"I'm going to fantasize about things," Grant said. "What am I thinking? Well, I imagine that I am the president of the United States. Russia has conquered Crimea. What do I do? I write up a speech. I propose that Russia keep Crimea and Ukraine joins NATO and also enters into CSTO, Russia's version of NATO I guess. NATO and CSTO would have yearly meetings in Ukraine, conferring a high status on Ukraine. The idea of my foreign policy would be to essentially try to say yes to everyone (this is a generalization of the improv idea of "yes and" where you keep the improv going by saying "yes and"--also others have contemplated or experimented wit the idea of 'saying yes' to everything--the movie "Yes Man" and there was a book where a guy held himself to a rule of 'saying yes' to everything for a year, I think). The founding fathers wanted to avoid entangling alliances, and my approach would be to multiply entangling alliances so much that it's hard for any nation to do anything against any other nation because who knows who will come to their defense. Also, it's good to say yes--people like you when you say yes. And I think saying yes tends to allow you to find something like the median of the political spectrum. If you try to say yes to both Russia and to Ukraine then you find some middle ground between the two positions, and that is usually where negotiations end up. You always look like the guy who everyone ends up agreeing with because you tend to get to the middle point before others.
"My domestic policy would follow a similar pattern--I'd shoot for saying yes to both Republicans and Democrats. I'm from Massachusetts so I would have to run as a Democrat, though I don't have any real commitment to Democrats or Republicans.
"So I think on the big issues--well, what are the big issues--I guess domestically, maybe ObamaCare is still a big issue. Republicans want to get rid of it I think--I don't follow politics very closely so I'll just go with my gut feeling rather than doing research just for the sake of moving this fantasy forward. And Democrats want to keep it, and I am thinking they probably want to expand healthcare coverage backed by the government as far as they can get it. So I would say yes to less ObamaCare and yes to more ObamaCare--I know, you can't really say yes to opposing views--but what I mean by this is I say to both sides that sounds good, and look at two competing views and harmonize the two. So maybe I suggest that there are some ways for people to get out of having to deal with ObamaCare--maybe there is some special dispensation from ObamaCare regulations for people who don't want to be involved in it.
"Similarly, with minimum wage, Democrats want to raise it and I think Republicans generally don't. So I would shoot for having minimum wage but I would also want to expand the ability for businesses and other organizations to make some people interns who can be paid less than minimum wage, or who work for education. That way there is an increase in minimum wages while also allowing some flexibility for dealing with special cases.
"How about abortion? Republicans I think generally want to restrict it and Democrats want to preserve and perhaps expand the ease of getting an abortion. So my desire would be to give the Democrats what they want but link it to giving the Republicans what they want. Democrats might want to make it possible for a minor to have an abortion without parental notification because they think at some point a minor should be able to make that call, or some other reason, so I might favor it if we could also put more money into subsidizing adoption and outreach to pregnant women who are considering abortion to consider adoption, and to help fund the process with government money, or perhaps the government could help coordinate private money as Republicans might feel government subsidies might produce some moral hazard in the sexual arena.
"These might not be great ideas, but the general principle I think is sort of illustrates. By saying yes to both sides, you're looking to give them what they want, and harmonize their wants, rather than choosing sides.
"I guess I would have had to follow such an approach in a smaller realm in my climb to the presidency. In other words, in Massachusetts, I would have had to say yes to the voters and other stake holders in policy when running for office. As a Democrat I would have to focus on the voters in the primary, say, if I were running for US Senate. And then when I win that I would have to focus on saying yes to the general electorate, and hopefully by this process I am most likely to get to the majority I need to win, though of course it's not guaranteed.
"Let me fantasize about something else now. Hm. I have focused on the rule Scott Adams and others have suggested of 'prioritizing for energy'--I think that is how Adams put it. So I would have an eye to doing what gives me the most energy or drains it least of the available options I guess.
"So I guess...well, I focus on the things that energize me. I love writing so I think I would do a lot of that. I would also do more jamming with friends, as I love to play music with them. I think I would try to avoid having to do a lot of travelling as it seems to drain my battery. Or if I do travel I would try to build in a lot of downtime where I can just sit around. Or when I travel the main thing is eating at restaurants and drinking beer and hanging out with friends. Not a lot of walking around or shopping I guess. I would as much as possible sleep in. Weekend days must allow me to sleep in unless it's vital that I don't, I think.
"Let me think of some other fantasy idea...how about if I implemented lots of my weird ideas. Okay. One idea is booking music shows with venues where I fit two bands per hour on stage for five hours, so 10 bands play for the night. The bands share all the gear on the stage, so bands can just jump up and plug in, essentially. If you really need your own gear, well, you have 10 minutes to get it set up along with whatever other prep you need.
"Artists would cover the walls with their paintings--I'd try to get as many as I could, and each would contribute ideally just one or two of their paintings. Maybe I could get more artists involved. People could buy paintings.
"The artists would also be drawing tee shirts for people using sharpees. The bands would pay for cheapo tee shirts, plain, and the artists would just make minimalist shirts, with the band names on them.
"My band would play. We would do 1 minute songs, so we would be able to cover 20 songs in our 20 minute set, roughly. We would give away for free CDs I burned on my computer, which would be placed in plain white CD envelopes of cardboard that members of the band and I would decorate with art work. The album would have my phone number, email and website on it.
"I would also put the album in bathrooms. I would put a stack on top of toilets. I would put them in the bathroom at practice spaces for people to grab if they want.
"I'd try to set up as many of these packed bills as possible. I would put a post up on craigslist asking if bands wanted to join up. The shows I guess would go from 7-12 or 8-1am I guess. And as many artists as possible as well."
No comments:
Post a Comment