Quick Roundup 57

Rap with Todd Gitlin

Via email from The Chronicle of Higher Education, I have learned that there is to be a colloquy on Todd Gitlin's recent essay (I blogged it here.) on "The Self-Inflicted Wounds of the Academic Left." This live, online discussion will be at a time probably very bad for me -- noon Thursday -- but it is possible to leave questions in advance. Gitlin himself "will respond to questions and comments about these issues".

Oakes on Broken Windows

Zach Oakes writes about the "Broken Window Effect" as it pertains to the moral principle of integrity.

The deeper moral principle here is integrity. By only focusing on serious crimes, you're telling everyone that you're not consistent - that you don't fight crime on principle. By taking an uncompromising stance, you send the message to the enemy that he better watch out - if you thought I was tough on this graffiti vandal, just wait until I find you mugging someone at gunpoint.

I see this theory as essentially psychological warfare - what John Boyd refers to as the "moral level" of war. You're fighting by destroying the enemy's morale (moral disconnection) and, by cleaning up the little things, improving the morale of all the innocent bystanders in the area (moral connection).

He then applies this to the current war.

That was no love letter.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's well-publicized letter to George Bush yesterday will, fortunately, not give the State Department an excuse to pretend that Madman Mahmoud has seen the light. Rather, it uses the altruism that George Bush, the Left, and Islam share to justify (1) Bush, personally, giving up fighting the war, (2) the Left to go into high gear against the war effort, such as it is, and (3) Islam's continuing offensive against civilization. This passage pretty much unites these themes.

How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people's houses destroyed over their heads? Are you pleased with the current condition of the world? Do you think present policies can continue?

In other words, Ahmadinejad is attempting to seize the moral high ground. Of the letter, Condi Rice says, "There's nothing in here that would suggest that we're on any different course than we were before we got the letter." So long as that "course" is the annihilation of Iran, one of our greatest enemies, that is a good thing.

With Iran, there will be death and destruction regardless of what we do. Our only choice is upon whose heads it will fall. It is this fact that Ahmadinejad is hoping to make George Bush forget with this moral appeal against stopping his country.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Corrected a typo.