@cityslikr's pal Urban Sophisticat on the Six Sigma sickness currently afflicting our municipal leadership. Read it now.
Dude's bang on. We're not talking about leadership or vision any more, we're talking about mere managerial competence. All part of how thirty years of right-wing stupidity has diminished us as citizens.
The obligatory cheap shot:
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| Did someone say Six Sigma sickness? |
Excellent opinion piece. This really is so true:
ReplyDeleteIt’s all about lowering the bar which makes it more palatable when the likes of George W. Bush, Stephen Harper and Rob Ford assume the mantle of office. Governments can’t do anything positive for us, so why elect anyone who claims they can? It’s a virus that has fully infected non-conservative parties and politicians as well. Dumb down their rhetoric. Eliminate any thoughts of grand visions or designs they might have. We don’t want leaders. We want managers. Bad managers are even preferred to those wanting to impose their dreamy dreams upon us.
With the advent of managers business think invariably displaces political discourse. It’s all about finding efficiencies, value for dollars, bangs for you bucks. We become taxpayers rather than citizens. Customers, clients and stakeholders.
While working for the feds, when Manning was official opposition, I remember becoming alarmed by how we were pushed into adopting "taxpayers" for "citizens". "Deficit reduction" and "return on investment" also became part of the political jargon.