So, fascinating stuff, isn't it? Makes you wonder. I am not so much 
interested by who said what and/or when, no, it is the deeper 
implications I am interested in, fully realising that the statements are 
taken out of their context, so only examined at face value. Like then 
and now, opinions dominate the debate in the public arena and we are 
rapidly dismissive when confronted with a statement, any statement. We 
shall say that Mark Rutten is right (or wrong), stupid (or smart) and 
move on in the expectation that everything has been said and that truth 
has prevailed. Whatever truth; and it is a comfortable thought.

However, the /discomfort/ of thought, the philosophical implication, is 
much more interesting. First note how very similar Clinton's and 
Rutten's statements are in their immediate consequences: vision /and/ 
its absence, both lead to blindness it seems. Then, think a little 
further and ask yourself /what/ vision is blocking. What is the /view/ 
supposed to be? What, except other visions, one feels obliged to ask. 
What is so hampering about visions that it feels like a handicap? To be 
sure, the visions of a dictator are better left far from us; 
stubbornness in following an unrealistic dream is folly; but senseless 
flight from reality is that too as is an apathetic day-by-day life 
without incentives. Darkness or elephant?

Then, could there really be somebody without any vision? Could the 
absence of vision maybe be only the expression of frustration of not to 
be able, through circumstances, to follow one's personal vision? Mark 
Rutten seems almost too happy to believe that. Could he be a modern 
equivalent of Robert Musil's man without qualities? A disturbing 
thought. Personally, I do not believe in the possibility of a visionless 
personality, but isn't that - again - an opinion? Don't we all have 
dreams about the future? our own or for the country or the world? 
Frustrating? Yes. And what is the implication of refusing vision in 
leading a country? Is it bureaucracy at its most artful height? Is it 
failure to recognize opportunities when they present themselves? Is it 
the wisdom of the patriarch ruling his flock?

I'll leave you with that.

Thomas

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