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So how is that "Smart Power" working out?

How is "Smart Power" working out for the United States?


  • Total voters
    21
I think I see the problem here. You desperately want to be labeled as an academic so when I say you are not one you get offended. The sad truth is these real academics will never accept you into their elitist club no matter how hard you try. To them you will always just be a truck driver with an education.

Again you are wrong. What you're doing is attacking education. If you go back and look at definition of an academic (a noun) it is one who teaches. You try to hide your contempt of learning by fudging the definition something most don't meet.
 
Sounds better than an academic and the fact that they are a professional in one area means they put their intellect to work and are people that do, not people that hypothesize. They have my vote as they are defined by you.

I don't know how you think it is better than an academic who is a specialist in a field and tries to have their ideas tested and applied. The negative stereotype of the intellectual is one who is outside their comfort zone, but by sheer virtue of being known in one field (with Noam Chomsky it is linguistics) believes it is thus possible for them to influence the elite and the popular conception of another area (in Noam's case it is frequently foreign policy), despite not having any experience whatsoever and proposing lofty ideas with no grounding in reality.
 
"lofty ideals with no grounding in reality" now there's a recipe for disaster
 
That's what we were promised, right? Ineffectual bumbling around the Middle East was done because the smart people were in charge. The world wasn't a mess of incompatible national interests, difficult trade-offs, no-win situations, and irreconcilable differences, but merely a rubix cube, waiting for the Smartest President Ever to come in and Be Wonderful Enough To Solve It. Remember?


So. How's that working out?

Education is good, Smart is better, Leadership is best.
 
"lofty ideals with no grounding in reality" now there's a recipe for disaster

It's based on a stereotype of an intellectual. I don't always buy into it, but I don't agree with Noam's ideas either.

That being said, I have to say I have heard a lot of the same qualities from the average citizen, on a variety of issues. One has academic credentials, the other does not, but they both can sound the same.
 
"lofty ideals with no grounding in reality" now there's a recipe for disaster

It is possible to have lofty ideals and still be grounded in reality. You can't get to the moon unless you reach for the stars.
 
I don't call Lobbin' a few cruise missiles into Syria smart lofty or intellectual In my CONservative playbook its just plain DUMB
 
I don't call Lobbin' a few cruise missiles into Syria smart lofty or intellectual In my CONservative playbook its just plain DUMB
I wouldn't be at all surprised if a few went off course and landed in Texas, or maybe even near the governor's mansion in Arizona. One could have my name on it, or worse, "to whom it may concern".
 
According to the poll, smart power has screwed us. Maybe we should consider converting smart power into a combustible fuel.
 
According to the poll, smart power has screwed us. Maybe we should consider converting smart power into a combustible fuel.

We need to alert AP to your suggestion! He's interested in energy independence for this Country! :lamo:
 
We need to alert AP to your suggestion! He's interested in energy independence for this Country! :lamo:
I am too, and the nice thing about smart power for fuel is that the ads are already written, virtually. I admit it's going to be hard to cram Krugman into a fuel tank, but what the heck, I'm willing to give it a try.
 
I am too, and the nice thing about smart power for fuel is that the ads are already written, virtually. I admit it's going to be hard to cram Krugman into a fuel tank, but what the heck, I'm willing to give it a try.

You've got multiple likes on this idea! :thumbs: :lamo:
 
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