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All right, so I'm in my office today, and my boss comes by. He starts talking about a bunch of stuff and I was kind of zoning out on him. He was saying something about repairs being done on his house, but the workers were screwing him around or something. Then he slips in some sort of lame joke about John Kerry. I can't remember what he said, just that it was dumb and that I would have thought it was dumb even if I was a Republican.
I didn't say anything, I just pointed to my Kerry/Edwards campaign button that I attached to the bulletin board in my office. Here's the conversation that took place, as close as I can remember it:
HIM: People shouldn't be able to have that sort of stuff in their office. It's devisive, it isn't productive.
ME (thinking): Yeah, like your lame John Kerry jokes aren't devisive or nonproductive.
ME (saying): Whatever.
HIM: Just tell me one thing. You didn't vote for Bill Clinton, did you?
ME: I wasn't old enough to vote for Bill Clinton.
HIM: I didn't like George H.W. Bush, because he was a flip-flopper, but he was better than the alternative. His son is definitely a better president though. He's not as wishy-washy. He makes a decision and sticks with it.
ME: There's a difference between making a decision and sticking with it, and making a BAD decision and sticking with it.
HIM: Well, you've got to make decisions. If nobody in this company made decisions, this company wouldn't go anywhere.
ME: Well, first of all, it's better to stay still than to drive decisively into a wall. Second, Einstein's definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting the results to be different. So if you make a decision, fine. But if you make a wrong decision, correct yourself. Don't sacrifice sanity or intelligence in favor of decisiveness. If I made a decision that was wrong --
HIM: If you made a decision that was wrong, I would support you as long as you thought it was the best way to go.
ME: If I made a decision that was wrong but I thought it was the best way to go, you would support me THE FIRST TIME. But what if I kept doing the same screwed-up thing, even after it was very clear that it was the wrong thing to do, simply because I wanted to be 'decisive' and was too stubborn to admit that my previous decision had been wrong?
He shut up pretty much after that. I don't know if it was because he didn't want to argue anymore, or he just figured he would lose (he's the last person on Earth I would expect to see turn into a Kerry covert or anything like that). I usually clam up as soon as he starts in about religion or politics, but today he got me when I was feeling sort of irreverent.
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