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 American Ignorance Keeps American Power in CheckPosted on Mar 15, 2011The history of the American relationship with the other major powers of the world during the United States’ first century of existence was that of deliberate isolation. The colonies’ revolt against Britain was an episode in a Franco-British rivalry that in some respects has never really ended. As early as 1823, President James Monroe told European governments that the American continent was now closed to empire-building, and the British navy enforced this assertion, since Britain already had its overseas possessions in North America, so the Monroe Doctrine suited London very well. Certainly the U.S. refrained from meddling in European affairs for the rest of the century, and then put an abrupt end to the Spanish empire by stealing the empire’s possessions, leaving only European Spain. Washington’s relations with Britain were fairly consistently hostile until Woodrow Wilson decided that God had commissioned him to intervene in the First World War—and British-American relations soured again shortly after the Versailles treaty and the American refusal to join the League of Nations. The U.S. Navy had contingency plans for war with Britain until shortly before it found itself at war with Japan. Franklin Roosevelt then decided that it was time for the U.S. to dismantle the British Empire and found in Winston Churchill someone willing to trade winning the war against Hitler in exchange for surrendering that empire to the Americans—an empire which was coming apart anyway. Harold Macmillan’s observation that Britain could play Greeks to the uncouth (American) Romans implied that the British were smart enough to go on running it anyway—but of course it didn’t really work out that way, ending in Tony Blair’s fetching George Bush’s car for him at international conferences (“Yo, Blair! ...” ). All this is preliminary to saying that the U.S., without really realizing, is now back to where it was, an isolated nation. That is the conclusion imposed by recent events in the Middle East. While the U.S. government, the most powerful government on Earth, etc., as we say, was a hapless bystander, revolutions swept from one end of the Muslim world to the other: Shiites defying the police of beleaguered Sunni monarchs, Israel helping itself to still more of Palestine while no one in Washington was looking, and America’s supposed friends in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus innocent bystanders, regularly being blown up. America’s closest surviving Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, sends paramilitary troops to conduct an armed and violent intervention in Bahrain despite desperate American efforts to dissuade the Saudis. As the Lebanese editor Rani G. Khouri acidly wrote, “Washington has become a marginal player in much of the Middle East, largely as a consequence of its own incompetence, inconsistency, bias and weakness in allowing its Middle East policy to be shaped by neo-conservative fanatics, pro-Israeli zealots, anti-Islamic demagogues, Christian fundamentalist extremists, and assorted other strange folks who trample American principles and generate foreign policies that harm and marginalize the United States abroad.” Advertisement At the present time, Congress and the most vocal part of the American political class are mostly composed of people who have spent their lives in all but total isolation from what goes on outside the U.S., other than that as caricatured by talk radio, Fox News and a certain portion of Web bloggery. A part of what these people falsely think true is a matter of simple ignorance. A considerable part is the result of deliberate political manipulation by special interests active in Democratic administrations as well as in Republican circles. The Americans of whom I speak, and most of those from whom they gather their beliefs, have spent their lives inside the U.S., preoccupied with American affairs and society and popular culture, possessing little or no interest in what goes on elsewhere, and too often never having been exposed to any serious reflection on foreign political society by American schools or the press. They are not isolationists, as the vast majority of Americans were between the two world wars. They are isolated, not isolationists. Since the end of military conscription, they lack even that rudimentary acquaintance with the world abroad that most young Americans in the postwar years acquired by being stationed for a few months’ military service in Germany or Japan or South Korea or other foreign parts, not to speak of those young men who, during nearly a decade in the 1960s and early 1970s, acquired a searing lesson in international relations by fighting a terrible and useless Asian war. The vast majority of young Americans today know nothing of war other than what they see in the movies and computer games, which is corrupt knowledge. Foreigners, candidates for American passports and mercenaries do much of America’s fighting, which may be considered a dishonoring aspect of our chosen national career as the global superpower. It is, anyway, a career now nearing its end, to the benefit of all. Visit William Pfaff’s website for more on his latest book, “The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy,” at www.williampfaff.com. © 2011 Tribune Media Services Inc.  TAGS:
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By Lafayette, March 19, 2011 at 1:57 am Link to this comment
AMERICAN IGNORANCE KEEPS AMERICAN POWER IN CHECK
Pfaffs article applies to Foreign Policy.
American Ignorance applies also, I submit, to Domestic Policy. And it is the specific ignorance of a Progressive Agenda that is the paramount problem in our society today. That is, presently, the prevailing belief is that (supposedly) “Free Markets” can bring citizens all their needs - including universal Health Care at a decent cost, for instance.
I keep harping about Health Care because it is the most stark example of an intrinsically Public Service - as necessary as internal security or the judicial system - that is left to private enterprise. Also, the fact that National Health Systems abroad provide truly universal health care at much lower costs seems to escape most Americans.
I could make an equally as good an argument for primary-to-tertiary levels of Public Education.
Regardless, a Health Care Public Option is just one element of a Progressive Agenda that goes much further, reaching more deeply into our lives to establish the “Level Playing Field” so necessary to a morally upright nation.
The accent upon Free-Markets or Private Enterprise, warped by present Rightist Ideologues, cannot displace a realization that market economies cannot possibly accomplish all that is necessary to assure Moral Decency and Fairness in terms of “the foundational levels of our society”. Whazzat?
For instance, consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - which demonstrates the pyramid of requirements to which all societies should ascribe and be measured in terms of their development.
Meaning this: A nation needs the right metrics in order to understand its societal progress. Otherwise it wallows in base consumerism and Darwinian survival of the fittest.
Report thisBy stephen miller, March 18, 2011 at 9:18 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Looks to me like our “leaders” are puppets of a shifting oligarchy of corporate
Report thissyndicates. The DLC, the GOP, the Tea Party, corporate media, all are puppets
of an extraordinarily effective trash-totalitarianism. The Kabuki theater going
on inside the beltway is to distract us from the looting. Obama is there to
arbitrate between elements of the corporate syndicates, vying with each other
for power and money (our money!). The collapse of education and the middle
class generally is helpful to those who don’t want to see again the widespread
revolts of the 60’s. We used to think that the rich would stop before they bled
the country to death, since they would only be destroying the sources of their
own wealth. No more. The American economy- our fate- has been officially
“decoupled” from the rest of the world- meaning the financier class can loot
the US to near-death and invest the money in the rapidly growing economies of
the developing world, and most particularly in the BRIC countries. Our
government serves not the people, but these oligarchs, and thus is in fact
betraying us. Since these syndicates have total control over the media, the
public discussion, through their various arms, and over our [sic] representatives
in the government through corruption and bribery, the chances of turning this
around are vanishingly slim. The rate at which society’s capital is concentrating
in the hands of so few is itself accelerating. Growing stagnation lies ahead for
this country, and this is a maelstrom of uninformed attitudes and confusion.
In South Korea the government (the people investing in the people) is replacing
the current 43 megabits per second residential internet with a new gigabit per
second system throughout the country. Here in America, ATT announced that
rather than expanding access and increasing speeds, they wil join Comcast and
others in CAPPING internet access. Think about that.
History is moving on, and leaving us behind. The USA is soon no longer the
center it once was. And it looks like the whole magnificent generations-long
enterprise, arguably the greatest success of the enlightenment, will be
destroyed by short-term greed. Pathetic.
By Lafayette, March 18, 2011 at 8:02 am Link to this comment
INDIVIDUALIST DOGMA
The vast majority of adults as well. I see no difference between the young, the older and the aged - when it comes to insularity. Bombarded as the population is by Pap for the Masses.
I too was one of the Silent Majority of Americans who had accepted the childish pap that America was a Great Country with Great People and Great Aspirations. And all that preordained and blessed by the Almighty from on high. What puerile piffle it is.
It took years of living in Social Democrat Europe to understand that “Socialism” was not, per se, evil-incarnate. I am no Socialist by European or French terms. Progressiveness in the US maintains a healthy respect for non-intervention in a market economy, where Europe’s remains more statist.
Still, my first inkling that something had gone very wrong economically was in viewing the Gini Coefficient calculated to demonstrate info-graphically Income Unfairness. The notion of Income Fairness is not one prevalent in the US because it is based in the belief that most wealth does not belong uniquely to a discrete subset of individuals but equitably (though not equally) to all people.
That is, the utility of wealth is defined by the “optimal distribution” of economic riches throughout the economy - not some iceberg that shows its tip where the Filthy-Rich try arduously to distinguish themselves from the Simply-Rich. Whilst all the rest of us spectate from below.
Marx messed up the notion of income distribution by insisting on the fact that wealth should be shared equally. That belief was a non-starter for two reasons. First, because it negates the key fact that a market economy attributes capital and labor to produce goods and services that people want. Secondly, our talents are not all equal; so those with more talent expect to receive more remuneration for their labor.
In doing so, automatically, there will be differences in income due to the market mechanism that attributes compensation according to the valuation of demand for specific skills. The internal collapse of centrally planned and controlled Communism was thus predictable, since it specified both wages and labor allocation rather than letting Supply and Demand do so naturally.
Unfortunately, the downside to a Market Economy is that it can be manipulated such that too few people obtain too much of the economic wealth generated. Which is the central negative factor that most Americans do not seem to understand.
It takes many expats living abroad in Europe a great while to understand that notion. But, with the plethora of public services available, most inevitably come around to the realization that Taxation & Redistribution of earned and unearned income is one way to correct the inevitably warped Market Economy left alone to its own devices.
Free Markets are those where entry and exit are free and unconstrained. They are not markets that allow the unfettered accumulation of Capital, just because one can manipulate the market to their own greedy ends.
In fact, constraining markets, as America does in Health Care, leads to the quasi-oligopolistic deviations seen today in terms of income distribution.
Tell that to the TeaParty Ideologues and we trigger their indignation. Such truths upset tidy, insular lives that live and breath the Individualist Dogma: “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine too!”
POST SCRIPTUM
Excellent article by WP, with a very good grounding in historical fact. We are what we are not by chance but by free-will.
Report thisBy ChaviztaKing, March 17, 2011 at 10:54 pm Link to this comment
ANOTHER DAY IN THE JEWISH ZIONIST CAPITALIST EMPIRE OF EXPENSIVE GASOLINE, EXPENSIVE FOOD AND EXPENSIVE BASIC GOODS AND SERVICES
another day in the jewish-zionist capitalist hell of expensive utility bills, government taxing people to death to give those tax-dollars to Israhell, the bankers and the Military Industrial Complex.
More devaluation of the US dollar because the zionists of the Federal Reserve are printing fake dollars, massive spending in the military and the imperialist zionist wars on behalf of Israhell.
And all these things that Democ-rats and Republic-rats are doing literally means more poverty within US borders. And the US soldiers coming home to roost in an environment of depression, poverty and wild-capitalism of all utility services like electricity, phone, internet, direct-tv, dish network, gasoline, food and all goods and services that american families buy being owned by the zionist private sector
American families should rebel against all these evil things being done by Democrats and Republicans and start to look toward a Socialist Workers Party, like Stewart Alexander candidate for the Socialist Party of USA in 2012. Here is a link about Stewart Alexander:
http://www.stewartalexandercares.com/
So I urge you all to support Stewart Alexander. Support Stewart Alexander for socialist president of USA in 2012. All americans should support and vote for Stewart Alexander, the candidate of the Socialist Party of USA, running for president in 2012. Stewart Alexander says he will seek the 2012 presidential nomination of the Socialist Party USA and will present socialist solutions to address the needs of the working class.
Another tip for US socialist workers: USA workers should hate business owners, and not have any bonds with anybody who own businesses, coz workers and business owners are not compatible at all, emotionally and economically
Report this.
By Flummox, March 17, 2011 at 3:31 pm Link to this comment
DBM,
You have put your finger on the problem in your post:
“In short, the U.S. faces problems but has enormous
strengths to build on. If you restricted your
military to defense and addressed the rules leading
to ridiculous wealth imbalance the American people
would have plenty and be able to enjoy good lives.”
But you fail to see (and perhaps it isn’t so obvious from the outside) that the absolute inablilty through political means to restrict the military and the ridiculous wealth imbalance in the US is exactly what has led so many to the fatalistic pessimism you call ‘overstated’.
Yes, if it were possible to do so then we all would be able to enjoy good lives. Unfortunately, despite your claim that the militaristic oligarchy is in for a real challenge, things are most likely going to have to get far worse before enough Americans are roused to change the situation. And by then, as the pessimistic fatalism has it, it may be too late to save what we have much less restore what we’ve already lost.
Report thisBy MeHere, March 17, 2011 at 2:20 pm Link to this comment
Thanks, W. Pfaff. “Isolated, not isolationists,’” excellent distinction. Thousands of Americans, including policy makers, have been raised and educated under the assumption that normal is what’s normal in the US. It has become an automatic response to everything that is foreign. The degree of education, the extent of travel, foreign intervention, or the abundance of American businesses abroad have not had any effect on this common attitude. Bashing and dismissing what we don’t understand is subtly or blatantly obvious in most journalism.
Although all societies tend to think that their way is the right way, this notion seems to be particularly bizarre in the US given the huge involvement it has had with almost every corner of the world. We don’t need to love the way others live, but we must make an effort to understand that cultures are different from each other and develop in very unique ways. How can we otherwise claim to believe in human rights?
Report thisBy gerard, March 17, 2011 at 12:31 pm Link to this comment
I’d like to suggest a different caption: IGNORANCE KEEPS THE POWERFUL IN
Report thisPOWER.
By aerie, March 17, 2011 at 11:16 am Link to this comment
Christian religion is the root of this evil. We all have blood on our hands. Sadly, we could not see devil because of his horns or chose to look away.
Report thisBy roofi gee, March 17, 2011 at 7:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Could the current situation been predicted? To make morally WRONG decisions you lie to yourself first then you sell it to others. Once this habit has overtaken your conscious being, then you life floats into the world of fantasy. While your eyes look at the same scene your mind interprets in the context of your fantasy world. There is a limit to LYING, twisting the truth, consciously ignoring vital parts of any story. This transformation of psyche can also affect a large group of people. Fact is there is no alternative to doing anything besides what is morally RIGHT. And Truly. Once, you start making little exceptions, it is only matter of time before you have deviated to a place where your wildest imaginations can’t bring you to be. Please, see Dr Philip Zimbardo’s several presentations on the subject.
Report thisBy Dick Sorenson, March 16, 2011 at 11:27 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
You jumped from WW1 to WW2 without mentioning that we lost our independence when W.Wilson signed the Federal Reserve act. I read this book, http://www.whale.to/b/mullins5.html , The Secrets of The Federal Reserve over 20 years ago and checked out virtually every souce cited. They all checked out.
When you consider we have an 8 plus trillion cumulative trade deficit, an 11 trillion debt and the reasons why we have put ourselves in such a position that I expose in my own article, http://bit.ly/Republican-Tea-Party-Secret ,you’ll agree that we aren’t running America for America.
Ezra Pound and Eustace Mullins were right, we’ve been had.
Report thisBy rico, suave, March 16, 2011 at 9:05 pm Link to this comment
“Foreigners, candidates for American passports and mercenaries do much of America’s fighting, “
This man is an extra-terrestrial. O M G!
Report thisBy samosamo, March 16, 2011 at 9:04 pm Link to this comment
****************
Report thisThis country most likely is about to crap out, but it would be
well worth to pay attention to when it does, otherwise nothing
will change because the underworld or elite are just waiting
for such an occurrence, to jump in and take control, once
again, over what will send this country into oblivion. Besides,
what will determine when this country implodes? It sure won’t
be a sudden jump from despair into great days and peace. I
think it to be more like a longer drawn out version of the civil
war with ideologies, corporations and power fanatics all
fighting to get what any one wants this country to be.
By gerard, March 16, 2011 at 7:08 pm Link to this comment
“Isolated—not isolationists” is just about it. And the saddest part is that the
Report thisUSA, corporately and individually, for the most part is oblivious to what is
happening—has happened. To those who have been watching, it has been
clearly visible ever since Graham Greene wrote “The Ugly American.”
Part of the blindness is willful; part unconscious due to heavy indoctrination in
the virtues of America and careful occlusion of our faults.
The WikiLeaks releases offer us a huge chance to see behind governmental
curtains. They give us at least an inkling of the deficiencies of our methods of
“diplomacy” and “international negotiation.” They give us a chance to self-
correct (as I keep saying). But, you know what?
Many who should know better are coming to the defense of secrecy and
criticizing the whistle-blowers instead of supporting them. More important,
even, than the twisting of stories about how and why, the vital issue that is
getting quietly lost is this: The Leaks gave us ordinary intelligent citizens the
opening needed to participate meaningfully in changing the dangerous
shenanigans that the US perpetrates habitually under the guise of “exporting
democracy” etc.
The catch is this: The Leaks are only one side of the opportunity. The other
side requires citizen action and alertness, civic responsibility, doing your share
by responding to make democracy a reality. It’s a job only citizens can do.
They have not been doing it, and democracy has been dying as a result.
Naturally, elements connected to the present power structure don’t want you
to be reminded of your responsibility—and of your power. But—there it is
for all to see.
What will you do in answer? How will you respond?
By taikan, March 16, 2011 at 6:46 pm Link to this comment
US ignorance does not keep US power in check. Rather, it simply causes most attempts to exercise US power in a way that is supposed to benefit the US to have a different, negative, result for the US.
For example, W thought that invading Iraq would benefit the US and damage Iran’s interests. Instead, it had the opposite result. Obama thought that Afghanistan, rather than Iraq, was the “right” war, and escalation of US military involvement there would result in the defeat of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Instead, it has come close to bankrupting the US without any clear long-term impact on the Taliban or Al Qaeda.
It’s too early to say that the US is doomed. However, if the US does not change its ways in the relatively near future, the damage may reach a point where it cannot be repaired without sustained effort over multiple generations.
Report thisBy Alan, March 16, 2011 at 4:31 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
William,
Report thiswhat you describe is the “Alzheimer’s Elite”.
It started with Reagan, the era of “postmodern”
no-nothing presidents. Even the much vaunted Clinton
“worldliness” is just Bill keepin’ an eye aimed under
some girl’s dress.
By RayLan, March 16, 2011 at 12:03 pm Link to this comment
All that America stands for at this juncture after all of its human rights victories of the distant past is power - the power of money and military might - two wings which have recently been broken, the first due to the so-called fiscal crisis, the second due to its pattern of failed wars in the Middle East.
Report thisThis Eagle is pretty much alone and confined to its polluted nest.
Its imperialist stature which gained begruding respect from the rest of the world has suffered a downturn.
That doesn’t seem to deter much of the nationalistic self-adulation comming from the White House, however, - if Obama’s speech on Giffords shooting is any indication.
By DBM, March 16, 2011 at 7:54 am Link to this comment
It’s interesting. The real fear for the wealthy is that business all over the world depends on the American consumer. By creating a massive imbalance through their greed the wealthy have removed the buying power of the American consumer. Now big corporates, wealthy individuals and banks are sitting on money which might normally be invested because business opportunities are few. That’s called recession or depression and will lead to deflation.
That has been clear for some time but the greed that the financial sector and senior corporate executives have displayed pretty much precludes them doing anything to save their own future.
It just might be that the desperate act of a Tunisian college graduate trying to work as a fruit-seller could save the American people. His example inspired his countrymen, his fellow Arabs and has had a similar effect on protesters in Wisconsin and many other places in America.
Who’d have thought? A Muslim Arab saves the American people from themselves a decade after 9/11 ... well it would make a great story if it happens that way.
Report thisBy gerard, March 15, 2011 at 10:55 pm Link to this comment
Tesla mentions “implosion.” That’s one word for what I suspect is happening or
Report thiswill happen. There is so much imbalance, and that increasing rapidly every
day, that “the system” is crumbling of its own inability to self-correct—which
would be the natural counter-balancing that might occur if the system were in
or near equilibrium.
American thought patterns and educational programs scarcely mention the
idea of balance, much less advocate it as a virtue. Yet it’s an old idea, current
in many places in the world. The Greeks expressed it as “Nothing Too Much.”
Part of the widespread, free-floating, purposeless anxiety here these days is a
semi-conscious apprehension that things cannot last, that there is no center
and that things are flying about in all directions—up, down, left, right,
radical, conservative, good, evil—the pendulum swings daily back and forth.
Even those who fancy themselves “in power” have no idea what is happening or
why or what to do. Yet they are engrossed full-time in every possible WAY
trying desperately to control the oscillations and preserve the status quo which
they imagine to be to their advantage. And they are failing. We can see that by
looking at what they have not done, are not doing.
Almost any good idea could gain traction if it were sponsored by an
intelligent minority that could combine knowledge of the head, the heart and
the spirit of life.
By gerard, March 15, 2011 at 10:55 pm Link to this comment
Tesla mentions “implosion.” That’s one word for what I suspect is happening or
Report thiswill happen. There is so much imbalance, and that increasing rapidly every
day, that “the system” is crumbling of its own inability to self-correct—which
would be the natural counter-balancing that might occur if the system were in
or near equilibrium.
American thought patterns and educational programs scarcely mention the
idea of balance, much less advocate it as a virtue. Yet it’s an old idea, current
in many places in the world. The Greeks expressed it as “Nothing Too Much.”
Part of the widespread, free-floating, purposeless anxiety here these days is a
semi-conscious apprehension that things cannot last, that there is no center
and that things are flying about in all directions—up, down, left, right,
radical, conservative, good, evil—the pendulum swings daily back and forth.
Even those who fancy themselves “in power” have no idea what is happening or
why or what to do. Yet they are engrossed full-time in every possible WAY
trying desperately to control the oscillations and preserve the status quo which
they imagine to be to their advantage. And they are failing. We can see that by
looking at what they have not done, are not doing.
Almost any good idea could gain traction if it were sponsored by an
intelligent minority that could combine knowledge of the head, the heart and
the spirit of life.
By Tesla, March 15, 2011 at 9:27 pm Link to this comment
I am gleefully awaiting the complete demise of this
Report thisevil empire. When the old Soviet Union was dismembered
by the global corporatists, I realized that implosion
for the U.S. was just a matter of time. Although we
have lasted longer than I anticipated (20 years +/-) I
think I’m still not that far off. Without 9/11 it might
have been quicker and more organized (softer landing).
By DBM, March 15, 2011 at 8:41 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
While I agree with Pfaff’s article I think the
fatalistic pessimism it conveys, and which come
through the comments here too, is overstated.
I am not American and I don’t live there. However,
from the outside:
* You are the richest country on earth (with a wealth
distribution problem)
* Your form of government has been the desired model
for most of the world
* Your culture dominates the world in Movies, Music,
Sports and Print
* Many intellectual leaders in the world are American
(although education of the masses seems to lag behind
international standards)
* The vast majority of the American people are well-
meaning and empathetic (with an overclass which
includes many who are not)
In short, the U.S. faces problems but has enormous
strengths to build on. If you restricted your
military to defense and addressed the rules leading
to ridiculous wealth imbalance the American people
would have plenty and be able to enjoy good lives.
It’s no small challenge but there are good signs that
the militaristic oligarchy in the U.S. is in for a
real challenge.
Don’t beat yourselves up so much.
Report thisBy Morpheus, March 15, 2011 at 7:53 pm Link to this comment
Yes, in short america doesn’t stand for anything. Not even itself. We have one last option - “The Nuclear Option”
I’m getting sick and tired of this. How about you? This country is about to crap out. We have one last chance to roll the dice. You call it.
Momma need some new shoes, and the people need a brand spanking new government – “ROLL-EM”
JOIN THE REVOLUTION
Report thisRead “Common Sense 3.1” at ( http://www.revolution2.osixs.org )Find what the nuclear option means for this country.
We don’t have to live like this anymore. “Spread the News”
FIGHT THE CAUSE - NOT THE SYMPTOM
By frecklefever, March 15, 2011 at 6:29 pm Link to this comment
WILLIAM PFAFFS ARTICLES DEMONSTRATE A PERCEIVING THAT IS SOLID REALPOLITIK….BECAUSE
Report thisPARTY POLITICS RUNS FOREIGN POLICY THRU THE ACCEPTABLE SCREENING PROCESS WE GET A
CONSENSUS CONFIGURATION THAT IS TOO OFTEN SCATTERED AND ANEMIC EG. OBAMA AND
CLINTONS WAFFLING OVER MUBARAK…PARTY POLITICS DOSNT FOSTER LEADERSHIP….IT FOSTERS
CONFORMITY….AND AMERICA IS DYING FROM ITS SULLYING EFFECTS..
By TDoff, March 15, 2011 at 5:55 pm Link to this comment
Hey, if you were a foreigner, and had observed the depredations of the US, internally and externally, for the past couple of generations, wouldn’t you turn your back on US, and ignore US if you could, thus rendering US ignorant?
Since no one can know everything, we humans are all ignorant. We just have different, individual, areas of personal ignorance. Some of our ignorance is due to lack of exposure, lack of experience. Some is due to lack of interest, an absence of curiosity. Some is due to a lack of capacity to understand, a lack of intelligence.
Almost all of those who think of themselves as our ‘leaders’, even though we only asked them to be our ‘agents’, exhibit a tendency to act as though they know everything. This is a definite tip-off to their specialty of ignorance, which is that they know nothing, and that their specialty of ignorance is everything. The best advice when dealing with defectives like this? Don’t listen to them.
Report this