As we head to war in Iraq and Syria against IS, a few thoughts come to mind. First, as many of you know, I support this action. I take IS at its word and believe its propoganda expresses its real intents. What fascinates me, is the strident anti - war sentiment even in Kitsap county. My county is probably one of the most pro - military counties in the country (well except for the ultra - democrat, ferry liberal, enclave of Bainbridge Island - the antipathy for whom I can express later). What is striking are all the no war signs popping up. Recently, some of my sons friends asked me what I thought of IS and noted all the anti - war talk going on. I expressed my thoughts and then explored the anti - war sentiment and the reasons behind it. I noted that a few things were disturbing to people following IS. One is that Obama had not heard of them before early June, Two, that starting in January and hitting everybodys radar by early April was IS s amazing leap in success. In virtually no time they went from an undisciplined, ad hoc, group of extremists, to a group with tremendous discipline and command and control, with precise military actions that, heretofore, were only seen in the most advanced of nuclear nations. A jump like this seemed highly unusual because it required so many parts to work correctly (intelligence, discipline, training, coordination, equipment repair, logistics, etc). So, I said, many very smart people believed that IS had help from elsewhere. I went through several conspiracy theories about IS. What amazed me was the conspiracy theory that got near universal purchase amongst these kids, who deconstructed everything I tossed out, previously. When I brought up the idea that this was run by the beltway security companies in order to get us back to war, they all believed it. I then tried to deconstruct this theory, that it would require that everyone shut up about this conspiracy, they said no, it could be compartmentalized and people in that field will adhere to mission, believing they are doing the right thing. The example they sighted was, surprise, Snowden. That despite 10 s of thousands of people knowing what Snowden knew, none stepped forward. Needless, to say, this struck me, not just as a uber-Snowden fan, but, also as someone who was amazed at these kids level of disbelief in not only their own government, but also, and this is crucial, their own countymen. Recently, a CNN poll showed that only 13% of America believed that federal government did the right thing most, or all, of the time. This poll echoed the level of distrust that exploded in the country. Charles Murray describes the separateness of the beltway counties from the rest of the nation. He describes how culturally, economically, and socially they are unto themselves. My friends around the beltway, all seemed to rally against Snowden, almost tribally, and failed to understand peoples concerns about domestic spying. Similarly, at a Grand Rounds, this last Thursday, I saw a very sophisticated cancer researcher, thumb his nose at federal IRB and HIPAA laws, as much as saying they are antiquated and will deny patients curing cancer care. It was the most revolutionary talk one could ever imagine in academia, let alone University of Washington, with its me-too, wannabe thought well of by east coast elites, liberalism. This attitude against DC can be seen elsewhere, with little effort. So where does that leave us as a nation? We are economically bankrupt, stifled by beltway regulations, written to benefit large corporations and their beltway cronies, with falling living standards amongst the bottom 90% of Americans, watched as crooks in both DC and the NYC financial markets do not even get charged, while the rest of us face felony charges for talking to patients, who call us, over the phone, or face MRPS for protesting a killing in our town, or watch as drones our deployed against us domestically. Niall Ferguson, notes in his seminal talk, Empires on the Edge of Chaos, that empires do not fade, but they phase change. They collapse rapidly in a power law fashion with only a small input, like butterfly flapping its wings in the amazon, causing a hurricane in the county cork, the last grain of sand added to a sand pile before the whole thing collapses or a discarded cigarette tossed out a window to start a huge forest fire. These systems are on the edge of self organizing criticality. After talking to my sons friends, I am now wondering if their is now too much dry tinder and overgrowth of distrust for this nation to survive. I am wondering, with my experience with writing letters and making calls to DC being utterly fruitless and a very accomplished and respected friends efforts serving on DC regulatory boards resulting in votes 12-1 against him, what will be the spark that will start this conflagration?
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 13:52:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015