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How does one become a Joe Klein, or a Thomas Friedman? I used to think that it was important to know such things. These days, though, I'm inclined to think that knowledge of the process wouldn't necessarily lead to a remedy. Whenever the conditions are right, such people always appear, like Aphrodite, from the sea of our own failings, and when they appear, explanations are a luxury; remedies, however crude or brutal, are the only true necessity.
We should remember Albert Speer, the reasonable Nazi. He seems to have been the archetype, the first approximation of our own Serious People. There was no explaining him, I think, despite the many attempts to do so. Fortunately Spandau made explanations unnecessary, at least until Speer got too old to maintain the sheen of rationality or the pretense that he was a creature made necessary by some undocumented force of nature, and as such, should be held blameless.
Perhaps we need a new Spandau. It could be smaller than the embassy in Baghdad, and so wouldn't need a McDonalds, or a bus route, or a nine-hole golf course, let alone fortifications. It could use a gilded sign over the gate, though. Lasciate ogni speranza... might be too literary. I'd suggest Suck. On. This.
