September
28th 2009
Charles Krauthammer on the late Irving Kristol:
At 20, he got a job as a machinist’s apprentice at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He realized his future did not lie in rivets, he would recount with a smile, when the battleship turret he was working on was found to be pointing in the wrong direction. It could only shoot inward — directly at the ship’s own bridge.
I can’t imagine a better metaphor for the Neocon ideology Kristol would later create — a worldview that claimed to advance an irresistable democratic empire, but instead launched wars that gutted our economy, weakened traditional liberties, and wrecked the military.
Weaver on 28 Sep 2009 at 7:14 pm #
I’m told turning a turret towards a ship like that is impossible, though wrecking the US as they have seems impossible too…
HarrisonBergeron2 on 28 Sep 2009 at 8:14 pm #
Weaver,
Well, impossible to you and me, perhaps. We’re stuck in the “reality-based” community. Neocons make their own reality.
Weaver on 28 Sep 2009 at 9:09 pm #
Haha, good reply.
fellist on 30 Sep 2009 at 12:48 pm #
I’m a little surprised that Krauthammer didn’t see the echo you did, HBII. A sign, perhaps, that Krauthammer at least doesn’t think neoconservatism is inherently harmful to America?
HarrisonBergeron2 on 30 Sep 2009 at 2:25 pm #
fellist,
Oh, yeah, I’m sure that’s right. Like liberals, Neocons’ motives are so pure and noble, that results don’t count; only motives do.
fellist on 02 Oct 2009 at 1:35 pm #
I was thinking about self-deception.