We may never know which member of the Bush II Administration it was that told author Ron Suskind that they were “history’s actors” who were “creating their own reality” when they acted and everyone would be left to study that reality. Oh yes, he also admitted what everyone knows: “we’re an empire now.” He was very helpful in his arrogance.

I supposed this fellow is right (assuming it was a fellow. It could have been Condelezza Rice, you never know) that when one drops bombs from space one does create a new reality (along with death and destruction). However, where “history’s actors” erred was assuming that only they could be “history’s actors” and “create reality” . Certainly an Iraqi insurgent created the reality of the Iraqi quagmire and the long-term occupation of the country not to mention the expense in running it. Certainly hurricane Katrina created the reality of a broken city and government’s inability to deal with it. And the financial crisis created the reality that government had to bailout large financial corporations or risk sending the entire global economy into a tailspin.

Actually all of these realties were created by single events, Katrina, the Iraq War, the financial crisis. Events are what underminded the Bush II Administration, the Republican Party and John McCain. Events they were suprised by and ultimately they could not control. And when McCain himself tried to control the financial crisis he looked irrational and mentally challenged, the very impression he was trying to give voters of his opponent.

One can understand the determination of men to try and make events happen rather than react to them all the time. Perhaps the Obama Administration will be a little wiser in realizing that like it or not, you can’t control everything. Events have a way of just “happening” that can trip you up if you’re too consumed with being gods. The sad thing is too many good people have died in the wake of the hubris of “history’s actors,” but I suppose that’s been true throughout history itself. As is the time when curtain comes down on those who view themselves as “history’s actors.”