Obama’s Syria policy in shambles as Assad opposition squabbles

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20. We largely agree, and where we disagree, are agreeable about it. That's all too rare. ;-)

Do you think the elites continue to be truly clueless, or that they're simply running complex competing games, each hoping that they can game the system so as to be able to anticipate and manage uncertain outcomes?

Or, do you think that is just evidence of their collective cluelessness, and is the way it was a century ago when it led to disaster - the system was then and is now actually chaotic, which randomizes the outcomes of all subsets of the game?

I believe we agree that it is unlikely that there is any one ruling elite successfully running the show for its own gain for any extended period. But, there may be several lesser elites who do rather comparatively well out of seeming chaos.

I certainly think you have captured things well in your concluding statement:

But anyway, I see the same thing today, the hubris, the provincialism, the arrogant ignorance and deep faith in the failed status quo. In the period of rapidest change in human history, by orders of magnitude, all effort is bent to stall progress. And denial has a steep cost.