The Age of the Unthinkable, A Review

A grasping, stupid but obviously well connected author (to get such a moronic book published and then distributed), Joshua Cooper Ramo, wrote a book he called “The Age of the Unthinkable”. He should have called it “Writing a Book without Thinking”. I suppose he envied the success of that “Tipping Point” book, and supposed any anecdotal book could do well enough to pay him for his time. I am sad that I bought the thing, as I only helped him to pay off on cynical argument.

What is wrong with the book? Well, while we hope that intellectual books should be helpful, this book, while looking for anything helpful, is largely pointless. But, following the books logic, it is actually partisan to a great deal of harm. What the book does, over and over again with its anecdotes, is show how screwed up the World is, but then again and again point out how a great many people, while contributing plenty to the disasters and catastrophes, are having great fun and making some big profits. Again and again the underlying intent of the book is to raise the question, that if so many people are still making such a ‘killing’, then how bad could it all be? As long as some people are still getting rich, it must still be all okay. Never once does the author evaluate the possibility of whether or not these new pockets of private special interests are helping or hurting the cause for the survival of our obviously endangered Civilization. Like so much in modern Media Thought, the good of the many is sacrificed to the lusts and decadence of the most successfully selfish Individual. We are all playing “King of the Mountain” and as long as we can all still point to a Winner, then the Game is not in vain. It never seems to matter that the game makes Losers of us all, all but the morally worst among us.

Oh, I don’t mean to imply that it was all about money. Often enough the author goes from speaking of making a financial killing to simply speaking in praise of actual murder. After all, who can speak of success in this Modern Age of ours without touching upon facility in slaughter as a huge plus in making one’s way in today’s quick paced World. We have anecdotes of an Israeli Intelligence Officer who overwhelmed every expectation on how many Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians he was able to have assassinated. How useful! All this unjust State Murder, practically from his own hand, could cause even greater Outrage all throughout the entire Middle East, necessitating even more and more Military Expenditures, even more Grants and Loans from the United States – all contributing to strengthen the position of the Special Interests that hired him on to begin with. What a great success! No Special Interest is really Evil and Corrupt that can still hire such bright and talented individuals. There is no Wrong that a little Cleverness cannot make Right. And the author gives us quite the moral guarantee that this is all simply wonderful!

But the author wished to be seen as being politically even-handed and fair, and so he treats us to a chapter and a half on how wonderful the Terrorist Organization Hizb’allah is. You see, being so proficient at staying ahead of Our Heroes, the Israeli Army, Hisb’allah couldn’t be all bad! Again, the notion that Success justifies anything, everything. Are we ever encouraged to wonder how Hisb’allah had so come to dominate Lebanese Politics? A bunch of men with guns and ammo belts. Hmmmm? The author never suggests any other possibility for Hizb’allah’s advancement other than that they must have been exceptionally smart, kind and caring. Not a word that could raise the awkward suspicion that Hisb’allah had only out-murdered all other factions in a bloody civil-war, but, then again, the Author did not need to hide from any such conclusion, as it would only fit well enough with his primary premise – anything for the sake of success. I suppose the only Reform our Author could suggest, if he could think that far, would be that people should be paid directly for such large Body Counts. If we can Praise Murder, then surely we can Pay for it!

Of course, the Author, knowing all this, also knows that it would be in horribly bad taste to spell out any of his implied conclusions. So he presents all of his arguments, while consistently leaving out the very last steps, the conclusions, the morals, or rather the anti-morals, of the story. Every chapter of the book therefore comes off as inconclusive. Just when the time comes to sum up his Point, he doesn’t. The end of the book suffers in the same way, that the Author couldn’t possibly admit to the grand purpose of his book without appearing to be the very devil incarnate himself. But he had to say something. So he tells us that the entire planet might be saved if we follow the tenure of all the examples he has given – the Israeli Assassins, the Hizb’allah Terrorists, the various Wall Street Predators who DIDN’T get caught, AND if we are all decent and caring. DECENT and CARING!? Didn’t he listen to himself? How possibly could Decency and Caring have anything to do with anything he had just set forth!? Never for even a single moment had he turned aside from success stories in murder, mayhem and economic anarchy, to suggest that decency or caring could ever ruin a competitor or kill an enemy. Oh, wait, he in fact did suggest that murders do indeed lead to further murders. So sad. But he leaves it there, never proposing how any Special Interest Group could ever possibly bring this Killing to an End by somehow monetizing the interests of Peace. Again, the Author is so thoughtless! Given just a moment to think about it, the Answer is Clear as a Bell – we could keep people Hostage – instead of just killing everybody, like all his other Success Stories, we could make people pay to stay Alive. Peace at last! Peace at Last! Thank God Almighty, Peace at last! Peace and a huge Profit Margin! Finally, decency and caring triumph!

Now shouldn’t we wonder that all of this moral ambiguity and applied cynicism – cynicism with a hug and a smile – must have made sense to the author. Well, after all, he was a protégé of Henry Kissinger. Just think how many resumes Henry must have plowed through before he found this Star. Then one must wonder of the absolute miracle that any Morality is left intact in the World while all the substantial rewards go to Evil. Virtues only consolation is the thought that all the Evil People must find it an absolute bitch to compete with each other. Success is so Fine, but they all look so tired out from the Effort. Even at the top of the World, Henry looked like a broken man.

Oh, and the book was so needlessly short. Sixteen dollars should have bought a few hundred pages more than 250. Plenty more could have been looked at to support the Authors ideas of gleaning Profits out of Chaos. Why, it is a shame the book did not look back to support itself with History. There could have been so much! For instance, how helpful might it have been to compare the slow and stagnating progress of Civilization in Europe of the Ninth and Tenth Century, as compared to admirably quick Success the Vikings had in sweeping all that wealth into their own pockets almost overnight. The Monasteries took centuries to accumulate what the Vikings could steal on a good evening. What a wonderful business plan those Vikings had! And “barbarian” is only just a name. Don’t be misled by mere labels. What really matters is the Success! Yes, burning down a Cathedral to steal a candlestick might seem such a waste. But there’s no Overhead! There is no Candlestick like a free and clear Candlestick!

Oh, and the author might have given us an example from the Natural World. For instance, the Human Body itself. So slow it is. It takes a life time to grow a Human Body. Even in a child, weeks or months can go by without even noticing any increase, any obvious growth, not even incrementally. But a Tiger could rip a child apart in a minute. So we should all be tigers! Or even vultures. Even maggots can reduce a body to bones in just a few days. Violence and Decay are so quick, so Successful! Abandon Life and all those slow processes. Rome was not built in a Day, so to hell with Rome! Let us destroy instead. In these days, to be successful, one must be a Predator or at least a Scavenger. But be sure to be decent and caring about it! As long as we can add a kind word, any sin is forgiven.