Rick Perry: Analysis, Paralysis and Accusation

…because of the condition of the border, from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across, that individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be, and I think I think it’s a very real possibility, that they may have already used that. We have no clear evidence of that, but your common sense tells you…

– Governor Rick Perry (R-TX), August 21, 2014

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Paralysis of Analysis was a phrase that came into vogue when I was in my early adulthood. It was over-thinking decisions to the point where decisions were never made, or at least never made in time to be useful.

In politics I tended to misapply it to Adlai Stevenson. He was the governor of Illinois and was twice the Democratic nominee for President. He would have made a pretty good President, I think. But he faced Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was widely credited with winning the war against the Nazis.

Who would you have voted for in the 1950s: an excellent governor of a very large state, or the military hero who had saved the entire world from pure evil?

Stevenson was often accused of over-thinking issues. But the problem was not an inability to make decisions. It was communicating ideas.

It wasn’t the words he used or the concepts. He didn’t leave people confused. It wasn’t that he talked down to people. It was the depth of his thoughts. It was as if he wanted to demonstrate that there were no simple answers. To. Anything.

The lack of simple answers was a legitimate point. It didn’t come across. Instead, most voters saw an egghead, highly intelligent, incapable of decision.

Paralysis of Analysis goes against human evolution. We are descended from those who lived closest to nature. This meant they lived among predators. Fast decisions with little information, without thinking for more than a fraction of a moment, may have kept our most vulnerable ancestors alive. Our modern term for the process is “common sense.”

The ability to think things through took us beyond immediate survival to a greater measure of security. Every major advance in human development, from technology to military defense to law, came from analysis. So did much of spirituality. Our relationship to each other could finally transcend personal survival.

If paralysis is one danger of analysis, prejudice and unintended consequence is the downside of its absence.

Analysis when things don’t yet matter is what prevents paralysis when they do. It allows for rapid response that is thought out. It often allows for intelligent, realistic, compassion.

I have never thought of Paralysis of Analysis as applying much to government. Policy is the practice of thinking things through ahead of time, attempting to reduce unintended consequence. The best decisions in government are backed by more analysis than even the deciders are aware of.

Rick Perry’s “no clear evidence but your common sense” brings to mind the dynamic tension between common sense and strategy.

…no clear evidence of that, but your common sense tells you…

When common sense leads to suspicion, fear, and unfounded accusation, it can bring us to the invasion of wrong countries with loss of life and tragic unanticipated danger. When it diminishes compassion, even for frightened children, it endangers the national soul.

…individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states…

The demonizing of terrified kids simply because they are strangers, refugees from distant countries, takes us back to the times of the ancients, to our most primitive ancestors.

Many thousands of years of human history tell us to go beyond that.

This article is a collaboration between MadMikesAmerica and FairandUnbalanced.com.

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