"Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
My friend and Ricochet member Okan Altiparmak has a column today at Pajamas Media that I commend to your attention:
Like something out of a Soviet bloc country rather than Turkey’s traditional democracy, the government and its supporters spoke of “an Ergenekon of soccer,” a comparison to the trumped-up case in which many hundreds have been arrested and imprisoned without trial for three years. They were charged with allegedly planning a coup. Their actual “crime” seems opposition to the current government.
One reporter for the pro-government and Islamist Today’s Zaman newspaper, Huseyin Gulerce, spoke about networks of “coupmakers” and subversive elements in soccer that would now be brought to heel. “Today, the civilian authority is calling the shots” and its enemies “are doomed to lose.” The timing of the soccer struggle coincides with the resignation of the four top military officers, another case of the government asserting itself over a key institution.
When Turkish voters approved the September 12, 2010 referendum on 26 items of constitutional change, the United States and EU hailed the results as proving “the vibrancy of Turkey’s democracy” and “a step in the right direction.”
(A note: They haven't been imprisoned without trial. They've been imprisoned without conviction. The trial is endless. I've seen it.)
Below it is a comment that I think fairly summarizes the general mood of the American public right now toward the wider world:
I’m no longer willing to pretend I care about them or their self-inflicted agonies and, frankly, I doubt that any ordinary Joe REALLY does either.
Explain to me how "ordinary Joes" have become so brainwashed that they cannot figure out why this matters to them--or their role in it.
For as long as I've known him, Okan has been boring his friends with his Besmenov thesis: "Yuri Besmenov. You've got to watch this video. You've got to. It explains what's happening." We've always kind of laughed at him--Okan and Besmenov, yeah, yeah.
I'm not laughing now.
This is what will happen in the United States if you allow all these schmucks to promise all the goodies and paradise on earth to destabilize your economy, to eliminate the principle of free market competition, and to put a big brother government in Washington, D.C. with benevolent dictators like Walter Mondale who will promise lots of things, never mind if they are fulfilled or not. He will go to Moscow to kiss the bottoms of the new generation of Soviet assassins. Never mind. He will create false illusions that the situation is under control. Situation is not under control. Situation is disgustingly out of control.
I don't think it's all a KGB plot--although they surely helped. I think we did it to ourselves.
And Turkey, what's happening isn't all an American plot--although we surely helped. I think you did it to yourselves.
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Comments :
May '11
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
SInce the end of the cold war, it's been much easier to promote socialism and marxism (and even communism) without people thinking of the inevitable gulags.
Sep '10
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
Sorry, but, I would dispute the assertions of brainwashing.The current situation in America is fostering a renaissance of isolationism. I'm not sure I can hold the big picture view and decry its shortsightedness. I am really starting to think we are in a house on fire situation (who am I trying to kid; I am convinced) and that worrying about the neighbors lawn will have to wait.
Mar '11
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
Disclaimer: I am the furthest thing from a conspiracy theorist and endorse Claire’s point above about “having done it to ourselves”
Something in Besmenov’s account that rings very true (scary) to me is the degree to which a “demoralized” person (in his technical language) is incapable of making rational choices despite the presence of strong evidence.
It reminded me of Michael Lewis’ book The Big Short. Lewis is not a conservative, as the book is certainly not the definitive account of the financial collapse by any means. Nevertheless, I have no reason to believe he is being anything but forthright in conveying to us the baffling truth that many investment firms and financial institutions had the data staring them in the face that CDOs were completely worthless, and everybody seemed to choose to collectively believe the fable rather than the facts.
These weren’t your average person putting money into a 401k, these were people who had built internationally recognized companies over the course of a generation—all of who decided not to ask the difficult questions or challenge the status quo because it seemed to be working, so why rock the boat; all in spite of evidence.
Jun '11
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
Crow's Nest: Disclaimer: I am the furthest thing from a conspiracy theorist and endorse Claire’s point above about “having done it to ourselves”
These weren’t your average person putting money into a 401k, these were people who had built internationally recognized companies over the course of a generation—all of who decided not to ask the difficult questions or challenge the status quo because it seemed to be working, so why rock the boat; all in spite of evidence. · Aug 5 at 7:12am
It's "group-think." It's why every so often a previously undefeated army gets clocked and loses a big battle or even a war they should have won. On Wall Street, there are too many people wearing the same suits, eating lunch at the same places, going to the same B schools.
The toughest emotional obstacle to investing is not being able to divorce yourself from that investment and see it for what it is. You've become part of the experiment.
There were also plenty of large and small investors who avoided this calamity by employing some rigor and some authentic analysis.
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
If the neighbor we were talking about were Venus, I'd agree. But to imagine we can ignore foreign policy now is the worst possible delusion.
Sep '10
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
I'm not saying it's smart. I'm saying it's understandable. And it is very possibly the reality, and the consequences thereof, that we will be living with.
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
Yes, I agree.
Dec '10
Re: "Situation is Disgustingly Out of Control"
During the Cold War, it was pretty clear what would happen to the USA if the Soviet Union and its allies gained a strategic advantage. The prospect of a 20-megaton bomb detonating over one's city concentrates the mind wonderfully.
It is not nearly so easy to see the mechanism whereby the political situation in Turkey will lead to blood running in the streets of Cincinnati. The connections involved are less obvious, less direct. We tend to see foreign policy issues these days more in two bins: fighting Islamicist terrorism, or helping to free and/or feed victims of oppression.
Most Americans, I believe, don't see the dimensions of the various Great Games being played across the globe and don't understand how it is that we could very well wake up in a few years' time and find ourselves penned in and partly or completely at the mercy of (hostile) others. Worst of all, I don't see the Obama Administration getting it at all.