Disgorgement
Perhaps I’ve been lucky, but I’ve never fell in with an ideology that was not based on good faith reasoning. Though I’ve “partied” very hard and have been exposed to many such people who opine the positions you reference, I never was swayed by their arguments. Though I’m now 38, as a 15 year old high-school drop out with a healthy interest in history and politics, I came to the conclusion, based on good faith practical reason, that there is simply nothing attractive in Stalinism or Nazism. Perhaps you share this same observation when you look back, but even as a youth I quickly understood that my leftist cohort was composed of some of the most ignorant people I’ve ever met. I mean they had little, if any, grounding in history, economics or philosophy. Hence their positions were not based on reason, but authority. This is not to say that I was historically well versed either. But as a young boy I was interested in war so I read about WW II and found out about the utter brutality of totalitarianism. Through my readings I also developed a great sympathy and enormous respect for Jews and Israel [I’m Roman Catholic and very pro-Israel].
As I made my way through college my estimation of the left changed only slightly, with an interesting twist. This time the professors were knowledgeable of history, economics [sort of], and politics, but now they openly questioned the relevance of reason!! Given that humans’ have no common ratiocinative quality that allows us to draw applicable historical lessons; history, politics and philosophy can be made to mean anything or nothing!! This explains why, as you cite, Islamofacists, gay rights, save the whales types, all can march in lock step.
I understand your militancy, but don’t allow our disputants to tarnish your disposition. Today we live in the age of the DI, that is: “distributed intelligence” of the net. One by one the irrationalist “know-nothings” ideological pillars are coming under intense scrutiny, and their irrational foundations are exposed for all to see. The Socratic admonition to “know thyself” is not just an individual search, but a search at the level of the polity itself. It is taking place as we speak.
Thank you for your uplifting piece today, I hope to read your thoughts again and again.
Blind and "in the Box"
Joe Klein of Time, sagely observes, "It should come as no great revelation that George W. Bush is a wantonly decisive President. He decides Ariel Sharon is good and Yasser Arafat is evil, even though seasoned diplomats tell him it is not wise to make such sweeping judgments."
It is hard to more thoroughly capture the disconnectedness from reality, and structural bias that is conveyed in this sentence.
The purported insight adverted to is that the current international situation is merely the natural result of a deeper theoretical process operating sub-rationally. Such processes are immune to benighted moral judgments. In this parallel universe, seasoned diplomats, and their fawning MSM acolytes, are akin to interior designers tasked with making our common ontology a bit more livable. In short appeasement. That he, the President, fails to acquiesce in the policy corollaries to this decidedly unempirical theory, that he no doubt "doesn't grasp", is merely another example of his cowboy stupidity.
This is to engage a child. The President understands the theoretical judgment and has rejected it as without foundation, root and branch. International relations is not governed by impersonal forces but by very personal actors exercising judgment in the application of force. Nothing is more apparent from the study of history that when reason sleeps monsters roam free. The Joe Kleins of our world would explain any international state of affairs as the result of subrational forces. Any explanatory theory that explains everything explains nothing. And as Professor Yogi Barra says, "If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything."
I'll pick up this thought at a later date.
Bush's tapes
Wow, this guy is the real thing. If anything I find that they enhance his stature and honesty. He's the same in private as in public.
I welcome China
Why is China’s looming economic superpower status depicted by many MSM types as scary for America’s long-term prospects? Where are the conservative voices on this issue? On the economic front, any free trader is enthused at the prospect of 1 billion plus consumers buying American products, services and ahhhmmmm….culture [yes I’m pro Anna Nichole Smith for export]. As you know, economics is not zero-sum, and a growing China means their people will begin to have money to spend. And spend it they will!!
As a school kid I recall the dire predictions of Japan Inc. I’ve seen recently some tepid parallels being drawn but little sustained analysis. Back in the day I did some research on this topic and the answers I found reassured me of America’s continued success.
It comes to this: You can drop a 21st century commodity/factory production line in a 3rd world economy and immediately see tremendous gains in productivity and GDP as it benefits from routinization, protectionism and below market labor cost, e.g. China. But the laws of diminishing returns kick in, as that economy catches up to modern production standards and sources of revenue. As a growing percentage of profits are generated by dynamic innovations on current technologies such economies have historically stagnated e.g. Japan!!! The parallels are striking and repeated throughout history.
This is not an American jingoistic tirade, but a simple fact accepted by free traders the world over.
