Question for David Brooks re The Phony Debate
– are you blind?
You have to beat them without making yourself more unpopular with the world..
This is exactly right and it is what is wrong with this Admin, and here is why. They think that fear is fun because with it a lot can be done in a short space of time. What they don’t see or don’t seem to care about, is that when things are done with Fear they can very easily and super quickly become undone, for the simple reason that fear confers neither legitimacy, nor the right kind of long lasting respect, which is what the government of a Democracy is supposed to be about. It is an unethical position and the only thing that saves their ass is that they are 'protecting’ America, which is a very large writ, however ill-conceived their rationalization.
They have established a meta context beneath which people are tearing each other apart. It’s what happens when you’re either with us or against us, and I lay the blame for this squarely on this administration, who, save for the modicum of self restraint that everybody is supposed to have, are supposed to look after us.
I never heard of John Boyd before learning of him here and I look forward to reading his stuff, but as LindyBill says, “if we were fighting this war the way he wanted, it would already be over”, I get the feeling that for once LB would be right, <g> if war is the pursuit of diplomacy by other means, what’s clear is that this Admin is following Boyd a little too closely.
Boyd's often self-defeating abrasiveness and the neglect and mistreatment of his long-suffering wife and children
Message 18332510
Brooks - This is some vague but mighty shift inexpectations. And about this too there has been relatively little discussion.
rubbish. |
