A Lesson From General Secretary Gorbachev

I’m finishing up a biography on Mikhail Gorbachev called Gorbachev, Heretic in the Kremlin. It’s not a bad read, but I find myself going through it slowly as I take notes and underline different items. I read quite a bit, but almost exclusively non-fiction. If I am going to take the time to read something I always enjoy it more if I am learning something. This book has been especially educational and filled with all kinds of memorable and instructional quotes and observations.

One I read recently was that Gorbachev in his quest to achieve Perestroika (the Russian term for reform), he sought to achieve the difficult task of “lighting a fire without creating flames”. The idea is that the reforms he was seeking were monumental and vast; a redefinition of the Soviet Union in terms of their economical and political systems. He wanted to communicate his vision to the people and get them excited about it (building the fire), but he wanted to limit their immediate expectations (without the flame). Gorbachev knew that if the expectations were too high, then Perestroika would fail because the changes wouldn’t have the positive benefit quickly enough to meet the expectations. The Russian people had been led by tsars, authoritarians, and eventually by an old, harsh, and stodgy Politburo that had controlled every aspect of life and the economy, while limiting ingenuity and entrepreneurship, even punishing those who sought to improve their lives by ‘capitalistic’ means. Anything that did not benefit, or was not pursued through, the Communist Party, was by definition shear heresy. The people were lethargic and after centuries of being told what to do and cut off from the outside world by a government controlled press, they were completely ignorant of how to proceed. The process of reform and education would be slow and painful, and Gorbachev knew it.

President Obama would have done well to learn from the lessons that history has taught. All through the campaign season, then candidate Obama and his team filled their speeches, web pages, literature, and abundant press reports with lots of lofty rhetoric and grandiose, even ethereal images of how the country and the world would prosper under an Obama administration. As he delivered a victory speech in St. Paul he said,

…this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to
the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and
our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured
our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the
moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation
so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

All flame. No fire.

Now he is banking a good portion of his political capital on a stimulus plan that even the CBO says will end up hurting the country. More importantly any average Tom reading it can see that it will do little if anything to prop up the faltering world economy. It will end up passing, directly along partisan lines. A majority of Americans will be against it and even more will be highly skeptical of it. It can’t succeed. It will be a burst of flame and sputter, then what? More stimulus programs?

The problem of having a flame without a fire is that it comes and goes quickly, but it can still burn you. President Obama would have been better to focus on fiscal responsibility, sound economic policy, open markets, smaller government, and lower taxes.

But then again the American people would have been better to look for character rather than charisma.