Jordan Friedman

Wars are unpredictable. It’s part of what makes war so dangerous. Nothing goes exactly according to plan, especially in the absence of a plan. With strategic carelessness, outcomes of wars are reduced to games of chance, or opportunities for those who are prepared to take advantage of them. Every war exposes fools and foolishness in preparation, execution and aftermath. Wars also reward the cunning.

Last month, in an apparent oversight, the 92nd Street Y in New York did not invite me to deliver its State of World Jewry address. Instead, they went with Bret Stephens of The New York Times. Although he’s also a very good choice, I feel obliged to remedy the shortcomings in his presentation.

I’m right a lot. 
 I know that can be frustrating for those who disagree with me and I feel for you, but such is life, as they say. Of all the columns I have written, the one that has elicited the most direct and consistently critical feedback was one in which I was as right as I have ever been. Sorry critics. Back in September I professed my Bo-lief. Cynics have chided me for months.

For the most part, we assume that a communal understanding of right and wrong will ensure that those social standards fit within a range of acceptable behaviors, guaranteeing the opportunity for all to survive and thrive as human beings. But what happens if that communal understanding begins to break down?

We need to move beyond governing by Tweet. It may be that the ability of the people of the US to evaluate public policy has been stunted by the lead-based paint of social media, but before we collapse into a full-blown idiocracy, we need to demand that elected leaders speak in complete sentences and paragraphs. “Going viral” is valuable if your primary goal is to garner attention by doing something moronic, but smart people need to remember that viruses are often dangerous and should take care before spreading them.