God made me do it
Matthew Yglesias in a comment of the much linked nytimes article about bush's faith based decision process, sez :
Bush has a badly out-of-whack, reality-averse decision-making process, on its main thesis -- that all of this is intimately related to his religiosity -- it seems terribly weak. As David Adesnik writes, "if Bush's certainty comes from his faith in God, where do the certainty of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the inner circle come from?" Indeed.
As in many bush related matters, the answer to the question is "you're not being pessimistic enough".
So, matthew, i think you may not be pessimistic enough about it all.
First about bush's decision making. He may rave on and on and on about how faith changed his life, but i have never seen any sign indicating that god is something other for him than that ceremonial item, a word to put in the sentences he makes about about his faith.
So it's not like he really believes god speaks to him, imho. It's just that his whole faith resides in him saying god makes him do things and changes him and speaks to him. There are everywhere these interviews of poor republican schmucks that are about to vote against their interests, because their faith tells them to : this is the kind of "faith" we're talking about.
Bush says god, what he means is "i don't know what makes me do what i do". He's not trying to share his visions from above with his environment. He's calling god on the opinions and decisions he makes from interacting with his environment.
Then there is the inner circle, hopefully providing a balance to the speaking-in-tongue boy, as they may not share his direct connection to Up Above. But these guys are nuts. They're nuts as in "we create our reality", and it should be no big deal, as the system should normally provide means to neuter their influence, and even put it to good use.
What happened is boy king went all revolutionnary on the bureaucratic checks and balances, systematically rewarding/promoting the nutcases, ignoring/repelling the reasonable people. They don't have to believe bush god-mania to be a very nutty group overall.
Bush has a badly out-of-whack, reality-averse decision-making process, on its main thesis -- that all of this is intimately related to his religiosity -- it seems terribly weak. As David Adesnik writes, "if Bush's certainty comes from his faith in God, where do the certainty of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the inner circle come from?" Indeed.
As in many bush related matters, the answer to the question is "you're not being pessimistic enough".
So, matthew, i think you may not be pessimistic enough about it all.
First about bush's decision making. He may rave on and on and on about how faith changed his life, but i have never seen any sign indicating that god is something other for him than that ceremonial item, a word to put in the sentences he makes about about his faith.
So it's not like he really believes god speaks to him, imho. It's just that his whole faith resides in him saying god makes him do things and changes him and speaks to him. There are everywhere these interviews of poor republican schmucks that are about to vote against their interests, because their faith tells them to : this is the kind of "faith" we're talking about.
Bush says god, what he means is "i don't know what makes me do what i do". He's not trying to share his visions from above with his environment. He's calling god on the opinions and decisions he makes from interacting with his environment.
Then there is the inner circle, hopefully providing a balance to the speaking-in-tongue boy, as they may not share his direct connection to Up Above. But these guys are nuts. They're nuts as in "we create our reality", and it should be no big deal, as the system should normally provide means to neuter their influence, and even put it to good use.
What happened is boy king went all revolutionnary on the bureaucratic checks and balances, systematically rewarding/promoting the nutcases, ignoring/repelling the reasonable people. They don't have to believe bush god-mania to be a very nutty group overall.
posted by yabonn at 2:43 AM
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