One of the biggest impacts of the attacks on 9/11 was their incontrovertible demonstration to those living in the past that Island America is no more. Those living in the past were mostly Conservatives of course, since that is where they prefer to hang out rather than living in the world as it is. The world as it is, as anyone actually willing to face reality knows, a huge and complex place. And it gets even more complex if you are trying to rule the world, as the Neo-cons were trying to do.
The Neo-cons and Conservatives didn’t look at the post-Soviet world and see new opportunities for peace and prosperity, they looked around this big old planet and rubbed their greedy little mitts in glee at the thought of America unopposed in their dream of world domination…and the profits they could reap from that. It never occurred to them how difficult it actually would be to rule a whole planet, or even just to impose their designs upon it. It never occurred to them of course, that they were too stupid and incompetent to actually make it work. They thought they were now above all laws, including apparently the law of unintended consequences….not to mention Murphy’s law. Turns out that Ruling The World is….. Hard Work. Work that they were neither smart enough (if anyone one is!) or competent enough for. To shape the planet and its seven billion people into your vision of what it should be is impossible. To try to do it by JUST brute force is the type of ridiculous delusion that and denial of reality that Conservatives are so good at, in fact self-delusion is one of the very few things they are good at.
Until the rubber actually hits the road and all of their plans blow up in their face.
Permanent Republican majority.
A nation ruled by fundamentalist Christian morality and law.
Greeted as liberators as we impose ourselves and values on the people of the world.
World energy hegemony achieved by force allowing the ‘American Lifestyle’ to continue in the face of peak oil and global warming.
A Christian Crusade to wipe out or at least dominate 1.6 billion Muslims.
Etc. etc. etc.
There was only one hitch in their plans….they were too stupid to pull it off when the had everything they needed to do it, including a ‘new Pearl Harbor.’
Yesterday I wrote about Stupidification, and some folks rightly pointed out that (my interpretation of the comments) that the Right Wing is not, as a whole, stupid. That no one truly stupid could be as effective as they have been. That is true, for the leadership at least. They do have some very smart people, and even more clever ones. But if you move down one tier you get the Alberto Gonzales’ and Monica Goodlings, the Liberty College and Regent University grads…thetype of folks they sent over to rebuild Iraq. Not because they knew how to rebuild or administer a newly conquered country, but because they were loyal Republicans who were indoctrinated and stupified enough to shut up and follow orders.
The Conservatives may have enough smart (and ruthless) people at the top to have pulled off the Coup of 2000 and all of the mischief that they have perpetrated since, but they have demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that they don’t have enough smart people to even run a beuarocracy, let alone a government, let alone the world. Their insistence on blind loyalty and sheeplike obedience from their minions rules out the possibility of anything but blatant incompetence. The top down authoritarian model just is not practical on a grand scale. You need people who can think, even in a beaurocracy!
They had everything in place, everything that they needed, control of every branch of government and a subservient and willing corporate media to catapult their propaganda….and they still failed. Because they were too stupid to understand that you simply cannot “create reality” on a nationwide scale, let alone a planetary one. Reality not only has a liberal bias,,,but you just cannot argue with it. They tried and failed. In part because they were just too stupid.
The planet cannot be ruled, it is just too frikkin complicated. It’s People can have effective, enlightened governments, it’s resources can be managed intelligently and fairly, and the inevitable conflicts can be solved diplomatically…IF we can abandon at least the most destructive parts of the current system and mindset….the ones that have led us to this new era of might makes right and the survival of the strong at the expense of the weak. If we can survive the Era of Stupidification and the Republican Reign of Terror, if we can make Obama’s election the turning point and starting point for a new era of intelligent management and governance, diplomacy and non-aggression, cooperation over competition on this little planet in a rustic corner of the galaxy….who knows, human beings might actually not only survive their own stupidity and suicidal/Climaticidal tendencies , but actually evolve into an intelligent life form!
Let’s hope that we are on the brink of making that leap.
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representin’ at the Olympics
I think we can do better!
an intelligent life form! Dudes drunk as a skunk, and he’s just as stupid sober. Lets hope the smart pol waiting in the wings isn’t just the next act brought to us by the same ones who unleashed the mad dogs. to follow this lot,noww that they have been booed offstage. They did go too far and they revealed what mad dogs they are. Worries me that McCain is still considered reliable, stable, he’s another creepy psycho killer.
Getting rid of The current mind set and most destructive parts would seem to be even in the bad guys interests cause even getting richer looks to be harder with this much mayhem. My niggling worry is the fact that the Democrats and Obama seem in no way willing to undo the illegal executive power part. They can step into a fiefdom, a land where we get to vote for king rather then a representative government with checks and balances to keep them in line. Self preservation may keep them more benign in ruling but this is bad news for democracy and human rights.
The tendency is to believe that intelligence means intelligence quotient, an ability that values abstract thinking (a western bias in the first place). Intelligence may also be defined as the ability to understand your living environment and to adapt to it as it exists, or to adapt it in appropriate way.
I think the neocons are abstract thinkers who believe that people and environments can be easily manipulated just with words and altering or confirming perceptions about living environments. At some point, though, abstract thinking must hit the road. And that is where they always fail.
I don’t think of 9/11 in terms of Repub and Dem.
I think of it in terms of whether our government told us the truth about 9/11.
When I go digging, I find the government lied to us.
I think you would too.