Here Comes Reality

Our friends on the left never fail to amuse. Our latest smile comes from the current fad to associate oneself with the "reality-based community". Let's single out Matt Yglesias as a protypical example - Matt is neither humorless nor lacking in insight, so I suppose he is simply being wilfull in his misinterpretation of a delightful passage from a recent NY Times magazine article.

Ron Suskind wrote this on October 17:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

Mr.Suskind attempts to use this anecdote to create a dichotomy between "reality-based" and "faith-based", but he was right the first time - he didn't fully comprehend. Allow me to illustrate by painful personal example.

Only last week, I was a deeply committed member of a reality-based community. As a long time Yankee fan, I would study my television screen, throwing popcorn at it and imploring A-Rod to get one clutch hit, just one time! Oh, I studied the heck out of that reality, and wasted a lot of popcorn doing it.

Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, on the other hand, took a different tack. With each swing of his bat, he gave me a new and increasingly ghastly reality to study. By the time Johnny Damon joined the carnage in Game 7, Yankee fans had seen enough reality to last through the winter.

The point being made by the White House aide was clear enough - there are watchers, and doers. But, given the pride taken on the left by their reality-based orientation, a simple division of labor suggests itself as the election approaches - you keep watching, and we'll keep doing.

MORE: Mickey gets all Marxist on this.

Comments

[Paul Zrimsek]

I think we're privileged to witness the birth of the successor to "politically correct".

[Matthew Yglesias]

Hm...where did I misinterpret that passage? I believe that if you read this post you'll see me criticizing Suskind's article in a manner of which I think you would approve.

[Ben Noah]

Heh. Great comparison to the ALCS.. I will share your pain all winter.

[roscolimbaugh]

reality = perception of reality?

Go shoot craps in Vegas left wingers. You may or may not be happy with what you discover about reality. Don't forget to read a few books on how to beat the house and go with a gung ho and very positive attitude.

And you'll lose regardless.

[Slartibartfast]

Reality didn't change, you were just studying an insufficient portion of it for your purposes.

[TM]

Ok, good point by Matt, who I was chiding for the "Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community" banner on his blog. But let me see, Matt has a prestigious job (complete with paycheck!) at a respected magazine, so he ought to be proud, and he is a writer, so (except for the Timesmen) he is reporting on news, not making it (or making it up)... uhh, Matt, any chance you were up for an appointment in the Kerry Administration?

If not, you probably are pretty committed to the reality based lifestyle, and I need a better example.

Excuse me while I throw some popcorn at my monitor.