Non-Plussed

It comes as no surprise that our society is overspecialized. But when it comes to understanding real life, and making informed decisions on political decisions which will affect many aspects of many lives--our jobs, health and well-being, whether children live or die, how our limited time on earth will be spent---we need more than a single limited purview.

Everyone is talking (everyone says) about Ron Suskind's article in the New York Times Magazine which basically says that Bush doesn't listen to facts, doesn't question or analyze, and often denies reality; instead he is guided by what he sometimes calls faith, sometimes calls instinct, sometimes intuition. Suskind further says that he draws certainty from doing this, and it is this sense of certainty that attract a great many people (apart from those who believe as a matter of fundamentalist faith that Bush was sent by God and so everything he does is divinely ordained.)

But the political pundits can't handle it. It's not in the policy purview. Charlie Rose interviewed Suskind, and often was debating him on the touchy subject of being guided by faith, or a Messanic impulse. He kept saying weren't other presidents guided by faith. He just didn't get that this president substitutes what he thinks is the guidance of faith for any other sort of decision-making process. And the absolutism of the conclusions are stunning. But this is too outside the usual political talk for Charlie to quite comprehend it.

Chris Matthews had the same problem, but with him it was worse, because when he "interviewed" Suskind, he obviously hadn't even read the article (just knew everybody was talking about it.) So he talked more than Suskind, throwing out his prejudices as to why Suskind was wrong. He just couldn't accomodate that kind of information.

Now we think even Suskind didn't go far enough in his analysis, but who could blame him? If he had taken the next logical step and thought about the psychology of this, he wouldn't even get on TV let alone be published in the Times Magazine. No, for that you'll have to go blogging.
Try this on for size:

BLUE VOICE

We aren't sure this is the correct analysis but it's pretty interesting.