I'm not going to DC to witness the demonstrations, because it's just too depressing. I once thought that any policy mistakes the US happens to make will get sorted out in the public debate. That's the way democracy works, I figured. But mainstream media doesn't even appear capable of discussing the 2005 hurricane phenomenon with any degree of competence, let alone the strategy and tactics we're using in the "Long War Against Irreconcilable Islam." It's not so much that they're wrong, as that there isn't even a core of sense to grab onto. It isn't that their analysis is flawed, so much as that they have no idea what they're talking about. It's like your mechanic telling you that your car isn't running because your parachute wasn't packed properly. We can't have productive discussions about policy because almost half the public doesn't realize the cheese has slid off their cracker.
And though I hate to say it, this is at least partly due to a failure of leadership. Why don't the public and media understand that terrorism and totalitarianism are different phases of the same phenomenon? It seems to me that this bit of logic is central, so why doesn't anyone bring it up from time to time? Why aren't our actions in Iraq recognizable as the components of a coherent strategy, even a wrong one? More importantly, why hasn't anyone noticed that the media has no idea what a strategy would even look like, let alone be able to analyze one properly? Wouldn't it seem kind of a professional lapse if an auto mechanic failed to notice whether or not your car had a transmission?
Motorist: "Sir, do you think one reason the car doesn't, sort of... go might be that there's a transmission problem?"
Mechanic: "Transmission? Just LOOK at that car! How could the transmission be the problem? It's RED!"
Motorist: "Yeah, but... what?"
I feel apocalyptic, as though I'm a passenger on the Titanic while the crew and other passengers engage in heated debate over the distribution of people to port or starboard; as though attaining the right balance will somehow keep the ship from sinking. It's not the balance; it's that invisible hole, down below somewhere...
(Cross-posted by Demosophist to The Jawa Report)
Posted by Demosophist at September 25, 2005 12:25 AM | TrackBackYes, those of us who are not drunk with Utopianism, see this clearly but once again you said it so well.
Posted by: PatC at September 25, 2005 10:46 AM