here.” In his mind, in that moment, this was not a condemnation of war; it was a strong criticism of strategy and the parts played by ego and politics. Raw. Ugly. Stupidity. It is an apt description for any decision coming from ego and politics as opposed to first-hand knowledge and understanding. Raw, ugly stupidity costs lives, advances injustice, maintains the status quo, will be the death of Humanity. Nothing I haven't said before.
So what am I going to do about it? I am going to keep beating the drum and I am going to go to work and build a pivot table. A well-thought-out pivot table with well-placed slicers allows you to see the facts from various angles and perspectives, not for varying interpretations, but to zoom in and to zoom out, to see details otherwise hidden by shadows and false walls and noise, and to see landscapes to their horizon, thus creating a greater likelihood for a consensus interpretation. Ego and politics divides and creates not only widely variant interpretations, but far worse, widely variant facts, which is not possible, (facts are facts), yet here we are.
If I were to build a pivot table for raw, ugly stupidity, I would first identify the elements (that would become column headers in my data sheet) to include:
- The Issue
- Enablers
- Drivers
- Harbingers
- The Result
The Result would include:
- Lives lost
- Divides dug
- Gaps widened
- Progress hindered
The Issue could be anything that contributes to a Result listed above; for example, gun control.
Enablers are overriding systems or conventions that are entrenched and difficult to move; for example, the misinterpretation of the second amendment.
Drivers are influential organizations, special interest groups, political parties, and vocal majorities (be they actual majority or not); for example, the NRA and the Republican Party.
Harbingers are influential individuals, (sometimes merely a mouthpiece); for example, Donald J. Trump.
The Issue in column A would occupy multiple rows to account for multiple Enablers, Drivers, Harbingers and Results in columns B, C, D and E. Column F could be added for specific detail.
Differences could then be made obvious by the number (and possibly subjective weight – column F or G) of the Results. For example, both sides on the issue of gun control are widening gaps, but only one side is preventing lives from being saved, and most constituents (on both sides) should put a greater value on life than on consensus. Therefore, on the issue of (for example) gun control, adding numbers and weights would make it obvious that the raw, ugly stupidity of the vocal majority of the Republican party is much worse than the unrefined, unseemly stupidity of the Democrats.
The glory of pivot tables.