dagblog - Comments for "The Rise of Radical Incompetence"

Davies' observation that any

moat — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 23:23:24 +0000

In reply to The Rise of Radical Incompetence

Davies' observation that any technocratic system of production and exchange is not the home for the desire to have control of one's immediate environment reminds me of Ivan Illich arguing that a community would have to exclude certain tools to maintain that kind of power. With few exceptions, the "nativists" who now clamor for the privileges of their forefathers want to have it both ways. It is as if an Amish couple went on a carriage ride to town behind a horse while a Roomba cleaned the house before they got back.

Again, with the latest rounds

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 19:47:31 +0000

In reply to I hope he delivers a hell of

Again, with the latest rounds of indictments and details re: the extent of Russian hacking, Obama's in a poor place to be pontificating on the future. He got played - on Russia, voter suppression/reversal of civil rights, on his Supreme Court pick, on hanging around Afghanistan/Iraq too long when we should have been in full pivot towards Russia & China, and what was this UAE/Saudi/Israel triangle starting under his nose? And domestically, his incremental approach to jobs & wages & the recovery did pay off over 8 years, but with some big political costs and it didn't address the bigger shifts in our latest version of robber barons and megacorporations, and where it's leaving the common (wo)man. Even something obvious like the frightening rise in police violence especially towards black, he ceded to the whole Take A Knee/Blue Lives Matter-insults the troops football sideshow, rather than forcefully get his DoJ into the mix to make a strong statement if not actually fix things. Sure, in a happier moment I can argue the other side of this, but not feeling too happy at the moment as the traitor-in-chief goes into a secret pow-wow with our most dangerous enemy after spending 2-3 days embarrassingly trashing our "special relationship". Yeah, in olden times good examples & manners mattered.

She's insightful about Trump

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 19:39:08 +0000

In reply to Sovereignty issues? Masha

She's insightful about Trump and his rhetorical style. What struck me about Davies's piece is that he presents ignorance and incompetence as a political doctrine rather than a personality trait or rhetorical tactic. That said, their positions are pretty close and certainly compatible.

I hope he delivers a hell of

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 19:32:00 +0000

In reply to Wolraich... heads up...

Thanks, OGD. I hope he delivers a hell of a speech, but my expectations are low. I don't feel that Obama has ever had a clear grasp of the tectonic changes that are shifting the political world under our feet. He used to describe Republican hostility as a "fever" that would eventually break on its own. It's not a fever, it's an evolution, or rather a devolution.

Wolraich... heads up...

oldenGoldenDecoy — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 12:00:30 +0000

In reply to The Rise of Radical Incompetence

Wolraich... heads up...

You might find this of interest... x-posted from the TPM Hive (sub. reqd.)

July 11, 2018 | Quartz Africa

Written by John J Stremlau, University of the Witwatersrand

Barack Obama will give his most important speech since leaving office

Former US President Barack Obama will aim high with his Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johanesburg on July 17th. According to his close adviser and former speechwriter Benjamin J. Rhodes, Obama views this as the most important speech he has given since leaving the White House, one that will set the tone for his post-presidency.
Obama must deliver a more ambitious, activist, and forward-looking address than his eloquent remarks at Mandela’s memorial, in December 2013. That’s because much has changed politically in the five years since then. The world is in a much more precarious place.

Authoritative global indices portray dangerous trends of democratic decline. Principles of tolerance, inclusivity and the rule of law, abiding commitments that defined Mandela’s life, are under assault in other nations, from South Africa the US to Poland.

// snip //

Drawing on Mandela’s legacy, Obama can help the world better understand the nature of the threats to all democratic experiments. This includes correcting and preventing corruption and abuses of power.
A new book on state capture1, published by the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa, offers ample evidence of the threats facing countries. It includes country studies of South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Madagascar, plus chapters on state capture in post-communist European countries and in the US.
continues-->1

Here's the study in PDF

State Capture in Africa - Old Threats, New Packaging

http://www.eisa.org.za/pdf/sym2017papers.pdf

Another pertinent snippet...

From the original Quartz article:

The diversity of case studies points to a common danger: The diversion of public funds for private gain. Dictators can do this at will. Those who are elected democratically face obstacles. They must subvert democratic norms and hollow out state institutions, all the while obscuring their real purposes, often exploiting populist fears and resentments.

Mandela, who survived apartheid to create a legitimate constitutional democracy where no one is above the law, with legal rights enshrined for all, embodies the values that are the only reliable protections against the subversion of the democratic project through state capture.

Repeating the portion relating to the current ongoing attacks on our own democratic institutions here in the U.S..

Those who are elected democratically face obstacles. They must subvert democratic norms and hollow out state institutions, all the while obscuring their real purposes, often exploiting populist fears and resentments.

Sound familiar? Any thoughts on this from our Hive members?

======
~OGD~

Sovereignty issues? Masha

NCD — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 05:25:47 +0000

In reply to The Rise of Radical Incompetence

Sovereignty issues? Masha Gessen might have a clearer insight on what is going on.

June 2017, NYT, " Militant incompetence and autocracy are not in opposition: They are two sides of a coin."

Can an autocrat be ridiculous? Can a democracy be destroyed by someone who has only the barest idea of what the word “democracy” means? Can pure incompetence plunge the world into a catastrophic war? We don’t like to think so.... Terrifying as it is to contemplate the catastrophes of the 20th century, it would be even more frightening to imagine that humanity had stumbled unthinkingly into its darkest moments.....both Hitler and Stalin struck many of their countrymen as men of limited ability, education and imagination — and, indeed, as being incompetent in government and military leadership. Contrary to popular wisdom, they were not political savants, possessed of one extraordinary talent that brings them to power. It is the blunt instrument of reassuring ignorance that propels their rise in a frighteningly complex world.

We imagine the villains of history as cunning strategists, brilliant masterminds of horror. This happens because we learn about them from history books, which weave narratives that retrospectively imbue events with logic,

As someone who has spent years studying Mr. Putin — and as one of a handful of journalists who have had an unscripted conversation with him — I can vouch for the fact that he is a poorly educated, under-informed, incurious man whose ambition is vastly out of proportion to his understanding of the world......

In the past few months, Americans too have grown familiar with the sight of a president who seems to think that politics consists of demonstrating that he is in charge. This similarity is not an accident............. The rejection of the complexity of modern politics — as well as modern business and modern life in general — lies at the core of populism’s appeal.

The first American president with no record of political or military service, Donald Trump ran on a platform of denigrating expertise. His message was that anyone with experience in politics was a corrupt insider and, indeed, that a lack of experience was the best qualification....

he is, in keeping with his understanding of politics, resentful because his opponents — his predecessor, the elites, the establishment — have made things so complicated. If they had not, things would be as he thinks they should be: One man would give orders, and they would be carried out. ....The United States would run like a business, an old-fashioned top-down company of the sort Mr. Trump used to run, the kind of company managed through the sheer exertion of power......the budding Trump administration, attacks institutions and attempts to render expertise irrelevant every step of the way....this is how autocracy erodes democracy...

This struck me as a more

Michael Wolraich — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:14:07 +0000

In reply to The Rise of Radical Incompetence

This struck me as a more astute assessment of 21st century populism than others I've read. It's not globalists vs nationalists, it's government vs sovereignty.