Maureen Dowd, in an op-ed piece today called, "CULT OF DECEPTION," claims that George W. Bush has given a bad rap to the notion of trusting one's "gut feelings."
Ms. Dowd: "It turns out that our president is a one-man refutation of Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller 'Blink,' about the value of trusting your gut. Every gut instinct he [Bush] had was wildly off the mark and hideously damaging to all concerned."
As my readers know, "gut feelings" is a subject I feel strongly about. In a lengthy post a while ago, I wrote extensively on the the nature of gut feelings. I consider myself an expert on the subject. So, I must correct Maureen Dowd in this regard. While it is an undeniable fact that Mr. Bush has been "wildly off the mark and hideously damaging to all concerned" with most of his decisions, said decisions have not come from his gut, despite Scott McClellan or others claiming so. Mr. Bush operates almost purely from his childish ego and immature self-will and pride, not from his true gut, which would be connected to his wisdom, at whatever level he has any. Decision-making from one's ego is always a recipe for disaster. We are all witnesses, are we not?
Your point about what really constitutes gut feelings and the role of Bush's immaturity and pride are well taken. Perhaps she wasn't explicit enough, but I think that Dowd alludes to the same:
ReplyDelete"if you keep your gut on a steady diet of grandiosity, ignorance, sycophants, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, those snap decisions can be ruinous."