Friday, November 19, 2004
Unstuck in Time
What year is this? The Nation says it feels like 1925. The Progress Report was waxing nostalgic yesterday for 1999. I'm afraid it's just more of 2004, except that given the breathtaking acceleration in all things bad in the 2 1/2 weeks since the election, 2004 is likely to resemble a sepia-tinted nostalgic dream a couple of years from now.
Or maybe it's the 1330s. Back then, an English philosopher and theologian named William of Occam developed a principle now known as Occam's Razor, which is often translated as either "do not multiply entities unnecessarily" or "plurality should not be assumed without necessity." In contemporary language, what it means is that the simplest explanation is often the likeliest to be true. (Or, if you prefer, "keep it simple, stupid.") And so, while we're positing all sorts of reasons for the spiraling debacle and why the American electorate chose Bush, while we're setting up a series of funhouse mirrors through which Iraq and the economy and Christianity and homophobia and whatnot make Bush look like a success instead of the Worst President Ever, maybe we're violating Occam's Razor. Maybe people voted for the Repugs with both eyes open, knowing precisely what they were likely to get. Maybe this is what they want.
Recommended Reading: You gotta like a website called Project for the Old American Century, where columnist Jack Dalton asks a simple question. Americans still doggedly believe in the old social-studies class image of our country, America the good, the kind, the generous, even after everything that's been done in our name in recent years.
And at Counterpunch, Hugh Urban looks at the parallels between the Project for a New American Century and the Left Behind novels. Both fantasies feature an intrepid group of people (specifically, white American people) who do battle with Evil to bring forth a new heaven and earth. And neither one has much to do with the reality-based world.
What year is this? The Nation says it feels like 1925. The Progress Report was waxing nostalgic yesterday for 1999. I'm afraid it's just more of 2004, except that given the breathtaking acceleration in all things bad in the 2 1/2 weeks since the election, 2004 is likely to resemble a sepia-tinted nostalgic dream a couple of years from now.
Or maybe it's the 1330s. Back then, an English philosopher and theologian named William of Occam developed a principle now known as Occam's Razor, which is often translated as either "do not multiply entities unnecessarily" or "plurality should not be assumed without necessity." In contemporary language, what it means is that the simplest explanation is often the likeliest to be true. (Or, if you prefer, "keep it simple, stupid.") And so, while we're positing all sorts of reasons for the spiraling debacle and why the American electorate chose Bush, while we're setting up a series of funhouse mirrors through which Iraq and the economy and Christianity and homophobia and whatnot make Bush look like a success instead of the Worst President Ever, maybe we're violating Occam's Razor. Maybe people voted for the Repugs with both eyes open, knowing precisely what they were likely to get. Maybe this is what they want.
Recommended Reading: You gotta like a website called Project for the Old American Century, where columnist Jack Dalton asks a simple question. Americans still doggedly believe in the old social-studies class image of our country, America the good, the kind, the generous, even after everything that's been done in our name in recent years.
My questions to my fellow American citizens are this: What for you would be too much? What would this nation’s government have to do in its foreign policy, or domestic policies, that would cause you to forsake your basic belief in and support for that governing body and its policies?If it hasn't happened yet, will it ever?
And at Counterpunch, Hugh Urban looks at the parallels between the Project for a New American Century and the Left Behind novels. Both fantasies feature an intrepid group of people (specifically, white American people) who do battle with Evil to bring forth a new heaven and earth. And neither one has much to do with the reality-based world.
