Brian Doherty's "Is American Foreign Policy an Infinite Crisis?"

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Brian Doherty began a recent article in Reason Online by writing:

He was the undisputed ruler of one world, convinced that the larger world outside his own immediate control was corrupt, lacking inspiring heroes and proper values. He acted boldly on the belief that through his own genius, combined with force, manipulation, and powerful weapons he had no hand in creating, he could make a difference—a positive difference, one he'd eventually be lauded for, petty carpers be damned.

To actuate his initially well-intentioned scheme, he launched an enormous, convoluted and confusing set of manipulations, tried to rid the world of magic, generated an interplanetary war, and built a giant cosmic tower capable of creating an endless array of alternate earths from scratch, powered by the energy forces of kidnapped Martians, Kryptonians, and random superbeings.

I am speaking, as the astute reader will have guessed, of President George W. Bush.

Doherty has put together a funny article. I've also argued that the world, at some level, looks at the President of the United States as a superhero or supervillain, simply owing to his tremendous impact on global affairs. And that we can in some ways gauge how people would feel about dealing with other beings far more powerful than themselves by assessing how they deal with the one who is already present in their lives.

It's an interesting question, and probably also an argument for the distribution of power -- so much of what we do in life is affected by this man, and is impacted by how well we attract, or avoid, or deal with his attention.

But we can talk about all that later. In the meantime, read the article.

Soc
Future Imperative