I opposed the Iraq War. If you’d asked me before the war what my foreign policy philosophy was, I’d have said “liberal interventionism”. I supported the Kosovo and Bosnia missions and believe that early intervention in Rwanda could have saved millions of lives. My feelings about Kosovo, Bosnia, and Rwanda have not changed, but I want no part of any group or movement that includes George Packer, Paul Berman, and Michael Ignatieff. I think many liberal interventionists — especially those at think tanks and establishment media outlets — care more about the warm feeling that making “moral” arguments gives them then they care about thinking through the details of an invasion. Anyway, no one ever lost their job at a think tank or establishment media outlet by advocating a disastrous war.
Anyway, I’ll tell you this: Iraq completely destroyed my faith in establishment media, convinced me that think tanks — even ones that purport to be liberal or centrist — are usually propaganda factories, and made me enormously skeptical of interventionist foreign policy.
Michael Gerson has an uncharacteristically thoughtful piece on why more and more people identify as having no religious beliefs. He posits two reasons why this might be happening: (1) the rise of the religious right alienates people and (2) the broader trend of people losing faith in institutions. Apropos of (2), a Pew report today shows that Americans’ opinion of SCOTUS is near an all-time low. Anecdotally, a friend who is a high up at bank told me not long ago that he thinks that large companies (or the government) need to have regulations in effect to prevent senior management from, in his words, “looting the company”.
The right has done a lot of boo-hooing about how younger Americans distrust institutions. As a liberal, I find it concerning too, since rejection of the government often leads to glibertarianism. But I wonder if it’s inevitable: any reasonable person who looks at companies, elite media, churches (or most other institutions) would have to conclude that all too often, they get taken over people whose aims are completely at odds with what their customers or readers or employees or parishioners might want, who in fact don’t care at all what customers or readers or employees or parishioners might want, and who are incompetent and careless with regard to everything except their own money and power. It’s not necessarily the institutions themselves that people are losing faith in, it’s the sociopaths who have gained control of the institutions.
They were careless people, Tom and DaisyPost + Comments (186)