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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (140390)	9/25/2005 12:47:55 PM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 794009

How about one about early Christians in the late Roman Empire? Since Hollywood is remake crazy, Ben Hur would be an obvious choice. Derek

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (140390)	9/25/2005 11:54:54 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 794009

Interesting current review of Tuchman's "The March of Folly"~~ Bolding mine....And I think you are right....>> But organizations have a identity like people do, and it's hard to make any change that impacts one's self-identification.<< Maybe this is why so many who were anti-war during the VietNam years, continue to be that way today... The March of Folly continues today , June 5, 2005 Reviewer: S. Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews amazon.com Barbara Tuchman had great insight in writing this book. She may have really had Vietnam in mind from the beginning, and gone back and selected her examples in order to make the final and for her purpose, major chapter of folly,more convincing- but she hit upon something so true that it almost cries out to heaven at not being mentioned more often. Governments do very often act in total contradiction to their own best interest, and to the best interest of the people they are meant to serve. Tuchman writes of ancient Troy, and the Papal See during the Renaissance, of the British Monarchy in its folly in relation to the Colonies during the American Revolutionary War. She also writes of Vietnam, a chapter I prefer not to comment on, because even after all the years I am still divided on the subject- i.e. What has been in my mind is other instances of governments acting against themselves such as the Israeli Government's folly in bringing its worst enemy into its territory, arming it, and then making it responsible for keeping the peace. The ' terror' that came afterwards and is with us today is a result of that Oslo folly. And now a different Israeli government is thinking of another act of stupidity, a one- sided withdrawal which will give still more power and proximity to its enemies. Tuchman in the studies she does here, uses certain criteria. The folly must be a present policy of a government, that people in that time do understand as folly. There must be alternatives to it. And the folly must be the action not of one eccentric individual but of a government of a counsel of men. One question that might be asked is: Given the fact that human beings have freedom, and power of decision it would seem 'folly' or 'mistaken self- defeating policy' is an inherent option in Governmental policy. It would be interesting to have studies which try to show ' wise government decisions' , studies too which try to see the factors which make for ' wise policy' and those which tend to lead to 'folly'. In the one case I know best that not included in this book, the folly involved in Israel's arming and ceding territory to its enemies it seems to me that there are many factors involved: One central one however is the longing for peace, the tiredness of war on the part of the Israeli people. There is no good option, no real chance for peace, so the Government instead of taking the hard, best option chooses something which seems to give an immediate reward but in fact turns out to be a nightmare. In this the 'opposite of folly' is a kind of courageous confrontation of reality, a kind of strength in will despite promise of further adversity. Let us pray that the democratic countries of the world will have the strength not to be too foolish again. ( At present US folly is in my opinion displayed in its unconditional support of Saudi Arabia as Saudi Arabia sends terrorists into Iraq, funds the worldwide terror network, runs the world's slavetrade, teaches fierce anti- Americanism in its schools, exports this kind of Wahhabism throughout the world, including in thirteen- hundred mosques within the United States. If the enemy is at the gate, there is no reason to open it wide and let him in.