Chime in on the big question Don Quixote poses over at Bookworm Room.
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on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Culture, historical perspective, The really important things in life.
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August 9th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Is this question asked in view of the apparent failure of the Bush Doctrine? The answer, my friend, is lying within (our collective soul). Still forming my response to be posted on your sister blog (would it be yur girfriend?)
August 10th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I have yet to see a concise definiton of “Bush Doctrine.” I think anti-W types use it to speak of the effort to install Western-style representative democracies / free-market economies / vibrant, tolerant societies where none had ever been known.
It may give some a big ha-ha to assert that that the Bush Doctrine, according to such a definition, is a failure, but here at BN, we stick to basics, like whether the jihadist / Iranian / Communist threat to the West is being successfully held at bay and eventually defeated, and whether conditions within our culture point toward a hopeful future or something else.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:12 am
OK, well, if it involves more preemptive striking and arrogance as perceived by much of the rest of the world, a continued erosion of our civil liberties and basic freedoms here in the guise of fighting terrorism, more offshoring and outsourcing, more dilly dallying (for multiple decades) over health care and immigration, for two, continued glorifying of the material over the intellectual and spiritual (i.e., defining success by the car you drive and the crib you live in or the private school you send your kids to), this hell Sartre referred to as other people, then the outlook might indeed be bleak. But how unrealistic to hope for a world of peace, love and understanding for your grandchildren. It can only begin at home. I do not see anything wrong at all with spreading our democratic ideals and freedom elsewhere by example. It is the arrogance and forcefulness that appeared to wreck the Bush doctrine, as perceived, if not in reality. Still at that crossroads until the trumpets blow.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
And the recent stock market woes might be deeper than we have even begun to think. A likely outgrowth of greed gone wild with subprime lending. But some got their considerable cuts. The corporate accounting fraud and insider trading goes on and on. 9/11 exposed serious weaknesses in the system. All is not at all well with markets, until they are free, free of graft. Fear and greed is the game. So is cops and robbers. Ah, but it must all just be a correction thing. While it is still correctible, all is well. If not, it could be hell. To pay.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Shady ethics and a well-functioning free market don’t mix, that’s for sure.
August 11th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
The financial press reports that the last time before yesterday (over the subprime frauds) the Fed had to pump confidence into the currency was after the Savings and Loan debacle which is still costing us. I thought we cleaned things up after 9/11. Some conspiracy theorists think that trade speculators had something to do with the twin towers falling. There is much eroded faith in those who run things, those with money to run things. This does not bode well for the future, but over 2000 years ago a man from Galilee warned us. Can your man from Tennessee save us? Sure looks the part and that is part of the problem. Appearances are our reality here in these free states. All is blush upon the rose. And the rose, it art sick.
August 12th, 2007 at 1:07 am
Fred’s got the goods as far as I can tell. I’ll be one sad dude if it turns out he’s got some unacceptable flaw, either on the level of ideology or character.
One must be careful when dwelling on financial-market / corporate shenanigans. If that’s a big deal to someone, eventually he or she must get to the point, reveal what he or she is getting at. You know, the question begins to loom: are you saying that heavy governmental regulation of markets is necessary to prevent abuse?
August 13th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
What is this self-professed “liberal mugged by reality” doing here in Time, perhaps not equal time, but, hey, would you find Michael Kinsley in, say, National Review? Do you guys have a real neo-con news weekly? It used to be something like US News and World Report. Remember Insight? Of course that was moonie (not moonbats). The WSJ at least used to be a relatively conservative news daily, but we shall see now, won’t we? This piece by Kristol gives hope for the future course of “the War in Iraq,” more like an occupation now and for our future leadership. I am all eyes and ears:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1651505,00.html
August 13th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Yes, sadly so, need more cops to police the show with the markets. Otherwise, rampant greed will bring us all down. It happened before. Of course the remedy is still with us today. I presume many books have been written purporting that the socialist cure was actually the kill. Whatever, by circumstance, FDR was obviously hugely popular.