Arthur Brooks: 'Love Your Enemies: Be An Authoritative Leader'

Source:American Enterprise Institute- Arthur Brooks: the idealist hippie?

"If you’ve turned on the TV or scrolled through social media lately, you know that being nice isn’t in fashion. But is it also a losing strategy? In the last of three video lessons on how to subvert the culture of contempt, Arthur Brooks reveals the surprising effect of kindness on leadership and job performance and shares how we can elevate better leaders in our society."

Source:American Enterprise Institute

At risk of sounding insulting here and I respect and even like what Arthur Brooks trying to accomplish here and the message: but we wouldn't have nasty, partisan, hate TV on cable or on social media if it didn't sell. It's the hold Henry McCarthy quote ( also known as Billy The Kid ) when he was asked why he robs banks and he answered because that is where the money is: why do people go to the kitchen or restaurants when they're hungry: because that's where the food is. Why do we have nasty, partisan, hate TV and hate on social media and not hate necessarily in the sense in a bigoted or racist sense, but hate in the sense where you have two competing ideological factions who literally hate each other simply because they disagree with each other and look at the country differently, because it sells!

You can talk about the need for less partisanship in Congress and in government generally, or on TV and that cable news shouldn't have a panel of so-called experts there who are simply there to talk about why the other side sucks so much and instead have bipartisan panels of experts who are there to  present different viewpoints who disagree with each other, but aren't there to destroy the other side and even listen to what the other side says and the intelligently responds to their points.

But at the end of the day FNC and MSNBC, and to a certain extent CNN which is less partisan than the other two, but they have their own share of partisan panels and shows of people who represent one side of the isle and aren't bipartisan, but in the end these cable networks are all for-profit companies that have to make profits in order to stay in business.

And as long as partisan news is profitable and straight, hard news isn't where the so-called experts there aren't partisans, but are simply there to give intelligent analysis about what they know, as long as straight up hard news isn't profitable, cable news will just get more partisan. And as a result we'll have a less informed public, because we'll still have this large population in the country that are getting news based on their partisan viewpoints and not where's the best sources of news and information.

Cable news and news in general is never any better than the people that consumes its information. We have a partisan news age now simply because we have a very partisan population. And again all of these news outlets have to make money to stay in business and have present the news in the most profitable way possible even if that means being less truthful and even honest than they have in the past. Which is bad for their industry and bad for the people they represent, because it leaves their viewers less informed.

But if there is any bright side here and I'm coming from the viewpoint as someone who just wants actual news and intelligent, nonpartisan commentary: there will always be a market for people who simply want straight, hard news and could care less about what the partisans think of the actual real news. Which is why I believe network news, big city and big market newspapers, and big national newspapers will always be in business, because there will always be that group of Americans who are simply interested in what the hell is going on in the country and world, regardless of which party it may hurt or help. Even if the market for partisan news is always greater.