Benefits of longevity

A benefit of longevity is that one can objectively review the past and see where mistakes have been made. Not a pacifist, I was not against involvement in the Vietnam War but at Duntroon at the time, went along with the military’s advice to the government to either get in there for real or stay out of it.

It might also have been possible for a rational man to see that Saddam Hussein was despite his faults, a barrier against his hated Iran and someone holding the lid on sectarian differences in Iraq, not someone to get rid of and create a void.

On business issues likewise, having been there and done that, it is so often possible to see how things could be done better, especially in the areas of basic civility and people skills.

There are then a host of other issues on which it would be possible to offer predictions based on past history. With the benefits of longevity however come the limitations. These are that no one takes any notice of you or what you tell them. Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel. Perhaps Darwin could have looked at that a little closer…

Peter Nelson