BigShinyThing

Thursday 14 April 2005

Just like he did with ‘The Tipping Point’, Malcolm Gladwell seems have successfully caught the mainstream imagination with Blink - his thesis on the power of non analytical thought. Here, Time Magazine muses on how Bush is the ‘blink’ president

bush blink.jpg

Joe Klein writes in Time:

“Bush is the ultimate "Blink" President, to use author Malcolm Gladwell’s catchy term, and recent title, for instantaneous, subconscious decision making.

The slogan on Gladwell’s book jacket “Don’t Think?Blink!” is a perfect mantra for an attention- deficit-disordered society, and an apt description of the electric jolt Bush has brought to politics and policy. It certainly was the subtext of the 2004 presidential campaign: Kerry’s thinking seemed tortured, paralytic; Bush’s blinking seemed strong and decisive.”

Klein qualifies his argument:

“Gladwell argues that blinking is best when it is reinforced by a lifetime of study and expertise. Bush’s blinks come in two basic varieties: judgments about people and about broad policy”

Posted by Anne-Fay | Tags: George W. Bush, politics
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LIFESTREAM / Oct 12^th 2008

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