Sunday, August 30, 2015

Pretending to Care

Some elements in the business community argue that the "sane politicians" have already shown they still have enough of the old chutzpah to negotiate a multi-way deal with Iran, which the US legislative branch is now supposed to ratify, with a counterpart ratifier embedded in the Iranian apparatus.  The "insane politicians" whom President Obama characterizes as "crazies" have their inevitable FUD campaign, which goes to the masses who become stressed and concerned and maybe die early as a result.

The question is how much to care about legislative branches and their crazies, now that engineering has taken the wheel in terms of working out the business logic of world trade.  Legalese is too slow in the Software Age.  Do we care what they think?

On paper, yes, but in practice many board rooms have already positioned to open new channels with Iran, especially in the entertainment industry.  Nuclear medicine will never be huge. The construction costs for the new freeway network, from Kabul to Istanbul, translates to good jobs for Iranian construction companies.  What about the new SeaWorld, will that happen soon?

Washington DC has this persona of a "superpower" that it wants to project, wherein everyone waits to see what Big Brother decides.  The decision has to be consequential, by definition, and the crazies seem committed to plunging the world into war, just to prove how their side would be victorious in any battle with WMDs.  That's what being a superpower means -- to them.

So when it looked like the deal would go through in Vienna, we were immediately put on notice that we could look forward to not just one, but two months of lame whining by the crazies.  They have delivered on that promise.

The truth behind the facade, I would suggest, is that no one really cares what the crazies think, really about anything (almost by definition).

Yes, they have the right to make noise and Occupy Congress, as they've been doing for some time now.  The police let them stay there and pose for the cameras, but big business cannot afford to care that much what the Kindergarten Krazies (cute name) want or don't want regarding the Iran Deal.

So if you're in business, a best strategy is to "pretend to care" if you want continued contracts from the Beltway Bandits (rebranded as Beltway Goons by some), but then get on board with the rest and help with the rewiring.  Waiting two months is waiting too long.  The sane politicians have demonstrated their sanity and that's about as much as we have a right to expect from that corner.  The crazies will bring up the rear, as usual, but lets not confuse the parade with the elephant poop.