Much of the blogosphere has a bad case of the vapors today, as they wait in breathless anticipation to hear the President confirm what everybody has already known for several weeks now. We are going to increase troop levels in Iraq by around 15%.
15%? That's it? Why all the hysterics (on both sides)?
The truth is none of the hand wringing is based upon whatever merits the troop increase might of might not have. It is all, 100%, based on symbolic politics.
And I want no part of it.
"Symbolic" politics is no politics at all. "Symbolic" politics allows people to be intellectually lazy, to hide behind their prejudices or their ideological fervor (which amount to the same thing in the end.) After all is said and done we find that exactly nothing has been accomplished.
Don't be fooled into thinking that "Symbolic" politics allows ideas to compete by proxy, because it simply isn't true. In fact "Symbolic" politics thwarts such progress by keeping all ideas unexamined.
Ask yourself this question: Does anyone truly believe the key to our success in Iraq is dependent upon wether we have 130,000 or 150,000 troops on the ground? No, of course not.
Then why the hell is that all people are talking about?
Why the hell are we wasting our time?
2 comments:
I submit, that in this media age, all politics are symbolic.
Now policy, that's a different story.
Of course, differentiating the two is difficult.
Walt
You are not wrong. Did you have to read Schattsneider (sp?) in Grad school? I'd kill to have our political culture today look like the one presented in "Semi-sovereign People" At least in that view politics was connected to some sort of real interests.
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