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The luxury of taking this sort of position is the luxury afforded them by social institutions they did not earn, such as their country's wealth and military dominance, that serve to insulate them from the consequences of indulging their preference for filtered truth, for framing these problems in whatever terms best flatter their self-image of the moment and serve their ability to denigrate their political opponents.

I agree. And if you think about it, it's the way a child is. A child assumes that all this here exists for them, and it's for them, and it's just all magically about them. Children live in a kind of bubble -- they don't interface well with reality.

I think about the childlike attitude of many of the "peace studies" people toward Iraq: they have almost this magical line of thinking that everything will be OK and everyone can be made to be their friend. It's just not the lessen of the 20th century. Stalin existed.

I think every child should be required to read the Gulag Archipelogo in school.