[lit-ideas] JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM. (was Re: Re: Historians & Bush)

Phil Enns wrote:
> Mike Geary wrote:
> 
> "All depends on the interpretation, I guess."
> 
> Interpretation of which facts I was referring to, right?


I'm not sure which facts you are/were referring to.  My position is, I think, 
that something is a fact only because we interpret it as a fact.  We need look 
no further than the Bush Administration's justification for the war in Iraq to 
see the 'truth' of Nietzsche's dictum.  It was a justification based on the 
interpretation of all those WMD "facts" garnered by the best intelligence 
agencies in the world.  Oops.  OK, seems those facts were interpretations of 
other "facts".  

Or take Amago's examples: "Johnson's utterly corrupt policies during 
Reconstruction following the Civil War are the direct cause of our race 
problems in this country."   'Utterly corrupt' -- interpretation; 'the direct 
cause of our race problems' -- interpretation; 
"Bush has unleashed forces that will haunt us for decades or longer." -- not 
just an interpretation, but a prediction based on his interpretation of Bush's 
policies; 
"He took the U.S. from economic superpower to a debtor nation with nukes" 
[well, actually we've been a debtor nation for several decades now]
"while creating a class of Darwinian terrorists (killing off the dummies in 
Iraq and leaving the best)" -- interpretation.  

And yet Andy says these are facts.  In another post Andy writes: "But, all his 
actions as president have been severely deleterious to the country." -- by 
Andy's interpretation, but just 13 months ago the majority of this country 
thought otherwise and re-elected him.  
And further: "He bankrupted us." -- not an interpretation, just an 
exaggeration.  
"He proved to the world that militarily we can't win over a bunch of rag tag 
insurgents." -- that's still an open question.  
"He galvanized the Muslim world against us" -- they were galvanized against us 
long before Bush came along -- though Bush hasn't, in my opinion, done anything 
to ameliorate their historical grievances against most of the Western cultures; 
"and created an elite breed of terrorists in the process." -- 'elite'?   
"He did absolutely nothing to prevent (strengthen levies) Katrina."  Nor did 
the State of Louisiana or the City of New Orleans or the Corps of Engineers or 
anyone else. 

Before Andy accuses me of supporting Bush, let me remind him that I harbor 
nothing but ill-will for this administration and one of my greatest joys is to 
watch Fox News Sunday and hurl obscene invectives against Hume and Kristol and 
Wallace and send them all emails that make Andy's rants seem reasonable.  The 
FACT is we're all proverbial blind men feeling an elephant.

Mike Geary
Memphis
and that's a fact.

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