The Hubris of Ignorance

[babylonsister]

The latest from Jim Wright @ Stone Kettle Station...a long, intense sobering read

Wednesday, April 19, 2017
The Hubris of Ignorance

Have you been following this? All these airplane crashes? And everyone is so confused. Everyone is going, Gosh, how come there are so many airplane crashes? Well, um, I gotta theory here. You remember, what was it? Like, uh, four years ago? The air traffic controllers, they went on strike? And then, um, Ronald Reagan fired ‘em? So then they just hired anyone who was hanging out at the time. And now everyone is going, Geez, how come there are so many airplane crashes? How come there are so many airplane crashes?! I dunno, maybe Walt the janitor isn’t qualified to land a Boeing 707!”
-- Bobcat Goldthwait

snip//

We’re a nation of amateurs. Bunch of Good Old Boys beat the best army on the planet. Bunch of farmers wrote the Constitution and laid down the foundation for the greatest country in the world. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people. In America, we’re not ruled over by kings. We don’t owe our allegiance to some hereditary weak-chinned inbred royalty.

No, Sir.

In America, why the people are the government and anybody can be president.

Anybody.

We are a nation of amateurs and damned proud of it, aren’t we?

That’s what this election was about.

Drain the swamp! Throw the bums out!

That’s why we hated Hillary Clinton.

Sure. Crony capitalist. Career politician. Corruption. Business as usual. You heard it from the Right and you heard from the Left. Hell, go check out my Twitter feed, I’m still getting it full bore from both sides.

That’s why we elected Donald Trump, isn’t it?

Because he was an outsider. Because he’s not a member of the Washington elite. That’s what Trump’s supporters said. That’s what they say now. He’s not like other presidents. He’s not a politician. The normal rules don’t apply. He’s gonna do things different.

Because he’s not a politician.

That, that right there, is a very American belief.

This idea that anybody can be the president.

That’s what we tell our kids. Eat your broccoli, Sonny, and some day you might grow up to be president.

Moreover, we Americans by and large tend to be suspicious of education and experience when it comes to government.

Anywhere else, brain surgeon, airline pilot, corporate CEO, dog trainer, we want the most experienced person we can get. But the President? Not so much. Power corrupts, right? You got to clean house every once in a while. Throw the bums out.

Except…



Except, in retrospect, perhaps ignorance and a suspicion of “elites” isn’t the best way to go about selecting a leader.

more...

http://www.stonekettle.com/2017/04/the-hubris-of-ignorance.html

[diddlysquat]

1. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[betsuni]

2. K&R

[HAB911]

3. If you are on twitter, follow him too

[longship]

4. Well worth a click-through and read.

R&

[bucolic_frolic]

5. There's not a company in the world

that would have hired Donald Trump to be its CEO because of his
dismal track record. He's like the marketing side of business, and
nothing else.

We're about to find out how that works in the world of politics.

[world wide wally]

12. You are right. No corporation would hire Trump because he is a horrible businessman

and he knows virtually nothing about business or anything else.
Trump is just a wealthy opportunist who proves that it takes money to make money. He also lacks a conscience which makes it easier to pull the trigger on high risk - high reward deals. Maybe that is why he's had 6 bankruptcies and 4000 lawsuits against him.
These are not the qualities that make for a successful leader of a great nation. More like a banana republic.

[Dustlawyer]

6. We do have a problem with the influence of money by the super wealthy and corporations.

It has been dragging our country down for the last 40 years. The ignorant were duped into thinking a racist, misogynistic, conman, plutocrat was the answer to the problems with the Establishment.

We need to get the money out of politics and fight for Publicly Funded Elections!

[mountain grammy]

7. K & R and thank you for this post

[bronxiteforever]

8. Wow. Just great. K&R n/t

[ewagner]

9. K&R

Great article and doesn't hold back from telling the sad truth about our "exceptionalism".

Highly recommended

[retrowire]

10. Oh.

That is a FANTASTIC read. Damn good.

[Augiedog]

11. If we were a monarchy, the court fool would be what we now have as dear leader. In one hundred

Years historians will be agog and aghast at the current state of the presidency. That is if there is a hundred years from now. If anyone is capable of ending planet earth it's our own version of North Korea's style of "hubris of ignorance ".

The Orange Anus is the most incurious president ever. That would be dangerous all by itself. But he lowers the bar even more by claiming ownership of a massive, powerful all knowing brain. How does that all knowing brain not know where his aircraft carrier is going? It, too, dawns on him, dimly, that health care is a complex issue?

I guess it makes sense he doesn't know where his aircraft carrier is going, seeing as how he doesn't know where his administration is going either, let alone this country.

I think perhaps his brain is not so massive, just swollen. Maybe he rubs it too much, kinda like intellectual masturbation, resulting in intellectual flaccidity and dysfunction.

[gelatinous cube]

13. K&R

If you have the time, read the full article. He does an excellent job covering the entire administration.

[Orsino]

14. Those who want the president to be the leader of the free world as well...

...are alarmingly prone to expecting this job to be simple enough for a doltish business dilettante to run well.

[Duppers]

15. Wow!!

Good government takes intellect, education, experience, curiosity, and a willingness to surround leadership with expert advice and support.

More than anything, it takes the cultivation of intelligence instead of pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Myths are important to a nation, but a firm appreciation of actual history serves a free people to far greater effect.

There is no virtue in ignorance.

And amateurs make for a lousy republic.

If you want a better nation, if you want better leaders, you have to be better citizens.

That was an excellent blog post. Mr. Wright is impressive.