Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things.

[UltraBudgie]

Donald Rumsfeld was devoid of intellectual curiosity with devasting historical outcomes.

Master of snowflakes, pawn of the blizzard. Rumsfeld was an interesting contradiction. Fervently energetic, the ultimate detail-oriented man. Step by step watching his shoes walk the path of power. Princeton, Georgetown, Navy, Congress, Department of Defence:

About the 2001-06 Snowflakes

When I returned to the Pentagon in 2001, I continued writing the short memos that had been nicknamed “snowflakes” some years ago. They quickly became a system of communication with the many employees of DoD, as I would initiate a topic with a short memo to the relevant person, who would in turn provide research, background, or a course of action as necessary. In the digital age it was much easier to keep the originals on file so I could track their progress. They quickly grew in number from mere flurries to a veritable blizzard.

The term “snowflake” covers a range of communications, from notes to myself on topics I found interesting, to extended instructions to my associates, to simple requests for a haircut. There was no set template; some are several pages and some just a few words. They were all conceived individually and I had never considered them as a set until I started work on the memoir. I then found that when reviewed together, they give a remarkable sense of the variety of topics that are confronted by a secretary of defense.

https://www.theblackvault.com/documentar...ollection/

In a way, he was deeply curious, about every issue, every item that came into his scope. Every "known unknown". The archive of his snowflakes can be browsed here: https://www.theblackvault.com/documentar...ollection/

Q: Could I follow up, Mr. Secretary, on what you just said, please? In regard to Iraq weapons of mass destruction and terrorists, is there any evidence to indicate that Iraq has attempted to or is willing to supply terrorists with weapons of mass destruction? Because there are reports that there is no evidence of a direct link between Baghdad and some of these terrorist organizations.

Rumsfeld: Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

And so people who have the omniscience that they can say with high certainty that something has not happened or is not being tried, have capabilities that are -- what was the word you used, Pam, earlier?

Q: Free associate? (laughs)

Rumsfeld: Yeah. They can -- (chuckles) -- they can do things I can't do. (laughter)

https://web.archive.org/web/201604062357...iptID=2636

"They can do things I can't do." He did not concern himself with such unknowns, only the known and controllable mechanisms that interfaced with them. A user.

As a White House aide around that time noted to Ron Suskind, regarding the attitude of the executive leadership:

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

An actor on stage, not the author or audience. Rumsfeld didn't write the play, perhaps he didn't even care about the plot, only evoking the moment. Snowflake by snowflake. Study the snowflakes! That'll keep you busy.

Intellectually curious? Yes. Curious about history? Not so much, it seems. If so, stunningly compartmentalized. Just a man doing his job. The kind of compartmentalization that fuels the banality of evil.


Edit to summarize: Great call xpert11! Rumsfeld: a smart person who doesn't believe stupid things. Very very carefully and well.