Post-modern foriegn policy

One of the greatest and disastrous fads in academics has been the move to post-modernism. Basically the idea that nothing has any inherent meaning, that facts aren't really facts at all, just artificial constructs one can choose to accept or reject. This, of course, leads to the converse: the acceptance of non-facts as a higher and greater truth.

There is a famous case--famous probably because of the resulting, frivolous lawsuit--of a liberal, but old-school, professor at Wellesley coming down hard on Afro-centric "history".

[ TIME ] Lefkowitz's book is an amplification of a controversial article she wrote for the New Republic in 1992, after learning that Afrocentric "myths" were being taught as fact on her own campus. Students called the author a racist for publicly challenging the assertions of an Afrocentrist guest lecturer. More shocking to her was the silence of colleagues who, though they shared her opinions of Afrocentrist teaching, refused to speak up lest they be judged politically incorrect.

The real problem with Afrocentrism, Lefkowitz concludes, is not that its "truths" about Greece and Egypt are false. More dangerous is the underlying attitude that all history is fiction, which can be manipulated at will for political ends. The enthronement of this view on campus, Lefkowitz warns, means the death of academic discourse as we know it. Sadly, that seems to be happening. Better for all if Not Out of Africa stirs an equally fierce--and fair--polemic from the other side.

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Now think about two items posted on Powerline today:

"Not Ready for Late Night Infomercial Time"

Repeatedly through the campaign so far, Barack Obama has demonstrated a troubling lack of familiarity with American history, especially diplomatic history. Obama's cluelessness about diplomacy has raised troubling questions about whether he is qualified to be President.

and "He can't be serious"

Jennifer Rubin catches Barack Obama in what looks like a serious misstatement about his telephone conversation with Iraqi foreign minister Hoshay Zebari. According to Obama, Zebari didn’t raise the issue of Obama’s troop withdrawal plans. But Zebari's account, as presented by the Washington Post, paints a different picture: “My message. . .was very clear. . . . Really, we are making progress. I hope any actions you will take will not endanger this progress.”

The first of these shows a general lack of knowledge of even recent history. The second that Obama's words and honesty are not exactly closely correlated.

In other words, both show a disdain for facts, for the artificial construct of the truth. We may be about to elect a president who has lived in the world that the post-modernists have created all of his life--there is no truth, so why try to adhere to it? There are no facts, so why try to learn any?

An ignorant man, more inexperienced than any other candidate in decades is about to be our next president. Joy.