Tuesday, October 05, 2004
A petulant little boy
Nice posts here by slacktivist and Kevin Drum pondering Bush's instinct to disrespect the opinions of other nations whenever possible, as if that were a good in itself. When there are important, life-threatening problems to face on the horizon---nuclear terrorism, global warming, the continuing meltdown of the Middle East---it's just indescribably sad that our leader is a petulant little boy.
If Kevin Drum is right, and Bush simply doesn't believe in negotiation, how can he ever succeed as a head of state? It simply doesn't matter how big our military is: we'll never be omnipotent, so sometimes, we'll get a better deal by talking and bargaining than by shooting and threatening. We've seen nothing but abysmal failure so far; this blind spot---obliterating just about every option beside force and coercion---would explain a lot of it. Can anyone think of an example where Bush made a good faith effort at negotiation, with anyone, in any capacity, ever? (Serious question; I'd be interested in the example, be it foreign, domestic, commercial, personal, or spiritual---"God, I'll give up the booze and blow, but you've got to do something for me...").
While you're poking around slacktivist's blog, check out his archive of posts on the Left Behind series of apocalypse fiction (start at the bottom of the page). I'd gathered these books were bad, in a Tom Clancy techno thriller meets raving religious loonies kind of way, but I had no idea how deeply offensive the heros, plot, dialog, and morality of these books was. If you are as fascinated as I am by the crazy and stupid, or by fiction so bad it hurts, then this is a must read. (Think MST3K for bad books).
If Kevin Drum is right, and Bush simply doesn't believe in negotiation, how can he ever succeed as a head of state? It simply doesn't matter how big our military is: we'll never be omnipotent, so sometimes, we'll get a better deal by talking and bargaining than by shooting and threatening. We've seen nothing but abysmal failure so far; this blind spot---obliterating just about every option beside force and coercion---would explain a lot of it. Can anyone think of an example where Bush made a good faith effort at negotiation, with anyone, in any capacity, ever? (Serious question; I'd be interested in the example, be it foreign, domestic, commercial, personal, or spiritual---"God, I'll give up the booze and blow, but you've got to do something for me...").
While you're poking around slacktivist's blog, check out his archive of posts on the Left Behind series of apocalypse fiction (start at the bottom of the page). I'd gathered these books were bad, in a Tom Clancy techno thriller meets raving religious loonies kind of way, but I had no idea how deeply offensive the heros, plot, dialog, and morality of these books was. If you are as fascinated as I am by the crazy and stupid, or by fiction so bad it hurts, then this is a must read. (Think MST3K for bad books).
