Frum on Sachs

David Frum, writing in Commentary, neatly summarizes the blistering critiques directed against the infinitely foolish Jeffrey Sachs in the mainstream press and asks why such an intelligent and accomplished individual should be attracted to such crackpot theories. He answers:

[Sachs] is a modern American liberal, deeply distrustful of nationalism and especially of American nationalism. “The richest and most powerful country in the world,” he writes,

long the leader and inspiration in democratic ideals, has become the most feared and divisive country in recent years. The self-professed quest by the United States for unchallenged supremacy and freedom of action has been a disaster, and it poses one of the greatest risks to global stability.

This ideological commitment has lured Sachs into an infatuation with the United Nations, obliging him thereby to subscribe to a debilitating series of illusions, evasions, and deceits.

....

Like one of those unfortunate African countries Sachs yearns to help, he has ensnared himself in a poverty trap. But the poverty here is intellectual, the trap is of his own making—and external aid cannot save him.

Read the whole devastating thing here.

There is a fundamental sickness to the collectivist vision that underlays modern liberalism. Sachs embodies it -- Frum exposes it.