N.I.H.

No, N.I.H. doesn’t mean the National Institutes of Health, which is possibly a fine and valuable organization, but it’s not the identity that the initials N.I.H. was intended to convey.

Many readers who have worked in any business would recognize an alternative meaning – “Not Invented Here”, the clarion call of people who are determined not to be followers, but to be leaders, even when such a practice reduces profits and becomes self-defeating. No matter how great an idea appears to be, no matter how effective that idea shows itself to be in actual practice, the “not invented here” syndrome takes hold of the organization, and progress and improvement is stifled. Some organizations adapt to new ideas quickly, some slowly and some not at all, unless of course these new ideas are developed “in-house”, so to speak. Often employees who suggest to the higher-ups that an idea that took hold in another company might be worth trying are doing something that might be called “career limiting” in extreme cases of an N.I.H. organization. On the other hand, in leftist politics “not invented here” is sort of an imprimatur that nearly guarantees that the left will view it as the most recent panacea for all that ails the nation.

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Medical care? Don’t use the system that was developed over the past century HERE, oh goodness no, use the one developed in England…because it works oh, so well, and besides, it wasn’t invented here, so it must be superior. Social security for our old age? Hey, let’s use a system (and a retirement age) based on what worked for Chancellor Bismark of Germany for German civil servants, back in 1889. Yeah, we know it was designed just for civil servants, and yeah we know that most people were dead by age 65 back in 1889, but let’s use it for everyone, even those who have never worked, never contributed to the system and are living a lot longer. I mean, what could go wrong? After all, it wasn’t invented here. That whole Constitution thing? It was not only written here, it was actually designed here. So it must be utterly inferior to something that wasn’t invented here, like, say, socialism, communism, Marxism or something along those lines. Those “-isms” have worked out so well, we should just trash that silly Constitution thing and go with one of them instead. Besides, it’s so old school. Ignoring a great idea, that is apparently working for your business competitors because they developed it shows an extremely high level of idiocy when the only reason for ignoring it is the fact that it wasn’t YOUR idea. Likewise, clinging to any and all N.I.H. ideas, ignoring evidence that shows that they don’t actually work, is equally idiotic. What’s the difference? Ignoring “not invented here” ideas in a business only hurts a single business. Falling head-over-heels in love with N.I.H ideas can impact the entire nation. Would you vote to put the second group in charge of your life?