Letters to the Editor
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Good opinion piece
And no doubt someone will slam you for it. But it seem that we don't trust thinking anymore; we think thinking is spinning.
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Leadership redefined.
The saddest thing about life in the 21st Century seems to be the redefinition of "leadership" to mean "going along to get along." Asking questions means you're indecisive and weak. Expressing doubt is equivalent to cowardice. The most virtuous and courageous Democrat, according to Fox News, is Sen. Joe Lieberman. Black is white, up is down, freedom is slavery.
If JFK were to run for President today, it is unlikely his campaign would survive past the Iowa Caucuses, if it even made it that far. We don't want anyone intelligent enough to recognize that he or she might possibly be full of shit, who would consult their advisers before making a key decision that affects millions of people, who would consider what the people want - why, that's triangulation, and that's BAD, or God forbid, admit that he or she was WRONG about something.
No, we need somebody who is absolutely certain about everything, even when he or she is completely, utterly mistaken. Not only that, but we need to keep on believing the erroneous information even after it comes back to bite us on our fat asses. You see, George W. Bush isn't the only American who needs to be right about everything all the time, even when he's tragically wrong; most of us ordinary Americans are like that. The thing is, I'd rather not hire somebody to run the federal government who is just like me. I want somebody who is better and smarter than I am, and will hire people who will have the cojones to tell the President when he is wrong and WHY. Most of all, I want my President to have the genuine humility to LISTEN to that person before driving us all over a cliff.
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READER'S Choice Star
To djansing.
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Excellent piece
The shank!
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JFK lived before cable TV and talk radio
Mindless certainty is the norm today because it looks and sounds good on TV. It's easier to package emptyheaded certitude into 20-second sliced than it is intelligent reflexion. Advertising is an enemy of nuance, and advertising sets the tone for our news, commentary and entertainment. Let's hope that we can figure out how to use the new communication tools we have in the 21st century to create spaces in the infosphere where reflection and real discourse are rewarded.
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Wonderful essay Peter Birkenhead.
Thank you for pointing out how arrogant certainty now infects our culture. Sadly, the sound bite, the spin, and the flash of image has destroyed the time necessary to even appear to be truly reflective. I have been struggling recently with trying to articulate in my own thoughts what troubles me most about our twenty-first century direction. You nailed it for me.
Behind that arrogant certainty is an insecure fear. You can see it in Bush's eyes sometimes. It disappears almost as quickly as it comes, only to be replaced by the smirk.
That is why I treasure the footage of his reading "My Pet Goat." With his simian expression and his darting eyes, he shows true uncertainty and fear. If only he could have held on to that genuine doubt, how much better off our nation would be. That was probably his finest moment!
Also, as much as I hate to credit Christopher Lasch, he warned about the narcissism that could infect us. Much that he said has come to pass.
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Certainty
Mark Twain said the only earthly certainty is oblivion. Death and taxes may also deserve a mention. But Bush's 'certainties' are pathological-- the mythic certainties of the chosen 'decider,' unconcerned about present outcomes because only history can evaluate his arrogant incompetence. I begin to think that only a complete disaster can wake this sleepwalking nation from its absurd fantasies and failing policies. But a disaster that serious will exact a heavy price from all of us.
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The Myth of the Myth-Drunk American
This article seems to be reliant on the very sort of broad generalizations that it warns against. It's yet another in Salon's recent spat of conservative-tinged opinion, this one gleefully glossing over history. What part of JFK's self-doubt encouraged to get involve in Vietnam? What part of FDR's drove him to intern thousands of American citizens on little more than racist suspicion? The truth is that the general problems discussed in this article have been systemic in human civilization since the start, a truth that rings especially true if one takes a look at American history. Distorted information has always been present in our White House, as has been hubris and cruelty, we're just now better suited to recognize it and combat it. The first step is to point our fingers at the real problem: that being right-wing media monopolies, not this mythical portrait of the 'average American'.
And the shot at emo just seems out of place and weird... let the kids have their rock & roll. Need I remind you of what your parents thought about Led Zeppelin or Duran Duran or whatever 'racket' you listened to when you were that age?
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Bush = FDR or JFK? Are you kidding?
>>What part of JFK's self-doubt encouraged to get involve in Vietnam? What part of FDR's drove him to intern thousands of American citizens on little more than racist suspicion?<<
Here's the difference. JFK came to deeply regret his involvement in Vietnam and was taking steps to get out before his assasination. There was also deep self-doubt in his Bay of Pigs moments. That's precisely the point the author was making. Had it been Bush in Kennedy's shoes, and had he not been assassinated, Bush would be in his late 80's and still be telling everyone that God could not be wrong and that consequently he, "W", had never made a mistake.
Can anyone picture Kennedy being the same? End of debate, your reference is wildly invalid.
As for FDR, lets imagine a similar unraveling of events as he saw them. Pearl Harbor is bombed, and that same day, FDR sits in his cabinet room with Truman and all his advisors. The first thing on FDR's mind is internment of....Chinese people. He devotes a huge effort in spinning a media campaign that Chinese are bad people, and that he doesn't want to wait for the proof in a mushroom cloud. He then locks them up, strips them of every right, tortures them all the while sleeping soundly every night without a grain of doubt in his mind of his position. After all God counseled him.
Another grape from the rotted bunch of your argument falls away.
There are canyons of difference between Bush and every other sane, doubting, curious President in history.
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In a dangerous world, we want to believe in strength
I don't have too much problem with this statement; the problem however is that Bush, the incredibly f**ked up and wrong person that he is, actually doesn't have any of the heroic strength to uphold and maintain ambiguity- to be human and vulnerable while taking care of business (which will involve mistakes made in good faith). All heroic figures have shared this quality.
There is something deeply wrong with our culture that guys like George Bush and Tony Soprano are admired as "strong leaders". Might is right.
And that my friends is the beginning of the end for this country, unless we can turn it around. By turn it around I mean getting real and admitting we're in deep shit as a nation. That is, the exact opposite of what Bush and co. M.O.
See, unless you've lived abroad- I mean really lived abroad, learned the language, etc.- and/or really gotten into history, you won't see the finitude of the USA. You won't understand it as something foreign to someone else, as bounded, mortal. I've literally had people look at me in shock when I say "someday, when the US is no longer a superpower...." For some people, this is literally out of the realm of possibility.
The Zeitgeist bets against people doing a 180 on Bush World, or on the pathetically midlife crisis chickenhawishness of the over the hill "Red Meat" Republican party. I think people are still into deluding themselves- along with the GOP and Georgie Porgie, the cheerleading, draft dodging, coke-addled, never worked a day in his life disaster of a human being who is our President (I still shake my head)- that the US is The Greatest and has some divine approval to do whatever it (i.e. big business *cough* oil) wants to do in the world.
That's why people like Hilary Clinton scare me too. Can you see her admitting a mistake? I thought not. Not while she's on AIPAC's leash and has a penis to grow (cf. her unseemly, actually *ridiculous* hawkishness on Iran, her failure to take ownership of her Iraq vote, etc.).
Obama '08.