[x]

Interesting take on recent foreign policy failures. It can't just be the prep school thing, since politicians and diplomats have come out of those schools for generations. Larger changes in the culture are probably involved as well.

[SampleMan]

If you are irreligius you cannot understand religious motivation. If you have no national pride, you cannot understand nationalism in others.

[McGruff]

[Darteaus94025]

“Why our prep-school diplomats fail against Putin and ISIS”

Because they’re pussies; they can only talk.

They can’t change a tire, a light switch or their shoes )w/o wifey’s OK).

[beethovenfan]

Because they’re educated beyond their intelligence?

[Oliviaforever]

And how is Mr. Putin doing this evening?

[Verginius Rufus]

There was a very good program today on C-SPAN3 about the Rosenbergs, which had Marvin Kalb and six scholars who have written on the Soviet spies in the US and related topics, including Ronald Radosh, Harvey Klehr, Allen Hornblum, and Mark Kramer. They all agreed that the Rosenbergs were guilty and that the books claiming their innocence over the years were deliberate lies. They also said that the people on the stage were all the scholars who would come out and say that the Rosenbergs were guilty (the evidence is overwhelming)--for a young scholar to take that line would probably mean not getting hired or at least not getting tenure.

One of them made the point that Truman and Acheson could not believe that Alger Hiss was a spy because of his elite social background--they just found it incomprehensible that such a person would betray his country.

Another point made was that the Rosenbergs could have avoided the death penalty by admitting their guilt but they were more valuable to the Left as martyrs so they chose to die--putting their devotion to Stalin ahead of their parental duties to their two young sons.

[The_Reader_David]

Generations ago, prep schools had their students read Thucydides, Plutarch, Livy and Polybius, and when they learned about modern history they learned about Metternich and Talleyrand in reasonable detail. That changed when the long march of the left through the institutions basically sacked American academe. Now prep school students are lucky if they get a good grasp of American history since 1945.

[GOPJ]

Why do our “best and brightest” fail when faced with a man like Putin?

Our 'best and brightest' also fail when faced with everyday Americans. That said, this is the most insightful piece I've read in months... Thanks for posting.