Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Focusing Our Efforts On Defeating Others

My first post of the new year is political in hopes that I can get it out of my system and devote the rest of the year to books, movies, television and Poptarts.

A confirmation came today as to why I’m weary of American politics.

Jim Greer, the Florida Chairman of the Republican Party, made this statement:

“These individuals who have turned their guns on fellow Republicans instead of focusing our efforts on defeating Democrats have done nothing to serve our party. But at the end of the day the future of the party must come first.”

What he meant to be doing was talking about the reasons he is resigning.

What he did was explain the philosophy that is tearing this country apart.

The Republican Party believes that its primary job is to defeat the Democrats.

Which is balanced, because the Democratic Party believes that its primary job is to defeat the Republicans.

Neither party has “serve America’s best interests” on their job list.

Let me preemptively respond to those who will immediately come to the aid of their party with an, “But the only way to get the best for America (meaning what we want) is to focus all our energies on defeating the competition!”

Good for you.

But imagine what you would think if other companies shared that philosophy.

For example, my studio’s main focus is to create quality (and hopefully popular) films.

But what if, instead, our leadership told us to stop spending so much time on our own movies, and instead devote the majority of our resources to making Disney fail?

Instead of spending marketing money on “Sherlock Holmes,” we should use those resources for a negative campaign on “Up.”

Instead of hiring writers to improve our scripts, we should have those writers spend their days creating stories we could leak that make Pete Docter look bad. (Oh, as a side benefit, we have to target any director/writer/actor/grip who works for the competition, naturally.)

Eh, I’m already tired of this analogy.

I want to work for a company whose main focus is making a quality product.

I wish I had a party whose main focus is making a quality country.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

4 comments:

Omar said...

Don't you know that many American businesses operate on exactly the principle you facetiously suggest for Warner Bros.? Destroy the competition first, tend to the knitting (e.g. creating a good product or service) second . . . or later . . . or never.

And we wonder why our economy is in the crapper.

Gaffney said...

Plenty of businesses do indeed - and yes, that explains why our economy is as healthy as our politics.

I just don't want to live there - no what I mean?

David Goulet said...

It's not just a habit of American politics of course. We have the same issues here in Canada, as do most countries. At least we (US and Canada) don't have inter-party assassinations -- yet.

Using your analogy though, if one realizes one doesn't have a quality product then the next best strategy is to denigrate the competition's. It's the way of the coward and the creatively bankrupt, but unfortunately it can be effective.

Janet said...

I reposted this on Facebook... and I love the fact that friends of mine on the far left and the far right have both picked it up and reposted it themselves....

Maybe there is a shred of hope for us all...

Great work, Sean...