Trials of a Hegemon

I have been a bit tough on the USA since coming to spend some of my time here last year. Whether it is the constant bullshit about being the greatest country on earth or the execrable quality of news programmes, I’ve volunteered some frustration. Add in drones, Guantanamo, and the lazy way the US ignores the rest of the world (an example of this is in Time’s annual review of the world’s one hundred most influential people, no fewer than half were born in the USA, presented without apology) you might conclude I have only bad things to say about the place. Much as most liberal European media, in fact.

 

Well, it is worth redressing the balance.

 

First, this is a great place to live. So long as you have enough cash, there are so many comforts and wonderful things to do. If you don’t have the cash at least you have some chance of getting some. The place is full of life. The people always want to converse and to help. And the diversity of human spirit is simply wonderful. Perhaps New York embodies all of these things more than the rest of the country, but I have been blown away by all of them. The cultural experiences we have enjoyed just in the last month could only have been possible here.

 

Next, as Hegemon’s go, the USA has not got a bad track record. For every Palestine, there is a Burma or Kosovo. If you look around the world, some historic catastrophes are being painstakingly sorted out, from Northern Ireland, Turkey, the Philippines many parts of Africa, even the EU. The Marshall plan after the last war has played the major role in creating the longest period of relative peace in the history of mankind. Behind a lot of them stand a patient, generous, effective USA. True, there are often some vested interests involved. But we can applaud the results anyway.

 

Next, we have not just relative peace but also relative prosperity, often with the USA to thank. By accepting immigrants and competition and regulating appropriately, much of the innovation in the world has its source in the USA.

 

Next, in case you are not already convinced, look at Hegemons past. It can’t be easy of others would have done a better job. Us British have to live with the stain of colonialism. The Romans had their moments but did not really maintain their advances. Dominant Churches have led to unpleasant regimes. Power certainly does seem to have a tendency to corrupt. For me the true heroes are often those who are ready to cede power in the interests of a wider development. Sadly their achievements are rarely recognised, at least not initially. George Washington was one. In the last century, consider Gorbachev and even FW de Klerk as candidates. For me, Angela Merkel is well on the way as well.

 

In this respect, Obama still has potential. I prefer to see his speech last week on drones as an attempt to regulate something morally unacceptable rather an attempt to defend it. He did not need to make that speech, and it only carried risks domestically, but he made it anyway.

 

This leads to another truth about power, which is that there is little correlation between power and autonomy. I noticed in my work life that the higher I got the more constraints were placed on me. True, I gained the potential to influence things of greater weight, but that potential was balanced by all sorts of risks and blockers. In Obama’s case, public opinion and congress inhibit him enormously. We may not see it, but we would be foolish to consider that Putin or Xi or Kim Jong Un do not have many internal constraints on their actions.

 

Lastly, quite often it is hard to know what to do for the best. Intervention is not for free, it has consequences. It is a valid dictum that where possible, letting people sort out their own problems is usually for the best. At least the current administration does not feel a crusading need to impose its values on others, at least not usually. So, you end up with Syria. What a mess. And everything our Hegemon might consider doing might turn out to be counter-productive.

 

So, despite its manifest failings, we should probably be grateful for the Hegemon we have just now. Like democracy, it might just be the worst hegemon except for all the alternatives.

 

I recently read a book called “Why Nations fail”. It was not an easy read, and not entirely convincing either, but it did offer some clues. The main thesis is that progress comes as a consequence of inclusive rather than extractive institutions. So the rule of law, a working constitution, an effective state, and powers to break up monopolies and support new ideas are the pillars of development. It is something of a historical accident which places secure this happy combination, but it is useful to know what works (and would make a great module in education).

 

The main reason extractive institutions persist tends to be that this suits those in power (who are doing the extracting). Even though they can see that overall development would improve with more inclusivity, and may even see that in the very long term their extraction would not be sustainable, they carry on with it anyway because the long term is likely to occur after their death.

 

Even when institutions are inclusive, some of the powerful will seek to consolidate their position by making things more extractive. An example is the blatant power of money in the US political system, and its divisive effects. But by historical standards, the US still does quite well, and that goes some way to explain its generally benign hegemony.

 

But it also shows a way forward, at least to an idealist. The same logic used about individual nations can readily be applied to the world as a whole, and, as the world shrinks with the aid of globalisation and technology, such a logic has increasing relevance.

 

So, in order to be more than a benign hegemon and to become a historically great one, the USA could use as its guiding light a set of inclusive institutions for the world. Top of the list would be a working global governance model. So it is especially sad that the US does so little to support the UN, for all its flaws. So long as the USA behaves as though it is outside the remit of the UN, it cannot really demand anything different from others.

 

Once we had working governance and the rule of international law, next would come inclusive economic institutions. The WTO does its best, and the globe has a good recent record of challenging monopolies and subsidies. Often, the US takes on a unilateral role here, for example with banking standards and its expectations of US businesses and citizens with regards to corruption anywhere.

 

The world is tantalisingly close to another leap forward in progress. Hegemons have a large influence on world development. Historically this influence has been negative: just as rulers in nations maintain extractive institutions to protect their own power, hegemonic nations have the same selfish interest to maintain national advantages.

 

On balance, we have much to thank our current hegemon for, and more under the current administration than its predecessor. But the payback to the world of the USA taking a few more steps towards global inclusivity would be truly huge. It is no wonder that the foreign policy aims of regimes as diverse as Russia, Iran or China should be to act against the interests of the USA, while the USA continues to treat international law as optional and to defend unreasonable interests as “strategic” – just count how many US military bases there are around the world.

 

If only the proud cries of the land of freedom could extend to the world of freedom, the payoff would be huge. As the USA becomes more diverse, perhaps it is possible. A few steps could make all the difference: recognising the international court in full; accepting change in permanent members to the security council; closing some bases (starting with Guantanamo); taming the CIA. Small steps, but no hegemon has managed them before. Maybe this time it can be different.         counter-productive. least not usually.actions.e

More on time management

The classic model for time management plots urgency against importance. It is a good model, but I find it rather corporate, rather biased to people who are time poor, and lacking in some important dimensions.

 

The most important missing dimension is joy. Taking some things slowly can greatly enhance their joy. Knowing what these things are for you can help you experience this joy, even when you are busy. Last week I discussed some examples which work for me.

 

The second extra dimension is quality, or the value in maturation of an activity. Some things simply work better if you take them quickly, while others can generate a better outcome if they are taken slowly.

 

A bit of spontaneity adds some spice to life. We should all occasionally do impulsive things, and honing our wit is good for our brains. I am not advocating that we lose this flirtatious sparkle. What I do suggest is that we note where we habitually make mistakes through haste, and to try to avoid repeating them.

 

For me, my wit usually works well, but at times I can be cruel. So now I consciously count a bit in my head before saying derogatory things about others. I often forget, and many times still carry on doing the damage, but at least it is better than it used to be.

 

With electronic media it is easier, since a time delay is expected. Later in my career, I assiduously followed the twenty four rule when I received an e-mail that annoyed me. That saved me from many unnecessary problems, and I recommend this practice to everyone. The next day you can still reply in a bitchy or angry way and get the pleasure from it, but you will have had time to consider your response and its implications.

 

Speed usually works well with unpleasant things. It is better to face up to them than obfuscate, once it is clear that something is necessary. Deferring the dentist only adds stress and makes it worse when you finally go. A medical worry festers in the brain until courage is found to take a test. And financial obligations don’t vanish by staring at them, indeed they often get worse.

 

Another good rule is to deal with things once and finally wherever possible. At work, if you can avoid answering a question with another question, you will find you receive fewer follow up mails. Trying to get away with paying up partially still leaves the problem, and necessitates double handling.

 

But with many things, a hasty approach often jeopardises quality and stores up future stress and problems. For most of us, this includes purchasing anything beyond the most mundane articles. Think about it. It is not a coincidence that adverts emphasise time limited opportunities. It is also telling that good jurisdictions allow a cooling off period to review a hasty purchase. Think before you buy is always a good adage, in my experience. Special offers have a habit of re-emerging soon enough – Macy’s seem to have a sale almost every week, for goodness sake. By all means buy in sales, but use sales to time purchases you have already decided on, rather than getting sucked into impulse buys. Similarly, the best weapon in any negotiation is time. The one with less urgency always gets the better deal. So try to be that one as often as possible.

 

Many other things benefit from letting things mature. Investment is one. There was an article last week that said most investment funds under-perform markets because they are too active and incur more in fees than they gain in smartness. This makes sense to me.

 

If you have a problem with your boss, bad luck. I wrote about this before, and I still feel this is a critical area where advice is too limited. Many of us have bad relationships with our bosses (and our subordinates) and the fact is most of us make a bad thing worse by not being patient. Patience may enable the problem to go away, and will certainly help you devise strategies that have a chance of improving things, notably by putting yourself in the shoes of the other party. Careers in general can do with patience too.

 

I love the idea of maturing campaigns or projects. I love to be open to things, to see what comes along in life rather than trying to force issues. It works for me, at least.

 

At a higher level, one risk with new technology is hasty politics. I am all for democracy over elites, but I fear for hasty judgements and bandwagons. Just look at the talent shows on TV – the act on last seems to win far too often. When asked an opinion, people can be swayed by such trivialities. If Beppe Grillo had his way and we had online referenda on everything, I fear the unintended consequences would outweigh any benefits. Imagine the sort of justice the Boston bombers would receive. Judgement should be leisurely and considered wherever possible. Any decision made following a US news broadcast would almost certainly be ill considered.

 

So now we have four dimensions, urgency, importance, joy and quality. How on earth are we supposed to manage our time with all this complexity? Well, I think it is different if you are time poor or time rich.

 

If you are time poor, I recognise that you can’t always have the time to take in the joy and mature a judgement. But there is always something you can do. Here are some tips.

 

My favourite tip came from an old Shell boss, Paul Skinner. Fill in spaces on your agenda early for things you want to do. If you don’t, you’ll find others fill it up for you, with things you don’t want. If you are down as engaged, you will usually get to keep that time free.

 

Second, avoid running around like a fly doing more and more just because you can. You are not generally rewarded on volume of work, more on quality. Technology and your efficiency can free up time, don’t waste it with more of the same. An extreme of this are people who think their organisation cannot function without them (and take few holidays and delay retirement too). You are deluding yourself! Or maybe you are running away from something else in your life? In any case, stop. Another symptom is giving yourself deadlines all the time, which are self-imposed (even if you may say otherwise). Keep up your urgency and your energy, sure, but not by generating false pressure and robbing yourself of time and joy.

 

Third, review what you multi-task. Technology is great in the way it allows us to achieve many things at once nowadays. For arcane and necessary things, use this to its full extent. So if you have a dead hour in an airport terminal, by all means get some work done. But then don’t multi task just because you can, make conscious choices. Some joyous activities need their own focus. Some activities only yield quality with focused attention.

 

Lastly, remember your joy, rediscover what makes you joyful, and prioritise that high enough and long enough and dedicated enough, whatever happens. If this sounds selfish, remember that a joyful you is a better employee and more pleasant friend. And that service, love and family can all be joyful activities which give joy to others too.

 

If you are time rich, the first thing to do is celebrate. What a gift this is. Then you can start with the last advice for the time poor, and focus on your joy. In your case, you have even more space and opportunity to find it. Even the slowest activities (fishing? Writing?) are available to you. Be ready for where your joy takes you. The more open you are, the more you will discover.

 

Second, don’t waste time just because you have it. If there is something simple offering little joy, do it quickly and multi-task. If that creates even more free time, so much the better for the chance of joy. Similarly, stop obfuscating over things that you would be ready dealing with head on.

 

Finally, get the balance right on deadlines. Time rich people can become poor at closing things out. Make sure you set yourself some deadlines, but not too many and in the right areas, notably where you don’t sacrifice the joy or the quality, and where you need to respect others (being habitually late, for example), is pretty disrespectful of the time of others).

 

My final advice is to prepare carefully for the transition from time poor to time rich or vice versa. Especially, losing a job or retirement can be scary unless you are prepared, and most of the preparation can be done in the head. What could be nicer than preparing for joy? Or for creating dreams for a future with more free time?

 

If I work out how to put all this into a four box model, or even a sixteen box model like Myers Briggs, I’ll let you know. But don’t hold your breath, that would be a joyful activity for me, so I’ll probably take my time over it.      

An alternative Model for Time Management

The slow food movement has been around a while now. I love the idea. Meals that take a while to cook slowly are often the best, like the stews in Portugal. But even more I like the idea of eating (and drinking) slowly enough to savour and enjoy what the meal has to offer, while also securing nutritional and social benefits.

 

Last week I read that there is now a slow news movement. I think the idea is to cut yourself off from the daily noise every so often, especially avoiding the constant catching up now available via internet and smart phone. I can see some merit in this too, though it hardly seems to be as valuable a concept as slow food. But it did get me thinking about what other slow movements might make sense.

 

I have time to do this sort of thing now. Three years ago I chose to move from a time poor existence to a time rich one. Marketers use this segmentation, and I find it can be very useful. Most people spend their lives either in a permanent race against time, or in a situation where they feel the need to drag time out. It is quite sad really, that time, in a way all we have, becomes the enemy of most of us. You see time rich people dragging activities out, for example walking up and down each aisle in a supermarket, or painstakingly collecting coupons. Time poor folk multi-task and are looking for convenient solutions. It is not a coincidence that fast food and slow food have developed at the same time.

 

I feel blessed that in some ways I now have the best of both worlds. I have developed the useful habits of time poor people, with the learned ability to get tasks done efficiently. Modern technology helps a lot with this too. Yet I have lots of free time, which I am learning to savour. I make mistakes – many days I will still gobble down my breakfast before I remember that it is an opportunity for eked out joy. That first hour of the day can be such a pleasure if I allow it to be. But I am learning.

 

Time poor people in corporations are taught time management. Typically, the four box model used has importance and urgency as its axes. The logic is to avoid the trap of being swallowed by the urgent and neglecting the important but non-urgent tasks. The main technique seems to be compartmentalise time in order to reserve some for these high value things (usually high value for the corporation too, of course).

 

This approach misses at least two dimensions. One is joy, which I’ll discuss in this blog. The other is the value of maturing an activity. Will delay lead to a better result? Or will a fast or spontaneous approach often do better and remove a source of stress? Next time I’ll look more at the maturation axis, and also try offer some practical tips, for both time rich and time poor people, to make the most of these axes.

 

So, let us look at joy, or its converse, unwelcome stress. Does taking time over an activity make it more joyful? Or does rushing it add unnecessarily to stress? The answers won’t be the same for everyone. But it is worth reviewing frequent activities to work out where we might be missing out on joy.

 

Food is an obvious example of an activity that has much joy to yield, but many of us just reduce to as short a time as possible. Love-making is even more obvious, but hopefully most people don’t need as much reminding of that opportunity.

 

Slow meditation has become popular recently. Just focusing on breathing for some minutes each day helps us keep balance. If we want to add in some yoga for fitness or prayer for humility or wonder, that is just fine as well.

 

Slow travel is a great opportunity. Train travel can be so relaxing, simply because it makes time go more slowly than driving. I enjoy long plane journeys too – at least the part in the air. But best of all is walking. Whether in a city or the country, there is always something joyful to see, smell or listen to if we give it our focus and enough time. Last week I had a wonderful afternoon in Manhattan, just walking, with only a vague plan for destinations, but picking up good places to visit that I happened to pass, while observing the diversity of human activity, the cherry blossoms and the changing effects of light on buildings. I walked at a fair pace (better to keep a bit fit) but consciously avoided hurrying, so a traffic light or a slow pedestrian couldn’t stress me.

 

It does not surprise me that walking (at a reasonable pace) has now been found in a study to be more beneficial than running. It is a bit like slow food and its nutrition. I remember in my youth a craze for the game of squash, which is the polar opposite of slow. Even then I guessed that the total exhaustion after a game of squash was probably doing me more harm than good, and a litany of heart attack stories since appear to support that theory.

 

I think the slow approach is good for holidays as well, just trying to soak in the occasion, the location and the relaxation. About ten years ago my then family started to add a third week to our summer holiday, and the difference was immediate. About half way through the middle week layers of stress started to tumble off.

 

New York has also taught me to enjoy driving more too, or at least to minimise its stress. Here, the traffic light phasing is very slow, and disruptions are frequent, but somehow the system usually works and blockages eventually clear as quickly as they came. The trick is never to be hurried, but just let things happen. If I have a clear road I still go fast, but I don’t try to beat lights or game the road or other drivers. It might cost me a minute or two, but the result is I enjoy driving again. Listening to New Yorkers and their blaring horns, I suspect quite a few don’t.

 

Then there are slow hobbies. Isn’t it uncanny how gardeners, bird watchers or recreational fishermen always seem very balanced people? I don’t do any of these, but walking is similar in many ways.

 

Even slow sports have a role. Watching sports that develop slowly can give a lot of joy, test cricket being the classic example. But a long league season has similar tension in any sport. The US sports all build joy from tension well, especially towards the end of a match. I think it is illustrative how cricket has developed, with a fast option (twenty 20) and a slow option (tests) both doing well, at the expense of the traditional one day game, caught in the middle. I expect other sports to develop in this bi-polar way as well.

 

I love slow entertainment. Remember back in the eighties when Inspector Morse came onto the TV? Its magic was a two hour format, where action and suspense developed slowly and where characters were given space to develop. This ran completely counter to most other shows and created a popular niche. I’m delighted to say that the niche persists, and has been captured in the US by British programmes and films. Public service TV has a genre called Masterpiece, including all sorts of slow entertainment. We love it. I wish more movie and TV series directors would see the potential, since so many seem to just pack in as much action as they can. Lincoln was a good exception.  

 

Finally, there are slow friendships. I always think a good test of a friendship comes when you are together for quite a long time but without obvious things to do or talk about. Being comfortable in silence or spasmodic conversation is a great gift, and a joy. I have a new technique at parties now – things I used to dread. That is to wait for people to come to me, rather than trying too hard to find others. Just like with driving, or indeed with many pastimes, taking ones time can bring rewards and remove tension. Speed dating seems an alien concept to me, but then maybe that is another emerging example of bi-polarity.

 

So, how much joy are you missing out on? Even if you are time poor, I suggest there is lots of potential. Start with how you multi task. A lot of multi-tasking is good, and technology helps us do more of it. But are you losing your joy as a result sometimes? An example. I love walking. I love listening to my i-pod. And I love my daily café latte (I am obviously becoming an American!). But sometimes I do all three at once, just because I can. And the result – I have just realised that none of the three are as joyful when I do them together. So now I sit in Starbucks a bit longer, and walk sometimes without the i-pod. On the other hand, a bath, reading and a glass of red wine seem to go together very nicely, thank you.

 

More next time about spontaneity versus letting things mature, and about how we might be able to use these different time management axes.