Too Much Thinking!

I used to have a wonderful friend who unfortunately died of a heart attack several years ago. He was as decent a human being as ever there was. He was a wonderful husband, tremendous father, and as best a friend as one could hope for. And he was smart. REALLY smart.

His name was Bob Park. Bob wasn’t school smart. As a matter of fact, he left home at an early age to go to sea on a merchant vessel, and everything he learned came from reading, watching and listening. Bob learned all about life from living life.

Eventually, my friend Bob went into sales, and as a salesman he did well, not spectacularly well since he didn’t have that “killer sale’s instinct”, but he did well enough to maintain a nice lifestyle for his family.

Bob absolutely loved politics. He consumed everything about REAL POLITICK. And from his youthful experiences living on the decks of ocean freighters visiting ports all over the world, he knew and understood the difference between truth and perception.

And this understanding gave Bob a unique insight into the human condition. He knew who were the frauds. And he knew who were the real deal.

He also understood the value of knowing when the deal was done. And when the sale was made. His biggest single pet peeve was people who didn’t know when to say yes. Or when to stop selling. People who TALKED THEMSELVES PAST THE SALE used to drive him around the bend.

THIS ALSO DESCRIBES THE “INTELLECTUALS”. They don’t know when to STOP THINKING. They can’t help themselves. They’re just like the sales people who simply talk themselves beyond the sale.

And this is a problem which is tearing up the entire world. The intellectuals who will never come to a decision on anything, because every argument, regardless from whichever position, could be argued forever. And that is what they do. They argue and intellectualize forever.

This morning, I watched one of the former Clinton advisors on CNN, who was amongst those responsible for “negotiating” the nuclear non proliferation treaty with North Korea in 1993. And when asked by the CNN interviewer if she regrets the way the deal was done, since North Korea now has nuclear weapons and a delivery system that can bring them to the American West Coast; her answer was no.

In her mind’s eye, she and the Clinton administration did nothing wrong, and all that North Korea wants is to use the “threat” of nuclear war as a “bargaining chip” with which to wrestle more economic concessions from the USA. And the proper direction for the Bush administration to take is a path of diplomacy and more negotiation.

I watched and listened to her in stunned disbelief.

This is a woman was once charged with protecting the world from nuclear proliferation from a rogue state run by a madman. And here we are, even after Korea admitted that they LIED and MISLEAD the world, who still wants to negotiate.

The problem with her and all the other “intellectuals” is that they are TOO STUPID to know when the deal is done. And they will keep on talking and thinking, and thinking and talking until they are kicked in the teeth, and the rest of us pay a price for their intellectual stupidity.

It doesn’t take a genius or intellectual giant to understand that tyranny, torture, murder, misogyny and fanatical fundamentalism are mind-sets with which there is no negotiation or intellectual debate. There is only the reality that sooner or later we will have to do whatever has to be done once the deal is understood.

And this is where we are today. As a matter of fact, this is where we have been for more than a decade. And the only reason the threat has become as great and severe as it is today, is because of the intellectuals who didn’t know when to stop thinking and keep their mouths shut.

When the schoolyard bully who has a history of beating kids up, gets in your face, you have three options: Pay him off. Run away. Or kick him in the nuts as hard as you can and as often as possible until you are absolutely sure he understands the cost of trying to push you around. There is nothing else to think about and to intellectualize over. It’s as simple as that.

It is indeed possible that you might get kicked and whacked back. So what? There is always a price to pay for your right not to be bullied. And unless you are prepared to take the hit, you will always be paying off the bully and running away, until you can no longer pay, and you just can’t run anymore.

It’s time to stop thinking, and start kicking.