broken windows

This article on a new Rudy Guliani-bashing (Guliani Time) documentary begs the question: How many of our our politicians are civilized?

It's a very good read, because it doesn't do the sort character assassination usually associated with politics, but is still, unusually personal. Here's an excerpt that has little to do with the rest of the article:

Now, to me, the word civilized has always conjured up a certain urbane coolness. Being civilized is a condition, not a destiny; it's no more endemic to a people than fanaticism or terrorism. As a state of self-imposed and self-policed grace on the part of the very lucky, it is both very artificial and very fragile. A total freedom from hysteria might be another way of putting it.

I have to agree with the author's definition of civilized, sipping coffee and typing on a laptop, nothing -absolutely nothing- could make me realize just how fragile my reality really is, yet, how fast could hysteria creep in? I don't want to guess, but I'm sure surprising me and making me act uncivilized wouldn't take a lot.

Now that I've beat that point to death, are politicans any better at handling hysteria? Let me re-phrase that, are politicians capable of merely not causing hysteria, given their positions in society? When they can't even seem to respect empirical facts, which is the main point of the article...

Combine broken windows , with straussian politics (A stretch, and repulsive in it's own right, but I'm sticking to it), and throw in some policy doo-doo (not my words, but I will gladly lift them) with occasional Orwellian naming, and not only do you start to understand why there are movies like Thank You for Smoking, and why satire can't compete with our obscene reality, but also explain the reason why I find conservative ideology genuinely repulsive. While liberalism may not be much better (fat chance), at least it isn't blatantly disregarding of reality, and well, repulsive.

Drive it like you stole it!

There's just no other way to say it :)