>I couldn't help thinking about the quote at the end of your email about peoples' self importance causing so much harm. The current US foreign policy in the Middle East follows that pattern. If you look over the last 50 years, I would suggest that the figure should be 90% instead of the 50% figure in the quote.
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<g> I hadn't really seen it in that light, but I am not surprised you did, given contributions I have seen in chatter threads :-) But of course I am a well known hawk on national security matters though not much of a cheerleader for certain members of our administraton. ( I do admit , in reflecting on it, that there is certain amount of truth in what you say, at least in terms of what I regard as a very mismanaged good idea in Iraq. )

T.S. Elliot was actually referring more to elitist liberalism and social engineering i.e. "I am a good person so I will support social programs that will encourage behavior that is not in the long term best interest of the segment of society it is supposed to help, but what is really important is not outcome but that I be seen as enlightened and benign and get invited to the right parties in Georgetown or on the Upper West Side."

Hence the destruction of our educational system, the family in the inner city, and the creation of a permanent under-class.

But thank you for reminding me that the observation is applicable to the human condition in general and certainly not limited to any part of the political spectrum. It can quit easily be applied in many contexts.