The Foraker Group

In our March newsletter, Foraker president Dennis McMillian discusses how employers continue to be tasked with finding the best benefits for their employees so they can attract and retain the right people. In an article from our October 2008 newsletter, McMillian referenced the Stockdale Paradox.

In his opinion, Foraker along with many of Foraker’s Partners i.e. Alaska nonprofits – now understand that our elected officials are not practicing this paradox when they address health care reform.

In that article, here’s how McMillian described the Stockdale Paradox:

Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest-ranking military officer held in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. From 1965 to 1973, he was tortured over 20 times, had no rights, no set release date, and had no certainty that he would ever see his family again. As the highest-ranking officer, he also had the responsibility to help as many of his fellow prisoners survive while fighting their captor’s attempts to use them for propaganda. Admiral Stockdale developed strategies to help other prisoners resist attempts to be broken along with a code for communication among themselves. Since prisoners saw each other very few times, and they were under total control of their captors at this time, this code was essential to keep them going.

The paradox was this: even with these bleak realities, Admiral Stockdale maintained a firm faith that he would survive his ordeal and once again see his family, while he was stoically realistic about the ongoing sacrifice, discipline, and patience he needed to achieve that goal. Other prisoners in the Hanoi Hilton also hoped they would survive, but they did not look at, nor accept the realities that confronted them on each day. Stockdale called these prisoners the “optimists.” Optimists had faith they would get out by Christmas – then Christmas would come and they would not get out, so then they would believe they would get out by Easter – then Easter would come, and so on. Many of those optimists never got out – before long, they lost all hope, then life.

Stockdale said, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” Admiral Stockdale did prevail in the end and returned to his family, along with many other prisoners.

It seems Americans are united in a vision that a more effective, affordable, accessible, sustainable health care system is needed.

“However, none of us – the public, our elected officials, or the health care industry – are facing the “brutal facts,” so a long-term solution seems far away. For most people, the facts are too complex – the average citizen just doesn’t want to take the time nor apply the effort to learn about the issue,” says McMillian.

McMillian goes on to say “After almost 30 years of indoctrination into the non-intuitive world of the health care system, these are, in my opinion, the most important “brutal facts” that Alaskans and the nation must face to solve this problem…”