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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (41185)	4/3/2004 12:27:29 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

New glimpses of Bush worldview I was thinking about this yesterday. I'm not sure exactly when I became a scientist, but if one defines it by the habitual thought processes, it was quite young - well before ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ by Thomas Kuhn. When I initally learned of Kuhn's work, my first thought was "Well, that's self-evident", but my second thought was "What an elegant presentation of the obvious". Also, it was the first time I came across the words "paradigm shift" - a topic that has now become a cliche. As Kuhn's work so vividly makes clear, it's very difficult for people who have spent their life thinking in one mindset, to shift their view. Rice with her academic training, Cheney and the neo-cons with their on-the-job experience and Bush with his imprinted Vulcan view, all had a mindset molded by the Cold War. That, plus an inherently dismissive attitude towards the Clinton Admin, made it nearly impossible to "hear", much less appreciate, what the Clinton Admin was telling them about non-state sponsored terrorism. All they heard was dissonance. I don't blame them so much for what happened, as for their total lack of being able to accept their mistake. My experience is that those that can't accept and learn from their errors, are doomed to repeat them. And in fact you still see the state sponsored terrorism mindset prevalent in their thinking - including their justifications for Iraq. It was interesting to see John Lehman of the 9-11 commission, talk (on Charlie Rose) about how hard it was for him to get out of the state sponsored terrorism mindset. But he now gets it. The Bush Admin still doesn't. As they were growing up, I used to tell my daughters: Some learn the easy way, some learn the hard way, and unfortunately, some never learn. I hope my country doesn't have to pay too high a price for those so fossilized in their thinking, that they remain in an obsolete paradigm. JMO lurqer