Don't think...just blink
In the Feb. 28 issue of Time (the one good issue of every four or so they produce) Joe Klein discusses a poignant concept he calls "The Blink Presidency." He says of Pres W:
"His presidency has been exhilirating and nerve-racking, imprudent and visionary - and now we learn that it is another thing as well: it is a prime example of the latest fad. Bush is the ultimate "Blink" President, to use author Malcolm Gladwell's catchy term and recent title, for instantaneous, subconscious decision making. The slogan on Gladwell's book jacket 'Don't Think - Blink' is a perfect mantra for an attention deficit disordered society..."
Though I'd edit out 'exhilirating' and 'visionary', the basic point seems valid. People are dumb enough and have a short enough attention span to see Bush's rashness as decisiveness, but never pay attention long enough to understand the consequences. I think there's a lot of "you get what you deserve" in his argument. Klein goes on to say:
Bush's blinks come in two basic varieties: judgements about people and about broad policy. Bush may be a master at judging people - though one wonders what he saw in Vladimir Putin's soul - but he hasn't spent much time learning the intricacies of getting a bill through Congress or thinking about how the pieces might fit together in the Middle East...
How can anyone call Bush a master at judging people? I think Klein is being sarcastic, but if not he contradicted himself. The Putin point is a strong example - the guy is clearly murderous as the new Ukrainian president learned. Somehow that didn't stain his soul, I guess, when Bush "looked into it" like Nancy Reagan reading an aura. Understanding how the pieces in the middle east fit together would require him to understand that there are pieces to be examined and better understood in the first place. Why think when you can just go with your gut...the same gut that told him Saddam had WDM and lead him to join a coke happy freak show like skull and bones.
There is rarely any thought of how a blink will be carried out or the contradictory impact that his blinks might have on one another....the President had blinked at the well publicized faith-based antipoverty initiative and then forgotten it...Blinks are ephemeral; policy is distressingly concrete.
Well said Joe. What this says to me is that Bush says whatever seems to make sense to him at the moment, and just as quickly forgets what he said because he didn't think about it in the first place. Blowing off a faith-based anti-poverty initiative is just classic. Didn't W run on faith-based initiatives? I guess they only count when they stop gays from being married or rape victims from having abortions. After all, if G-d wanted to help poor people, there wouldn't be any of them. But, this is all politics as usual - say what's convenient at the time, don't commit to anything, and then justify later that you were forced to go back on your word. Klein finally:
Logic would dictate that action without long-term planning is disastrous: that you can't borrow forever, that you can't barge into someone else's region and impose your views without negative consequences. But expertise and deliberation have never seemed more stodgy, unappealing and unconvincing than they do right now.
I'm interested to know how other readers of this blog interpret this paragraph. I'm taking it as Klein being sarcastic and making the point again that we get what we deserve. Why do we have a President who doesn't think and f---s up everything he touches? Because intellectual, public debate over real issues and the fate of our planet is less interesting than watching Donald Trump and his stupid toupee on television. Because it's not "cool" to be smart, and thus too many of us never learn how to question anything. And because Bush has managed to lie convincingly to his supporters with his three-card monty politics and make it look to them like vision and decisiveness. Bush is like PT Barnum - the hawkers pull in the livestock, collect the money, send 'em in for the blow off, and then lead them by the nose to the next trap. Bush knows one valuable thing that Barnum did - there's a sucker born every minute. Apparently, 55 million suckers are easily duped.
"His presidency has been exhilirating and nerve-racking, imprudent and visionary - and now we learn that it is another thing as well: it is a prime example of the latest fad. Bush is the ultimate "Blink" President, to use author Malcolm Gladwell's catchy term and recent title, for instantaneous, subconscious decision making. The slogan on Gladwell's book jacket 'Don't Think - Blink' is a perfect mantra for an attention deficit disordered society..."
Though I'd edit out 'exhilirating' and 'visionary', the basic point seems valid. People are dumb enough and have a short enough attention span to see Bush's rashness as decisiveness, but never pay attention long enough to understand the consequences. I think there's a lot of "you get what you deserve" in his argument. Klein goes on to say:
Bush's blinks come in two basic varieties: judgements about people and about broad policy. Bush may be a master at judging people - though one wonders what he saw in Vladimir Putin's soul - but he hasn't spent much time learning the intricacies of getting a bill through Congress or thinking about how the pieces might fit together in the Middle East...
How can anyone call Bush a master at judging people? I think Klein is being sarcastic, but if not he contradicted himself. The Putin point is a strong example - the guy is clearly murderous as the new Ukrainian president learned. Somehow that didn't stain his soul, I guess, when Bush "looked into it" like Nancy Reagan reading an aura. Understanding how the pieces in the middle east fit together would require him to understand that there are pieces to be examined and better understood in the first place. Why think when you can just go with your gut...the same gut that told him Saddam had WDM and lead him to join a coke happy freak show like skull and bones.
There is rarely any thought of how a blink will be carried out or the contradictory impact that his blinks might have on one another....the President had blinked at the well publicized faith-based antipoverty initiative and then forgotten it...Blinks are ephemeral; policy is distressingly concrete.
Well said Joe. What this says to me is that Bush says whatever seems to make sense to him at the moment, and just as quickly forgets what he said because he didn't think about it in the first place. Blowing off a faith-based anti-poverty initiative is just classic. Didn't W run on faith-based initiatives? I guess they only count when they stop gays from being married or rape victims from having abortions. After all, if G-d wanted to help poor people, there wouldn't be any of them. But, this is all politics as usual - say what's convenient at the time, don't commit to anything, and then justify later that you were forced to go back on your word. Klein finally:
Logic would dictate that action without long-term planning is disastrous: that you can't borrow forever, that you can't barge into someone else's region and impose your views without negative consequences. But expertise and deliberation have never seemed more stodgy, unappealing and unconvincing than they do right now.
I'm interested to know how other readers of this blog interpret this paragraph. I'm taking it as Klein being sarcastic and making the point again that we get what we deserve. Why do we have a President who doesn't think and f---s up everything he touches? Because intellectual, public debate over real issues and the fate of our planet is less interesting than watching Donald Trump and his stupid toupee on television. Because it's not "cool" to be smart, and thus too many of us never learn how to question anything. And because Bush has managed to lie convincingly to his supporters with his three-card monty politics and make it look to them like vision and decisiveness. Bush is like PT Barnum - the hawkers pull in the livestock, collect the money, send 'em in for the blow off, and then lead them by the nose to the next trap. Bush knows one valuable thing that Barnum did - there's a sucker born every minute. Apparently, 55 million suckers are easily duped.
posted by Edward at 9:17 PM
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