oxymoron
Feb 4th, 2007, 11:41 AM
Prior to the war, the U.S. was one of the most powerful nations in world history. Thus, the U.S. interests were in maintaining the status quo. The greatest threat to the status quo was, and is now even more so, the instability in the middle east. If America could make that part of the world more like us...get them to buy into "our way," give them a vested interest in free market capitalism, individualism, democracy, commercialized culture, then it is more likely that the nations and people of that region would accept "the system" rather than threaten it.
Of course, the great flaw in this whole plan is that it is completely ethnocentric. The grand failure of the Bushies is their failure to recognize or respect any kind of societal/cultural values other than their own.
The reason conservatism is destined to fail is because it at heart is about the consolidation and maintenance of power. But in the world today, power is becoming more diffuse. From America to emerging nations, from rich to poor, from the current generation to the future. In each case, present day conservatism protects the former, whereas the inevitable flow of history is to the latter.
It used to be if you had a bigger army, more weapons, and more money you would win the war. Now, a single individual can inflict enormous damage on the most powerful nation on earth. Dick Cheney's failure to understand the future will come to be seen as one of the worst mistakes in our history. I only hope the damage can be minimized. We must recognize and respect "the other."
Of course, the great flaw in this whole plan is that it is completely ethnocentric. The grand failure of the Bushies is their failure to recognize or respect any kind of societal/cultural values other than their own.
The reason conservatism is destined to fail is because it at heart is about the consolidation and maintenance of power. But in the world today, power is becoming more diffuse. From America to emerging nations, from rich to poor, from the current generation to the future. In each case, present day conservatism protects the former, whereas the inevitable flow of history is to the latter.
It used to be if you had a bigger army, more weapons, and more money you would win the war. Now, a single individual can inflict enormous damage on the most powerful nation on earth. Dick Cheney's failure to understand the future will come to be seen as one of the worst mistakes in our history. I only hope the damage can be minimized. We must recognize and respect "the other."