The Weakness of Genre

“??? ???????” asked Lenin in 1901. Ever since then, learned men have felt compelled to end all descriptive essays with an attempt to outline a way forward. Sometimes, these men have actual good ideas that are the purpose of the essay. But other times, even though there are no good options to be had, these men feel like the genre of “intellectual vanguard musings” compels them to say something.

Case in point: Najam Sethi’s solid backgrounder on Pakistan (via Yglesias) which ends on this off note:

Pakistan is unraveling. The only recipe is more democracy, not less, so that civilian support for, and ownership of, the war on terror can be manufactured and strengthened.

Support for civil society, free media and democracy is a fine enough thing, but to assume that it quickly manufactures support for and ownership of our goals in the region is something I can’t believe anyone actually thinks. Given the detailed analysis that preceded these final weak paragraphs of the essay, I assume we can safely blame Lenin’s deplorable genre rather than Sethi.