On not learning

The biggest problem for people who believe that Ivy League elites are best positioned to run things, because they're like really smart and everything, is that reality keeps intruding.  And the elites keep not learning:

Most American interventions come from two closely related childish fantasies: first, that one side in a tribal war is all good and the other all bad; and second, that the weaker tribe are the “underdogs” and therefore the good guys. Just look at those two ideas and you’ll see that they’re a series of disasters waiting to happen.

Read the whole thing, and weep.