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The Spectacle Blog
I've been sick the past few days and that's why blogging has been light. A lot has already been said about President Obama's Cairo speech, but I thought I'd chime in with some quick thoughts. Having read the text of the speech without watching, I was reminded of the Beach Boys song, "Wouldn't It Be Nice." That is, it was largely a fantasy of how wonderful things could be if current conditions were completely different, and everybody could put aside their petty differences and work together to live in peace with one another. The problem is, there's a genuine ideological difference between those who believe in a civilization based on representative government, religious freedom, tolerance of others, freedom of speech, women's rights, the rule of law, and those who see those very things as a threat to civilization. If appeals to reason and good will were enough to achieve peace, we would have achieved it long ago. But Obama was elected and now he gets to try things out his way, so we'll move out of the realm of theory and see if his approach can actually succeed.
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More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/06/05/wouldnt-it-be-nice
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Angel| 6.5.09 @ 12:58PM
Hope you're feeling better, Phil.
JRS| 6.5.09 @ 12:59PM
I agree. In a perfect world we would all just sit down, talk about our differences, play kiss-kiss and everything would be alright. Problem is that might work with your kids, but it won't work in real life. 3 (not an exhaustive or academic list) reasons come to mind. First, the above mentioned ingrained ideaological differences. Second, man's innate ambition and thirst for power. And third, and most importantly, resource constraints in the short run. In the short run worldwide resources are fixed (land, water, food, gold, etc...), so that any one's gain comes at another's expense. In the long run, most resources can be expanded (desallination to convert the desert to farmable land, different sources of energy, etc....). What prevents everyone from working towards the long run. Same thing that prevents us from good solutions in the future domestically. It requires sacrifices today for a risky payout in the future. Not only is this tough for any person to bear, it is especially difficult for politicians who's job is a function of current conditions. Since he's in charge, all I can do is pray to god we get lucky and more importantly dosen't screw things up too much. I worry that a much more shrew Putin or Chinese official is just sitting back waiting for the perfect opportunity to exploit our naivety.
Oldefarte| 6.5.09 @ 1:20PM
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE if, when the US was not involved militarily in the Middle East [after driving Sadaam back out of Kuwait into Iraq and then halting its military operation]during the Clinton administration; we/US had NOT been attacked by Muslim terrorists in the first WTC bombing, the USS Cole bombing, the bombing of our worwide embassies, and the bombing of 9/11/01 [but of course, Obama and liberals want to conveniently FORGET about those instances] How nice? Ask the families and loved ones of those US victims killed/murdered by those terrorists' attacks!!!!!!!
Pete| 6.5.09 @ 1:59PM
best article I have read on this topic:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTBkYjRmMzI4MmI3NTRkMzIwYzU0NDhkNzk2NTBlZmU=
Greg Conlan| 6.5.09 @ 3:33PM
An Irish saying:
If wars were fought with words Ireland would be ruling the world.
President O'bama has never said he has any Irish ancestors as of yet but we may soon hear of them.
It would be funny it it were not so scarringly true that he thinks-- talk is all we need--to paraphrase another song.
Stan Redmond| 6.5.09 @ 5:15PM
I would have though "Good Vibrations" made more sense.
Robert Belvedere| 6.6.09 @ 7:35PM
Quoted and linked to:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.05.31_arch.html#1244237063379
Smitty| 6.6.09 @ 11:44PM
Greg, Obama has Irish ancestors on his mother's side. Sorry.