Author Topic: The Paranoid Style  (Read 661 times)

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gipper

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The Paranoid Style
« on: August 27, 2007, 02:19:36 PM »
I use this in a loose version, subject, of course, to Crane's refinements, but I think it is a useful conception (at least for me) to put together in retrospect the thought tracks of this administration in the wake of 9-11. The first thing to note, and I put this forth as my leading hypothesis, is that President Bush personalized the 9-11 attacks much too much, seeing it as a successful challenge to his tough-guy, indomitable image, and vowed in its wake to do everything (and I mean just about everything) to prevent a recurrence. That drive became the coin of the realm in his tenure. Rather than countenance any possible chinks in what is not even yet a failsafe national security system, ironically, he imposed draconian measures positing AN attack, ANY attack on the homeland as again catastrophic (whilst allowing New Orleans to drown), and unwisely starting a truly catastrophic foreign war (which I argued for perhaps more than I argued against at the time, like many others not fit to lead ON THAT ISSUE AT THAT TIME, unlike Senator Kennedy, for one), which is the true crown of his paranoid mindset: a true catastrophe imposed on soft evidence on many millions of people in a desperate effort to either change the subject, or worse, fight a chimera that continues to frighten only him and his circle. In this regard, cooler heads, visionary minds, are looking to diplomatic, political -- visionary and statesmanlike -- solutions to the terrible canker Iraq has become. But, yet, and predictably until the end of his term, President Bush has us in a "paranoid rut." What I mean by that is not that real danger does not abound in the world, but that real solutions must reach beyond the familiar and the brutal if we are effectively to see our way out. This does not, emphatically, dishonor or discount the importance of our brave military; it just refuses to use it as a total excusee for national policy.

Richpo64

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Re: The Paranoid Style
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2007, 02:46:53 PM »
>>President Bush personalized the 9-11 attacks much too much, seeing it as a successful challenge to his tough-guy, indomitable image,<<

More nonsense from the pseudo-intellectual left.

I suppose it wouldn't occur to you that he viewed it as his highest priority as president to defend America and it's citizens? No, it's easier for you to invent motives that suite your ignorance and bigotry.

sirs

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Re: The Paranoid Style
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2007, 02:52:12 PM »
....The first thing to note, and I put this forth as my leading hypothesis, is that President Bush personalized the 9-11 attacks much too much, seeing it as a successful challenge to his tough-guy, indomitable image, and vowed in its wake to do everything (and I mean just about everything) to prevent a recurrence. ....

Oy......start with a false premise and, well, you know the rest
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

Plane

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Re: The Paranoid Style
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2007, 05:40:07 PM »
I use this in a loose version, subject, of course, to Crane's refinements, but I think it is a useful conception (at least for me) to put together in retrospect the thought tracks of this administration in the wake of 9-11. The first thing to note, and I put this forth as my leading hypothesis, is that President Bush personalized the 9-11 attacks much too much,


   No , part of the job as president is being the tool of the people , the people wanted something done.

   I re-read the post but still I missed the part about the better alternative choices.