Comments on: Risky http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/07/11/risky/ n. the principle of good order<br /><br /> "Observe the strange inversion of all order and sense! Dignity debased; how vilely is the function of a consul prostituted!" ~The Craftsman Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:06:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Daniel Larison http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/07/11/risky/comment-page-1/#comment-12178 Daniel Larison Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:27:28 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/07/11/risky/#comment-12178 You're right. I don't think that their position on antiterrorism is coherent. "Emotionally resonant" is much better. Perhaps what I really want to say is that this is the only kind of security they have any confidence talking about, which is not to say that they know what they're talking about. I'm not positive, but they refer to these elites in the same passage with "the educated class," "meritocrats" and "highly educated consumers," so to some extent I believe they're referring to a large part of the whole mass upper class. I think they are referring to the way people not in the mass upper class perceived them and reacted against what they perceived. You’re right. I don’t think that their position on antiterrorism is coherent. “Emotionally resonant” is much better. Perhaps what I really want to say is that this is the only kind of security they have any confidence talking about, which is not to say that they know what they’re talking about.

I’m not positive, but they refer to these elites in the same passage with “the educated class,” “meritocrats” and “highly educated consumers,” so to some extent I believe they’re referring to a large part of the whole mass upper class. I think they are referring to the way people not in the mass upper class perceived them and reacted against what they perceived.

]]> By: Elvis Elvisberg http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/07/11/risky/comment-page-1/#comment-12175 Elvis Elvisberg Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:37:18 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2008/07/11/risky/#comment-12175 <i>in the fairly alarmist post-9/11 months of 2002, the party that seemed most capable or willing to reduce exposure to the risk of catastrophic attack prevailed, but in subsequent years this same party has failed to understand and respond to other forms of insecurity and has monomaniacally fixated on antiterrorism as the only kind of security it can talk about with even minimal coherence. </i> Frankly, I think you're too kind to the GOP. Their views on national security and terrorism aren't quite that coherent. Emotionally resonant, in some instances, but not coherent. I mean, "we have to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here"? In Iraq, which had roughly zero al Qaeda presence until we invaded it, and despite the fact that there have been attacks in Madrid and London since? Also, I don't know how useful is Ross and Reihan's point about elites who keep patriotism at arm's length. Who were these elites? Certainly not people on TV every night like Tom Brokaw; certainly not, in my memory, any leaders in the Democratic Party. Sean Hannity-style jingoists work to create the perception that elites are out to suck your patriotism, but I'm not convinced it was ever all that powerful or noteworthy a phenomenon. I will concede that it's a valid critique of some mid-1980s university literature departments. in the fairly alarmist post-9/11 months of 2002, the party that seemed most capable or willing to reduce exposure to the risk of catastrophic attack prevailed, but in subsequent years this same party has failed to understand and respond to other forms of insecurity and has monomaniacally fixated on antiterrorism as the only kind of security it can talk about with even minimal coherence.

Frankly, I think you’re too kind to the GOP. Their views on national security and terrorism aren’t quite that coherent. Emotionally resonant, in some instances, but not coherent. I mean, “we have to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here”? In Iraq, which had roughly zero al Qaeda presence until we invaded it, and despite the fact that there have been attacks in Madrid and London since?

Also, I don’t know how useful is Ross and Reihan’s point about elites who keep patriotism at arm’s length. Who were these elites? Certainly not people on TV every night like Tom Brokaw; certainly not, in my memory, any leaders in the Democratic Party. Sean Hannity-style jingoists work to create the perception that elites are out to suck your patriotism, but I’m not convinced it was ever all that powerful or noteworthy a phenomenon. I will concede that it’s a valid critique of some mid-1980s university literature departments.

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