“A President’s hardest task is not to do what is right...."

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 06/02/2015 at 13:10 • Filed to: None

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I visited the LBJ Library on the UT-Austin campus a couple of weeks ago, where I read the following quote from the former president:

“A President’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.”

With all due respect to President Johnson, I think he got it backwards. It’s relatively easy to know what is right. With even a modestly decent upbringing, most people can tell the difference between right and wrong. Or even better or worse. Most of us know what we should do. But the real challenge is having the conviction—and the courage—to do what is right.

For further reading on governments’ inability to do what they knew to be right, I recommend the outstanding book The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman.

Party-vi > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:14

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Did LBJ’s ghost show up to talk about his enormous penis?

Dunnik > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:15

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Yea, the March of Folly is a classic.

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:19

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Putting this presidential library in Austin instead of San Marcos is the real crime.

LongbowMkII > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:19

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eh, I figure he was referring to lose/lose situations, say a choice results in severely risking 100 people or mildly risking 10,000 people. that’s not a right/wrong situation. it’d be difficult.

ttyymmnn > Dunnik 06/02/2015 at 13:21

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It’s the book that got me hooked on history.

ttyymmnn > Party-vi 06/02/2015 at 13:22

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No, just his scar.

CB > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:23

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Except morality is never that simple. There’s always he said/she said scenarios. Or the classic trolley case: suppose you’re at the helm of an out of control trolley. It’s barrelling down the tracks towards five people (not important who they are, but they’re all human beings), and it will kill them if you do nothing. But, you can divert the trolley onto another set of tracks, where there’s only one person, who will totally die if you divert onto those tracks. So, do nothing and kill five, or do something and kill one? Which is the right/wrong answer? (Hint: there isn’t one)

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > LongbowMkII 06/02/2015 at 13:27

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Yeah, it is not hard to do something when you know it it is the right thing to do. The problem in uncertainty of outcomes. In reality, its takes extraordinary foresight to determine what is right, and extraordinary courage to risk pursuing it.

BigBlock440 > CB 06/02/2015 at 13:33

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Stay the course and nail the dumbasses on the currently active tracks. Help clean up the gene pool a bit.

Ash78, voting early and often > CB 06/02/2015 at 13:34

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There are rare cases where pure utilitarianism becomes the default (and that’s one, IMHO).

It gets complicated when you overlay things like “5 single illegal aliens” vs “1 doctor who just thought of the cure for cancer and is on his way to tell someone.”

I hate those games.

Dunnik > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:34

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You should read the Guns of August by the same author, if you haven’t already. It won the Pulitzer. It’s about the lead-up and the opening chapter of WWI.

ttyymmnn > Dunnik 06/02/2015 at 13:35

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I’ve read everything she’s written. My favorite is A Distant Mirror.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:46

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Nothing to add here, except that I like the photograph.

Dunnik > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 13:55

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Yep, another great one. She was universally recognized as one of the best American historical writers ever.

ttyymmnn > Dunnik 06/02/2015 at 14:21

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As far as approachable American authors of history, I’m partial to Stephen Ambrose, though the plagiarism allegations have tainted his legacy. His D-Day and Citizen Soldiers are both fantastic, and his chronicle of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Undaunted Courage , is a splendid read. Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin is quite good, and David McCullough’s John Adams is simply superb.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/02/2015 at 14:31

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The year is 1968, and Johnson is listening to a tape recording of a message from his son-in-law, Capt. Chuck Robb, a Marine Corps company commander in Vietnam. Robb would later become governor of VA. It’s a remarkable photograph (taken by WH staff photographer Jack E. Kightlinger ). Note the bust of JFK looming in the background. After all the good Johnson did with the Great Society and equal rights, I can’t help but feel sorry for him with the way he completely loused up Vietnam, a war he inherited from Kennedy.

Here is the uncropped photo.

ranwhenparked > ttyymmnn 06/02/2015 at 20:22

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I thought the hardest task was keeping your staff focused during meetings while you were going to the bathroom in front of them.