Need A Long View To Judge Things

One thing Friedman said that I absolutely agree with is that it takes time to accurately judge the effects of an action. He was speaking specifically about Iraq. It’s currently a disaster and things need to change, no question. But as to whether it was a mistake to go in the first place, he’s not willing to say yet. That’s something you can only judge after 5, 10, 20 or more years, definitely not 2. Making premature judgments is foolish. (Unless you think the war was really about WMDs (which is reasonable since that’s what Bush and Blair said it was about), but it really wasn’t.)

Anyway, I 100% agree with that. You need patience to take the long view to accurately judge things, and we’re way too quick to make presumptive assessments. Like with the last election, the media so eager to crown a winner. Happens in sports all the time. Like with football now, tons of people are saying the Chargers were stupid to draft Phil Rivers (currently warming the bench) instead of Roethlisberger (currently undefeated as a starter). Rivers may end up being a bust. Roethlisberger may end up being the next Dan Marino. But there’s no way you can tell after half of a single season. Need time to tell. But everyone loves making quick snap judgments.

I suppose it’s a natural human tendency. Like in the Bible they do it all the time. In Exodus they start griping almost as soon as they leave. But yeah, I think premature judgments are something we need to actively combat. Not easy though.