Xenoautometonism

Xenoatomatonism is a word I coined to describe the beleif that other people are basically automatons that will respond in predictable, linear ways that can easily be calculated and factored into, and thus they can be easily ruled or controlled. It is a kind of delusion. It is related to the "Gorbachev delusion"*, the idea that government has power and control that it clearly cannot have (especially due to the people's ability to evade it's restrictions).

While many people have described the errors and foibles of the Bush Administration, they have not described the core malfunction, the root the Thoreau would have us strike at. I believe that xenoatomatonism is it. Take for instance the overoptimistic estimation that oil revenue from Iraq would pay for the war. Try this test, stop someone in the street and ask them "If a large number of arabs were mad at the US, what are the top 5 things they'd try to do to hurt it?". I guarantee most people would have "stop the US getting oil" in the list. Yet the Bushrangers thought that they could protect infrastructure that is by nature vulnerable. Oil pipelines are large, hard to armour and due to their geometry need the largest perimetre to defend of any single strategic target. They really thought that despite their enemies having access to thousands of tonnes of explosive prior to the invasion and the experts to use it efficently the pipelines wouldn't be blown up. If the average person had this as part of their plan you'd think they were just stupid, but these were smart people**. To have not seen such a glaring inconsistency it must have been obscured by a belief that could not be shoved aside. The assumption that the Iraqis were simple chess pieces that would make the moves the administration's rules stipulated fits the bill precisely.


* Named this delusion after Mikhail Gobachev tried to limit alcohol consumption by limiting State production, without realising that people could make their own. This dispite being the son of Russian peasants and therefore quite well aware of the possibility of private illegal production.

** Yes I know, Bush is allegedly an idiot and Libby certainly is, but Rove isn't and neither is Cheney or Rumsfeld.