I think Walter Russell Mead has this right:
The Nobel prize winning economists, the multimillion dollar CEOs, the chattering sages of the Davoisie, the soothing and slick politicians and the red-faced and ranting ones: none of them really understands the world we are living in. The smug pundits on the talk shows, the columnists in whatâ??s left of the print media, even the know-it-all bloggers snarkily fisking their ideological rivals: none of them really knows what is going on, much less what the world needs to do.That is the new normal. Life comes at us faster than we are ready; change happens at the world in ways we canâ??t anticipate and at a pace that we canâ??t always comprehend. The stakes are high, the risks are unquantifiable and the answers are unknown.
It sounds like a pessimistic sentiment, but I don't think it is. There's never been a time that's been fully comprehensible to anyone living in it. At least today, we're able to access a very wide range of viewpoints and information. I have to think that can only aid comprehension, even if it also creates some added confusion.
