\n
\nNeeding and wanting are two different things.<\/p>\n
Juan Cole –Why Bill O\u2019Reilly is Wrong about Minorities \u2018Wanting Things\u201d & the Election<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This is an amazing post. After (accurately) skewering Bill O’Reilly<\/strong> for getting basic facts and historical terminology horribly wrong, \u00a0Juan then draws an equally \u00a0fact-free conclusion that suits his political worldview out of thin air. If \u00a0Cole thinks the country has become less oligarchic and more egalitarian since 1996, he’s high. Remember the Democratic\/liberal pre-election meme on twitter that “voter fraud almost never happens”? \u00a0Turns out it does happen …..in heavily Democratic urban areas.<\/p>\n Kevin Drum<\/strong> –We Should Probably All Calm Down a Bit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Yes.<\/p>\n How do our foreign friends and foes see the 2012 election for President?<\/p>\n The London Times<\/strong><\/em>–\u00a0Governing the new America<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Puffery.<\/p>\n Der Spiegel<\/em> –\u00a0In US Election, He Who Lies Wins<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Left-wing Krauts at their most obnoxious.<\/p>\n The Economis<\/em>t –\u00a0Which one?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Economist endorses “the changeling”.<\/p>\n Xinhua<\/em> –U.S. election day voting in full swing<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Surprising straightforward.<\/p>\n FARS News Agency –Obama Re-Elected as US President<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Even more surprisingly straightforward, but the senior Foreign ministry spokesman who looks like an Iranian Rod Blagojevich<\/strong>, makes up for it in an outburst of bloviation <\/a>about which no American could possibly care.<\/p>\n Non-election items (probably more interesting):<\/p>\n SWJ Blog –\u00a0Largo Man’s Labors of Love: Good Food and Warfare<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A Florida media profile of long time friend of ZP<\/strong> and SWJ Editor-in-Chief<\/strong> Dave Dilegge\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Steven Pressfield –Narcissism and Resistance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019m aware that there\u2019s an official definition of narcissism in the Psychiatric Handbook. The following is my unofficial definition\u2014and a theory of how narcissism comes about in the first place.<\/strong><\/p>\n Narcissism is self-iconization. To control our internal terror, insecurity, etc., one mode of coping is to erect an icon in our minds. This icon might be a mentor, a role model, a guru. It might be a lover or a parent, a teacher, a coach. I\u2019ve done it. We\u2019ve all done it. Sometimes it\u2019s healthy. It\u2019s a stage in the progression toward independence and self-command.<\/strong><\/p>\n When we set someone up as an icon, we say to ourselves, \u201cWell, I might not be able to handle my life by myself, but X is really strong and smart and brave. X can guide me.\u201d That\u2019s the iconization of others.<\/strong><\/p>\n Narcissism is when we iconize\u00a0ourselves<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n We decide (unconsciously) that\u00a0we<\/em>\u00a0are the center of the universe. In our minds\u2013and in our closets, our garages, and our bank accounts\u2013we begin erecting an edifice of adoration for this new god, ourselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n We convince ourselves that we are smarter, prettier, meaner, cooler, hipper, etc. than anyone else (or at least that we\u2019re smart enough, pretty enough, and mean enough to handle any problem.)<\/strong><\/p>\n In a way, this mechanism is healthy. In its benign form it\u2019s simply self-confidence. And it\u2019s often true that the narcissist\u2019s beliefs about herself are valid, within reason. Often the narcissist is indeed brave, smart, strong, savvy, and so forth.<\/strong><\/p>\n What is\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0happening inside the narcissist? [….]<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Abu Muqawama (Trombly) –(Un)limiting War: “Perpetual War” in Historical Perspective<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Fighting the Forever Small War<\/p>\n Pundita –Britain seeks to pull USA more deeply into Syrian rebellion<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n ….As near as I can figure from the following report the\u00a0plan is to go\u00a0around the EU\u00a0by pressuring the Obama administration to\u00a0arm the\u00a0Syrian ‘rebels’ — or, if the\u00a0administration has been shipping arms in clandestine fashion to the ‘rebels’ via\u00a0Libya, to\u00a0ship\u00a0weapons aboveboard. Oh and\u00a0the\u00a0rebels\u00a0want money\u00a0in addition to more weapons.\u00a0 Lots of money.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n No worries; the British will supervise!\u00a0 But after what they\u00a0did to us in Basra, in Helmand and in post-Gaddafi Libya, one would think the\u00a0closet monarchists in Washington had learned their lesson. Somehow I don’t think they did.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Pundita. Come for the sarcasm….stay for the insights.<\/p>\n USNI Blog –\u00a0Guest Post by CAPT David Tyler: On Warfighting: The Warrior Spirit<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Self-evident topic.<\/p>\n Wings Over Iraq –Thursday Defense Briefing<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n “Courtney Messerschmidt<\/a>“<\/strong> or one of the peeps who are “her” is maintaining the fort for the Iron Major with defense news links. When we all found out Courtney wasn’t real it was like that ugly Santa Claus incident all over again \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n FINALLY…..<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n I would like to depart from my normal protocol and feature a comment on a post here<\/a>, regarding the election and the GOP, by Dr. David Ronfeldt<\/a><\/strong> because it is spot on. For those unfamiliar with Ronfeldt, a co-author of Networks and Netwars<\/strong><\/em>, “TIMN” refers to his analytic model of ” Tribes, Institutions, Markets, Networks”.<\/p>\n I am Zen<\/strong> and I approve of this message:<\/p>\n From a TIMN perspective, the Republicans lost because they\u2019ve become excessively tribal, and much less institutional and market-oriented.\u00a0 More to the point, the Republicans lost because of the media:\u00a0 not the mainstream media or the liberal media, but their very own right-wing conservative media \u2014 particularly Fox News, along with right-wing radio talk shows, and all their well-known opinionators.\u00a0 These media have become so dominated by tribalists who aim to tribalize that they\u2019ve become counter-productive, even destructive for the Republican party.<\/strong><\/p>\n The usual frames for discussing what I\u2019m trying to get at are \u201cpartisanship\u201d and \u201cpolarization\u201d.\u00a0 But those frames have become too dryly analytical and easy to treat as isolatable criticisms.\u00a0 At this point, when matters have become so excessive, tribalism is a more accurate, dynamic frame.<\/strong><\/p>\n How do extreme tribalists think and act?\u00a0 They demonize opponents.\u00a0 They believe it\u2019s okay to lie to outsiders. They require unity, even a kind of purity for their side.\u00a0 They stress identity and loyalty.\u00a0 They turn combative and uncompromising.\u00a0 They shun moderates once on their side.\u00a0 They engage in magical thinking about their prospects.\u00a0 Et ceteraa.\u00a0 And of course they accuse the other side of terrible tribalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n There is nothing basically wrong \u2014 and much can still be righted \u2014 about key Republican principles: e.g., limited government, free enterprise, fiscal and social responsibility, and family.\u00a0 But recovery from the current debacle calls for more than the kinds of detailed dissections, self-reassurances, and tinkering adjustments that are now being talked about in election post-mortems.\u00a0 From a TIMN perspective, the party will have to de-tribalize and re-institutionalize, as well as become more market-oriented about ideas, in order to correct its approaches to those principles and restore itself to playing a nationally constructive, attractive role.\u00a0 And if it\u2019s leaders really do want to temper the roles of tribalism, they are going to have to rethink their relations with those associated media, which gain huge benefits and tout great success from being excessively tribal (while deny being too tribal?).<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Election Aftermath….. Outside the Beltway (Mataconis) –Republicans Need To Understand What Went Wrong If They Want To Win Again Needing and wanting are two different things. Juan Cole –Why Bill O\u2019Reilly is Wrong about Minorities \u2018Wanting Things\u201d & the Election\u00a0 This is an amazing post. After (accurately) skewering Bill O’Reilly for getting basic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16692"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16779,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16692\/revisions\/16779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nPundit Press –Fraud in PA: Obama Got Over 99% of Vote at Polls Where GOP Inspectors were Removed; Turnout Somehow “30%” Above Gov’t Numbers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Narcissus\"](\"http:\/\/www.stevenpressfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/images-13.jpeg\" "\\"images-1\\"")
<\/strong>It’s not incurable<\/strong><\/div>\n
\nTribalism warps your OODA Loop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"