Decisions, Triviality, and the King of Cool
The King of Cool himself.
There is a crisis in modern American culture: the complete inability and unwillingness to make decisions. This is especially prevalent in government jobs, where career progression is inversely proportional to amount one rocks the boat. The easiest way not to rock the boat? Not make decisions. But I imagine this paralysis extends to other moribund sectors of our culture and economy. This phenomenon is captured in Parkinson’s law of triviality: “Members of an organization give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.”
He gives the humorous (but completely believable) example of a committee gathered to discuss a proposed nuclear power plant that will cost some extravagant sum of money, say ten million dollars. The committee members, who know nothing of nuclear power requirements or design, quickly pass the plans presented to them because the topic is too technical and too big to grasp. One member, a nuclear physicist, with concerns stays silent because the committee is obviously intent on passing the motion. “Motion passed,” they say with smiles all around. Second order of business: a $400 bicycle shed for employees. Now here is something the committee members can have an opinion on! “Four hundred dollars for a bicycle shed? Can’t we use plastic instead of metal?” Every committee member can picture a bike shed, has held $400, and therefore can have an opinion. The meeting rages for the remainder of the hour allocated to the committee meeting, with the ultimate result in saving $50 on the shed. The committee members file out of the room, congratulating each other on a job well done.
Where does Steve McQueen come in then? In the seminally important, though often forgotten, movie The Sand Pebbles, McQueen plays machinist’s mate Jake Holman on an American gunboat in China in 1926. McQueen takes a liking to Po Han, a local Chinese working on his ship, and mentors him on the workings of the ship’s engine. At the midpoint of the movie, with Holman’s ship standing just off shore, the crew watch as Po Han is captured by Chinese Communists, who begin to torture and lynch Po Han on the beach. The Captain of the American ship orders his crew to hold their fire, afraid to incite a war between the communists and the Americans. Po Han screams out to the men on the ship, “Kill me!” Holman leaves his station and confronts the Captain. “Do something!” Holman yells to the Captain. The Captain, in the usual government fashion, says to Holman, “Get below or I’ll have you shot as a mutineer.” Holman’s classic response is, “Well shoot something.” After further inaction from the Captain, Holman steals a rifle from a shipmate and kills Po Han, and then he tosses the rifle into the water.
Modernity has enabled the abstention from making moral choices. But sometimes, you have to “shoot something.”