Coping
Watching the Bush administration manage the nomnation of John Bolton as Ambassador to the UN is very like watching the Bush administration address global climate change. If you cannot persuade people of the rightness of your position, see if you can't bully them into it.
And you know what? It works pretty well. At least it makes them come out a winner, by the world's measure. The longer term issue of whether they are cutting off their nose to spite their face - after all they have to live in this world with the consequences of their choices too - seems too distant a concern for them to bother with.
The third article in a three part series in the New Yorker on climate change, written by Elizabeth Kolbert, makes me wonder if the Bush approach may be their way of coping. They must know, or at least have been told, that things are unraveling in their approach to the world; and that the world's climate is going to bring us to the brink of extinction even if we take on the drastic reduction strategies experts are recommending.
Over years of spending time with people facing tragedy and disaster, it seems some cope by entering fully into the fearful reality of what they face, doing what they can to mitigate the terrors. Others deny and bully, hoping either to not have to face it, or maybe, by sheer force of will, somehow cause the potential disaster to dissipate.
Reminds me of the manuscript of a sermon, with an handwritten scribble next to the typed text: Point weak, pound pulpit.
And whom is the shouter hoping to persuade? Usually himself. The Bush crusade has adopted a quasi-religious method that believes, or hopes, that vigorous action will alter the mind of God. Whether it is the nomination of John Bolton or the widely accepted science that human beings are a main cause of global warming, shout them down. In fact the Bolton appointment, like Bush I's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, looks like a deliberate stick in the eye of their detractors to show that they can prevail against the heaviest tide.
Good luck with global warming.
And you know what? It works pretty well. At least it makes them come out a winner, by the world's measure. The longer term issue of whether they are cutting off their nose to spite their face - after all they have to live in this world with the consequences of their choices too - seems too distant a concern for them to bother with.
The third article in a three part series in the New Yorker on climate change, written by Elizabeth Kolbert, makes me wonder if the Bush approach may be their way of coping. They must know, or at least have been told, that things are unraveling in their approach to the world; and that the world's climate is going to bring us to the brink of extinction even if we take on the drastic reduction strategies experts are recommending.
Over years of spending time with people facing tragedy and disaster, it seems some cope by entering fully into the fearful reality of what they face, doing what they can to mitigate the terrors. Others deny and bully, hoping either to not have to face it, or maybe, by sheer force of will, somehow cause the potential disaster to dissipate.
Reminds me of the manuscript of a sermon, with an handwritten scribble next to the typed text: Point weak, pound pulpit.
And whom is the shouter hoping to persuade? Usually himself. The Bush crusade has adopted a quasi-religious method that believes, or hopes, that vigorous action will alter the mind of God. Whether it is the nomination of John Bolton or the widely accepted science that human beings are a main cause of global warming, shout them down. In fact the Bolton appointment, like Bush I's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, looks like a deliberate stick in the eye of their detractors to show that they can prevail against the heaviest tide.
Good luck with global warming.
posted by Blayney at 3:49 PM
1 Comments:
Reminds me of all the people for whom the response to "I don't understand" is to repeat what has been said, but louder.
I am hopeful that Voynivich is not the only Republican with some sense of diplomacy. I think the reason that Bolton has not yet come to the Senate Floor is that they are not sure they have the votes to confirm.
Same thought about judicial fillibuster. Some of the older Republicans think that the rules to protect the minority are important - they remember when they were in the minority.
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