FOREIGN POLICY AND THE AMERICAN ELITE: PART IV

Link Preface:

“American foreign policy in an age of proximity” by Dave Schuler at The Glittering Eye

“Foreign Policy And The American Elite: Part I” by Zenpundit

“Foreign Policy And The American Elite: Part II” by Zenpundit

“Foreign Policy And The American Elite Part III“: by Zenpundit

“Setting the floor (and the ceiling)” by Dave Schuler at The Glittering Eye

In Part III of this series I took a look at the demographics of the new, more representative bipartisan, elite that replaced the much vaunted, deeply WASP, Eastern Establishment. I argued that despite some superior attributes ( a point hotly contested by my blogfriend Dave) this new elite was in some respects, far less effective at national leadership. A deficit that I attributed to a shift in ideology which is the subject of Part IV.

The Eastern Establishment dominated the making of American foreign policy from the Spanish-American War – which its members actively worked to provoke – through the Vietnam War. The “Best and The Brightest” blundered so badly in the jungles of Southeast Asia as to have discredited themselves, suffering not only a geopolitical debacle but in some instances, a veritable moral collapse. While many individual members of the Establishment retained considerable influence ( or institutions, even today the imprimatur of the Council on Foreign Relations is nothing to sneeze at), decisive power in foreign affairs shifted to their critics on the Left and the Right in the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Today’s politically bifurcated elite does have a ” vital consensus” on strategic national interests but it is weak, representing the lowest common denominator that can be reached by two factions being pulled apart by the gravitational force of partisanship. The elite has less in common politically than they do in terms of class, education and culture – and even that is being eroded by increasing religiosity on the Right. The elite today is effectively ” Post-Nationalist“in their worldview a way the Eastern Establishment, for all their Atlanticism and creation of international institutions, were not.

Worldviews are inculcated, maintained and are altered by education and experience. Many readers here are familiar with the OODA loop of strategic theorist Colonel John Boyd. The “Orientation'” stage results in the efficient cognitive integration of observed data or, alternatively, self-deception and error. While this process can be consciously analytical and methodical most often it relies upon automaticity . Automatcity as the default process of cognition makes the educational aspectof worldviews ( which would fit under ” cultural traditions” as well as “previous experience”) deeply influential as core values are potent emotional triggers that can shut down analytical reasoning. What you are taught to believe often interferes with how you think. Or even what you may perceive.

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