{"id":12634,"date":"2020-09-24T09:07:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T16:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12634"},"modified":"2020-09-24T09:08:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T16:08:03","slug":"when-conventional-wisdom-gets-downright-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-conventional-wisdom-gets-downright-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"When Conventional Wisdom Gets Downright Dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0problem with conventional wisdom is not that it is always wrong. The rub is that the majority of \u201cexperts\u201d unthinkingly and habitually mouth its validity until they ensure that it becomes static, unchanging, and immune from reexamination and dissent \u2014 an intolerant religious orthodoxy that finally become dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recent Middle East breakthroughs are a perfect example. Both the Obama and Trump administrations sought quite different ways of navigating through the nearly 75-year-old \u201cMiddle East problem,\u201d usually framed as the Israeli\u2013\u201cPalestinian\u201d question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obama, in radical fashion, sought to empower and elevate Iran. The so-called Iran deal, the dropping of sanctions, the nocturnal infusions of cash, the exemptions for clear violations of the deal\u2019s protocols, the nefarious work of Hezbollah \u2014 all that and more was excused on the theory that a growing Persian Shiite Iranian nexus from Tehran to the Mediterranean was inevitable and would \u201cbalance\u201d both Israel and the so-called moderate Sunni Arab states. That realignment might prevent a Middle East war and end the leverage of America\u2019s former Arab allies and Israel over us.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2020\/09\/when-conventional-wisdom-gets-downright-dangerous\/\">Read full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review The\u00a0problem with conventional wisdom is not that it is always wrong. The rub is that the majority of \u201cexperts\u201d unthinkingly and habitually mouth its validity until they ensure that it becomes static, unchanging, and immune from reexamination and dissent \u2014 an intolerant religious orthodoxy that finally become dangerous. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3hM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8704,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-the-iran-deal-ensures-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":12634,"position":0},"title":"Why the Iran Deal Ensures War","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Iran agreement will remake the Middle East \u2014 for the worse. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online\u00a0 There are several scenarios the Obama administration may be entertaining as it pursues its diplomacy in the Middle East. It may believe that the new agreement with Iran will lead to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Civilians survey damage after an air strike in Douma, Syria. (Abd Doumany\/AFP\/Getty) Read more at: http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/425107\/why-iran-deal-ensures-war?target=author&tid=900280","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/iran-deal-chaos-in-middle-east-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":476,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-humpty-dumpty-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":12634,"position":1},"title":"The Humpty-Dumpty Middle East","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The United States is backing off from the Middle East \u2014 and the Middle East from the United States. America is in the midst of the greatest domestic gas and oil revolution since the early 20th century. If even guarded predictions about new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Middle East&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3935,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-options-are-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":12634,"position":2},"title":"What Options Are Left?","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Arab Nations Show No Sign of Concessions or Desire for Peace. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The conventional wisdom is that the\u00a0United States\u00a0is so tied down that it can't do much about the rocket attacks on\u00a0Israel\u00a0, the blatant sponsorship of terrorists by\u00a0Iran\u00a0and\u00a0Syria\u00a0, or the Iranian nuclear program. Oil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;July 2006&quot;","block_context":{"text":"July 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/july-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10075,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hall-of-mirrors-in-syria\/","url_meta":{"origin":12634,"position":3},"title":"Hall of Mirrors in Syria","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Corner The one and only. by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 Syria is weird for reasons that transcend even the bizarre situation of bombing an abhorrent Bashar al-Assad who was bombing an abhorrent ISIS \u2014 as we de facto ally with Iran, the greater strategic threat, to defeat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Putin&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Putin","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/putin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7627,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-obama-lost-the-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":12634,"position":4},"title":"How Obama Lost the Middle East","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The president put politics and ideology ahead of preserving hard-won gains in the region.\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online In his first term, Barack Obama all but declared victory in America\u2019s Middle East struggles. As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Middle East&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10089,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-is-americas-version-of-stanley-baldwin\/","url_meta":{"origin":12634,"position":5},"title":"Obama Is America\u2019s Version of Stanley Baldwin","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Both leaders put their successors in a dangerous geopolitical position. Last year, President Obama assured the world that \u201cwe are living in the most peaceful, prosperous, and progressive era in human history,\u201d and that \u201cthe world has never been less violent.\u201d Translated, those statements\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;George W. Bush&quot;","block_context":{"text":"George W. Bush","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/george-w-bush\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12635,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12634\/revisions\/12635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}