No Country for (Angry) Old Men or Women - Are You Listening Hillary Clinton and John McCain?
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in Baby Boomer, Goulston, Mark, Obama, Get Out of Your Own Way at Work, Clinton, Hillary, McCain, John, Campaign, Congress
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Dr. Mark Goulston is a former UCLA professor who helps high performing leaders, senior management and sales people reach their full potential using skills he learned training FBI and police hostage negotiators. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches and writes the weekly Tribune syndicated career advice column, "Solve Anything with Dr. Mark" and 
columns on leadership for FAST COMPANY and Directors Monthly and is an expert at People Jam. He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with regard to contemporary business, national and world news by television, radio and print media including: Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, Los Angeles Times, ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox/CNN/BBC News, Oprah, and Today. Mark Goulston is the author of The 6 Secrets of a Lasting Relationship, Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior, Get Out of Your Own Way at Work and PTSD for Dummies. For more information visit: www.markgoulston.com.
Guest Blogger Mark Goulston--
Hillary Clinton waged a negative campaign and it sounds like John McCain is getting bankrolled to do the same thing. Barack Obama can be occasionally pulled down to that level, but clearly he doesn't like to engage in dirty or negative politics.
Is the guy chicken? Is he afraid to engage in a knock down drag out battle? Or is something else going on?
I choose to believe the latter. I choose to believe that Obama knows that people who throw stones do live in glass houses and when people wage negative campaigns it is more often motivated by a desire to draw potential voters away from the scent of their own misdeeds and send them on a wild goose chase into the foibles and human shortcomings of their opponents.
If you haven't noticed, Americans and especially "baby boomers" don't age gracefully or graciously. They have trouble realizing it is no longer their turn and that it is time to pass the baton to the next generation(s), wish them well, help them if they ask for it, and then stay out of their way.
Instead, they marry younger women, have (too much) plastic surgery, live vicariously through their children (using them to get the extra scoop of ice cream that they feel they didn't get and were entitled to) and in many other ways "Rage against the dawn" instead of going "gently into that good night."
Obama represents the next generations' hopefulness about focusing on what is possible and what can be built together through cooperation and synergy now that the world is flat and we are more global than ever in the history of the world. He represents the desire to turn away from the "zero sum" mentality of older generations, and turf wars between Democrats and Republicans more concerned with staying in office than in truly serving the people who elected them.
I am a baby boomer, and don't particularly like aging and don't particularly like letting go of power and influence. Fortunately I like even less desperately and bitterly holding on to something that rightfully belongs to the next generation and the future.
Are you listening Hillary Clinton and John McCain…and Congress?
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Reader Comments (7)
It appears that I am much more "old-fashioned" and conservative than you, as well as don't feel compelled to have the next generation(s) put me out to pasture. Indeed, as the father of four, as a U.S. Army veteran, and as someone who loves my country, I am authentically committed to making a positive difference in the world until my very last breath. I see this commitment as a personal and very serious responsibility to (and "contract" with) my family, my country, and the planet, Being "old-fashioned" and of Greek heritage (the "cradle of democracy"), I do respect, listen to, and learn from my elders. Ideally, I would like my children--and everyone else with whom I come into contact--to do the same. Engaging in authentic dialogue with others requires that we "meaningfully" engage and learn with/from each other. The generational divide will always be a "divide" if we employ the language and perspective that you have shared in your post. Remember, the baby boomers are responsible for much of the abundance and excessive "choice" that the younger generations now enjoy and, for the most part, take for granted. Baby boomers can--and should--learn from their experiences too; in this regard, a major part of their legacy depends on how well they can mentor AND learn from other generations to make a positive difference in the world. And while baby boomers have made incredible "investments" and contributions in their lives for the advancement and, hopefully, betterment of society and the planet, it remains to be seen if younger generations are equipped and ready to do the same. Whatever the case, authentic leadership is not about "age," it is about leading with and to meaningful values and goals. Hope is NOT a strategy and "change" for change's sake is not either. Especially in our "flat world," more than ever leadership requires and demands collaboration in ways that, among other things, seeks to bridge the generational and other "cultural" divides, not exascerbate them by profiling people by some arbitrary classification scheme, such as their date of birth, and furthering "collective irresponsibility," no matter how well intentioned. As usual, Mark, you get me going!