Friday, January 15, 2010
Because they think we're stupid
4:21 PM | 
Posted by
Angel
It's because they think we're stupid, people.
Because when we're stupid, officials start getting awards for doing their jobs. Ben Bernanke, the Harvard-educated scholar of the Great Depression, who did not see this 'Recession' coming, suddenly received the Time Person of the Year Award, for doing his job. Ostensibly, so goes Time's reasoning in a nutshell, Bernanke deserves the award because were it not for his decisive actions in 2009 in coordinating with other banking officials in the U.S. and around the world, the Recession would have certainly become a Depression.
But never mind the logic of the situation. The hard truth of men like Ben Bernanke is that, mathematics formulas aside, they dabble and delve in Social Sciences, not the Natural Sciences. You just can't predict or prove any roughshod formula, dictate, theory or creed in Social Science precisely because of the fact that these kinds of things aren't repeatable; the circumstances that created them constantly change.
What follows is this: Ben Bernanke’s occupation, while a hard one, is by no means an occupation with reputable success or failure benchmarks. It's easier to be an Einstein in physics than it is to be an Max Weber in sociology. We simply have no idea whether or not Ben Bernanke’s actions merit such an award. That’s the hard life of the field he chose to take up. His job as Fed Chairman is to enact stable monetary policy. If the economy rebounds because of his actions as Fed Chairman, then he is simply doing his job as Fed Chairman. The Federal Reserve itself is there to help guide and enact monetary policy, after all.
If Ben Bernanke coordinates with other central bankers in other countries, people, it might be a sign he’s just doing his job, because he understands that the globalized nature of the economy these days makes international coordination essential. Thus, Time has given the man an award for just doing his job, and logically we will never know if his actions really merit acknowledgement or not.
Giving people awards for simply doing their jobs is a bad precedent. It's enough for some people to get Nobel Peace prizes. But enough is enough. Stop giving people praise for doing their jobs.
And the only reason it happened was because they (the powers that bestow awards) seem to think we (people without the power to bestow awards) are too dumb to recognize this obvious fact and voice the ridiculousness of it.
Because when we're stupid, officials start getting awards for doing their jobs. Ben Bernanke, the Harvard-educated scholar of the Great Depression, who did not see this 'Recession' coming, suddenly received the Time Person of the Year Award, for doing his job. Ostensibly, so goes Time's reasoning in a nutshell, Bernanke deserves the award because were it not for his decisive actions in 2009 in coordinating with other banking officials in the U.S. and around the world, the Recession would have certainly become a Depression.
But never mind the logic of the situation. The hard truth of men like Ben Bernanke is that, mathematics formulas aside, they dabble and delve in Social Sciences, not the Natural Sciences. You just can't predict or prove any roughshod formula, dictate, theory or creed in Social Science precisely because of the fact that these kinds of things aren't repeatable; the circumstances that created them constantly change.
What follows is this: Ben Bernanke’s occupation, while a hard one, is by no means an occupation with reputable success or failure benchmarks. It's easier to be an Einstein in physics than it is to be an Max Weber in sociology. We simply have no idea whether or not Ben Bernanke’s actions merit such an award. That’s the hard life of the field he chose to take up. His job as Fed Chairman is to enact stable monetary policy. If the economy rebounds because of his actions as Fed Chairman, then he is simply doing his job as Fed Chairman. The Federal Reserve itself is there to help guide and enact monetary policy, after all.
If Ben Bernanke coordinates with other central bankers in other countries, people, it might be a sign he’s just doing his job, because he understands that the globalized nature of the economy these days makes international coordination essential. Thus, Time has given the man an award for just doing his job, and logically we will never know if his actions really merit acknowledgement or not.
Giving people awards for simply doing their jobs is a bad precedent. It's enough for some people to get Nobel Peace prizes. But enough is enough. Stop giving people praise for doing their jobs.
And the only reason it happened was because they (the powers that bestow awards) seem to think we (people without the power to bestow awards) are too dumb to recognize this obvious fact and voice the ridiculousness of it.
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