One of the basic notions behind interpretive approaches to public policy is that public policy often spouts social myths while ignoring social realities. Learning to pierce through the veil of mistruths to espy the real political landscape beyond is one of the crucial conceptual tools of interpretive policy analysis.

Charles Blow of the New York Times illustrates this well through an opinion piece entitled Empire at the End of Decadence. He says in part:

America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures — some of which are shown in the accompanying chart — we have become the laggards of the industrialized world. Not only are we not No. 1 — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — we are among the worst of the worst.

Yet this reality and the urgency that it ushers in is too hard for many Americans to digest. They would prefer to continue to bathe in platitudes about America’s greatness, to view our eroding empire through the gauzy vapors of past grandeur.

He goes on to use portions of a comparison of advanced economies by the International Monetary Fund (hardly a radical rag) to drive home his point. The chart is reproduced below.

It is worth thinking about

Cheers, Bill