Richard Fernandez:
The signs of the times as read by the Roger Cohen of New York Times at least [1] in his piece The Great Unraveling throw shadows upon a doubtful scene. He surveys our age and writes, “it was a time of beheadings. … a time of aggression. … a time of breakup. … a time of weakness…. a time of hatred. … a time of fever. … a time of disorientation.” And yet they had come to that pass sleep-walking, unmindful “until it was too late and people could see the Great Unraveling for what it was and what it had wrought.”
It was a time of catastrophe because it was equally a time of folly. For it was a time when people got Nobel Prizes in advance of achievement; when people reviled their heritage the better to free themselves of the past as well as the future. It was time when they cast away the victory of the Cold War and the result of the Second in the vague belief they could remake the world retrospectively. It was a time when civilization apologized for its existence to the barbarians, because the only criterion they recognized for civility was guilt. It was a time when national borders were abolished by the men sworn to defend them; when students were taught it was shameful for a father to wear the uniform of his country to his daughter’s school; when people were told it insensitive — perhaps even criminal– to display the American flag. It was the hour when Teach For America [2] determined that math was the “domain of old, white men” and was determined to teach only ”critically conscious mathematics” whose subjects were “Sweatshop Accounting,” “Racism and Stop and Frisk,” “When Equal Isn’t Fair,” “The Square Root of a Fair Share” and “Home Buying While Brown or Black.”
Oh yes it was a time.
A moment when homomorphism became a bigoted word and the Niggard of the Narcissus became an racist book. An occasion when L’Hôpital’s rule might be confused for a provision in Obamacare, a Strange Attractor become an LGBT term; where the Witch of Agnesi runs a spa in Beverley Hills; tensors something kids had out and syntactic sugar a substance strictly banned in the Michelle Obama school lunch program. It was a time when even Hilbert’s Hotel had become but a place of sordid assignation. It was a time. A time of ignorance with only the memory of something left behind left to give unease.
They are still puzzling over their estate, but the smoke of doubt has clearly crept into the temples of the establishment. The Washington Post [4] warns that China’s “creeping invasion” of East Asia is occurring at the same time as Vladimir Putin’s slow motion takeover of the Ukraine. And not just the smoke of doubt, but the smell of actual fear. The New Republic [5] notes with alarm that “Obama’s Scariest ISIS Comment Yet is: ‘I’m Not Going to Anticipate Failure’”. It’s just hit them: there’s no Plan B.
President Obama made the comment in a private, off-the-record meeting with a select group of journalists before his prime-time speech last week. On Sunday, Peter Baker, who was not at the meeting, reported in the New York Times about what was said there. Among other things, Obama was reportedly asked how he would adjust his strategy if his new plan proved unsuccessful. “I’m not going to anticipate failure at this point,” Obama responded, according to Baker’s report.
Second-hand accounts of these meetings often unintentionally warp the true meaning of the president’s statement. But if Baker’s reporting is correct, it represents a dangerous mentality from the Obama administration. If we’ve learned anything from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is that we should anticipate failure. There’s almost a zero percent chance that Obama’s plan will be perfectly successful—or even somewhat successful. Already, over the weekend, there are reports that the Free Syrian Army—one of the factions of moderate rebels that Obama wants to arm—will not take part in the new coalition to defeat ISIS. Those reports could prove false, but they demonstrate just how fraught the conditions are in the Middle East.
But perhaps the truth is scarier. There wasn’t a Plan A either. Never was. Andrew Sullivan [6] is slowly beginning to realizes there was perhaps never a coherent plan at all. He writes, “Obama’s New War: Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb”. Sullivan left out the last “dumb”. In Radical Math such lists the expletives (separated by spaces) should arrive in even numbers.
The liberal flagships are beginning to feel the scales falling from their eyes.
I knew Obama never paid attention in school.
I had forgotten what grade I was in but I was still pre-college when I learned this:
No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
Obama has no Plan B.
Maybe it is because Obama has no Plan A.
Is Obama just going to wing it, like he did when he’d shuffle his deck of death cards and pick his next drone target?
Can we survive 2 more years of such a fool?
I only hope there are Generals who can and will do end runs around Obama’s idiocy.
I love the allusions in this piece.
I recognize them all; if you don’t know about Hilbert’s Hotel, look it up!
Simple fact: replace a dependence on proven fact with a willful decision to depend on feelings and sentiment, really believe in those Unicorns, and everything will work out fine. Not now, not ever.
Governments create wealth. They don’t, but that is an inconvenient truth. Wealth is produced by human labor and ingenuity. All Governments do is skim off some of that wealth. So, naturally, the PROGRESSIVES want more Government. The results are almost always catastrophic and hurt the ones who were supposed to be helped. See Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
@Nanny G:In case you haven’t noticed, liberals follow their agenda regardless of the damage it causes and simply hope everything else works out. They created the “war on poverty” and, though it creates MORE poverty than ever before, they just hope things will work out, the poor will never truly realize who is screwing them and the votes keep rolling in. Related, liberals keep driving the debt skyward and just hope no one ever asks for payments on the ship-loads of borrowed money. Now, as they destroy foreign policy, they simply ignore desperate problems and hope, somehow, these things will just work themselves out and everything will turn out OK. Because, they have BIG issues to deal with… like “climate change”.
By the way, back when R-12 Freon was causing catastrophic damage to the ozone, environmentalists drove for R-134a to be substituted. Now, guess what? R-134a is a MAJOR contributor to global warming, so environmentalists are mandating ANOTHER alternative be developed. Their lies even screws up their other lies!
Oh, I DO appreciate this aspect of the ”progressive” mind.
I have added this point to what you see as the progressive pattern:
IF things do NOT work out (which they never do) it isn’t the fault of the progressive plan.
It is always because their opposition didn’t agree with it enthusiastically enough.
I have likened it to the Peter Pan character standing on stage begging everyone in the audience to clap their hands so Tinkerbelle can miraculously recover from the poison she drank.
Gee.
It always works during the play.
Why won’t non-progressives buy-in so it will work in real life?
Somewhere (probably an old Richard Fernandez piece) there’s an essay on Obama’s magical thinking.
Obama outlines a problem and his first speech about solving it.
Then something magic happens, then problem solved.
“I’m not going to anticipate failure at this point,” Obama responded, according to Baker’s report.