Reflection

I think what struck me most about professor Hass's last lecture was how quickly the last four to six years have become apart fo the annals of analytical "history". It shows that the world at cultural zeitgeist around us is produced by historical actors, but more importantly, by unique events. The atrositys of Abu Ghraib and "enhanced interrogation" used at Guantanamo Bay have helped dictate policy debates on redifining the definition of torture --and has even called into debate the efficacy of the information gained, which in turn has opened up discussion of increased transparnecy (from surprise of the year, the previous administration).
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11/2001 created fear in the international financial markets, which the government felt needed to be stimulated by easing regulatory measures and acceptable market practices. Years non-interventionalist policy on apart of the SEC and lackadaisical due-diligence by credit rating agencies helped lead to the current financial crisis --which in turn has lead to the re-leveraging of the country's fiscal futures to escape from.
Again, people can also argue the connection between the enviornmental crisis and the need for cheap oil and the Iraq war all they want, the point is it is interesting to notice how strongly some of the events that many of us would consider to happen 'not that long ago' resonate with the issues of today. And in our "flatter" more inter-connected world of today, our national narrative is increasingly becoming more international by the year. I just thought it was interesting and somthing I thought about during class, and made me feel really old :(