Your genius isn't on Facebook. Your genius doesn't have a cell phone.

Because of technology, we never have to be alone anymore. And that's the problem.

An adult's capacity to be alone has its roots in his experience as a baby, learning to function independently while still in the presence of his mother. Yet today we're seeing this capacity weakened.

When was the last time you were truly alone and unplugged for a long spell?

When was the last time you were alone with your genius?

Does your genius say things like, "What's happened to us? We used to do things!"

The End of Alone

Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

I really enjoyed this talk.

From 2005, Simon Singh:

Perhaps humility, more than anything, is the mark of true genius.

From last May, see Geniuses and the Men Hidden Inside Them.

From last July, Stephen Burt on Philip K. Dick:

Where other SF writers ask whether made-up entities (aliens, androids, emoting computers etc) deserve the respect we give real human beings, Dick more often asks whether we ought to view ourselves as fakes or machines.

From last December, Malcom Gladwell:

We should be lowering our standards, because there is no point in raising standards if standards don’t track with what we care about.

Also, here's Gladwell from October:

Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up with precocity—doing something truly creative, we’re inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth.

Elizabeth Gilbert on genius

David Kilcullen has a new book. Fareed Zakaria calls it "required reading."

From the Publishers Weekly starred review:

Kilcullen's compelling argument merits wide attention.

Notice the Uncoupling on the book jacket:

David Kilcullen, one of the world's most influential experts on counterinsurgency and modern warfare, dramatically influenced America's decision to rethink its strategy in Iraq and implement "the surge."

Kilcullen sees today's conflicts as a complex pairing of contrasting trends: local social networks and worldwide movements; traditional and postmodern culture; local insurgencies seeking autonomy and a broader pan-Islamic campaign. He warns that America's actions in the war on terrorism have tended to conflate these trends, blurring the distinction between local and global struggles and thus enormously complicating our challenges.

Indeed, the US had done a poor job of applying different tactics to these very different situations, continually misidentifying insurgents with limited aims and legitimate grievances (whom he calls "accidental guerrillas") as part of a coordinated worldwide terror network. We must learn how to disentangle these strands, develop strategies that deal with global threats, avoid local conflicts where possible, and win them where necessary.

The Accidental Guerrilla will, quite simply, change the way we think about war.

On sale March 13.

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One

A selection of letters to the editor of The Walrus Magazine, in reply to an article by Charles Montgomery in the December issue.

From Maureen Mayhew, an NGO worker in Kabul:

It’s typical for the media to focus on the hopelessness of the situation in Afghanistan. But I was also here during the Taliban regime, and I can assure readers there have been many positive changes since then. Maybe if reporters had witnessed this change themselves, they would see fit to broadcast some hope.

From Yasin Khosti, Co-founder and former president of the Society of Afghan Architects and Engineers:

Charles Montgomery writes, “Aid dollars, opium profits, and war booty [have] transformed the Afghan capital into a manic showcase of glittering mansions, glaring inequity, and militarized urbanity.” While this may be true, I feel the author forgets that the peaceful West is beset with similar problems.

Have you seen "Revolutionary Road"?

Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.

The Key to Kabul

Richard Holbrooke:

The war in Afghanistan will be much tougher than Iraq.

It’s going to be a long, difficult struggle.

Karzai endorses the Uncoupling:

Karzai called again for reconciliation with Taliban forces “who are not part of Al Qaeda, who are not part of terrorist networks, who want to return to their country.”

From the archive, Freeman Dyson:

The moral imperative at the end of every war is reconciliation. In order to make a lasting peace, we must learn to live with our enemies.

A snowflake once said:

"It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog."

Holbrooke Says Afghan War ‘Tougher Than Iraq’

At a maximum-security prison north of Kabul, Richard Holbrooke fell into a long conversation with a senior Taliban operative, a mullah who patiently answered questions and then asked one of his own:

“When will you and the Americans be leaving?”

Holbrooke told him he did not know. “The more you think about it, the more it highlights the dilemma,” he said in the interview: the United States cannot say it is leaving, nor can it say it is staying forever.

From the archive, Nir Rosen, in Rolling Stone:

"You Westerners have your watches," the leader observed. "But we Taliban have time."

Back on World Stage, a Larger-Than-Life Holbrooke

Dexter Filkins, from Kabul:

The Americans making Afghan policy, worried that the war is being lost, are vowing to bypass President Hamid Karzai and deal directly with the governors in the countryside.

A White House favorite in each of the seven years that he has led this country since the fall of the Taliban, Karzai now finds himself not so favored at all. Not by Washington, and not by his own.

William Wood, the American ambassador: "I think frankly that everyone — the international community, the United States, the United Nations, Western Europe, the international press — were unrealistically optimistic about the problem of Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban."

From October:

The average Afghan spends one-fifth of his income on bribes.

Leader of Afghanistan Finds Himself Hero No More

In the past two years, Swat has been caught up in the throes of a violent insurgency that has repelled tourists and is forcing locals to manage their lives around curfews and bans – and prompting many to leave the area.

The latest violence struck Wednesday, when militants attacked and destroyed a police station, capturing – and later releasing – some 30 paramilitary soldiers and policemen. A Taliban spokesman said the Taliban had gotten promises from the men that they would quit their jobs.

The Taliban advised policemen to advertise their names in a local paper if they quit.

Police officers who are not complying are paying a heavy price. In the last 10 months, more than 100 policemen have been killed in Swat, a district of 1.7 million people, by militant attacks. Many were kidnapped and then killed, their bodies publicly displayed.

As a result, nearly 800 policemen – half the authorized force in Swat – have either resigned or gone on long leave. Only one of the 600 recruits trained by the military at the Punjab Regimental Centre in Mardan volunteered to serve in what is becoming known as the "valley of death," according to a local newspaper.

From last month:

It is a classic South Asian catch-22, which allows Lashkar to continue functioning with only cosmetic restrictions, whose main function is to impress the US. Yet the fact remains that until firm action is taken against all such groups, and training camps are closed down, the slow collapse of the Pakistani state will continue, and with it the safety of Western interests in the region.

In Pakistan, Swat Valley police give up in face of Taliban attacks

Despite the flurry of American activity, it's by no means clear that Washington is any closer to understanding the dynamics in South-Central Asia.

The United States is already failing to grasp not only the details of other powers' maneuverings in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the extent to which these dealings could eclipse even the most brilliant US shuttle diplomacy by Holbrooke.

China's long-term strategy is clear: It has become the largest investor in Afghanistan, developing highways to connect Iran and the giant Aynak copper mine south of Kabul.

Building roads and controlling their usage has for centuries been the foundation of spreading Silk Road influence, as well as the key to success in the 19th-century Great Game. Today's struggle for control follows similar rules.

Recently, in another context, Jim Kunstler said:

All parties join in a game of "pretend," that nothing has really happened to the fundamental equations of business life, as the whole system, the whole way of life, enters upon a circle-jerk of mutual denial in a last desperate effort to forestall the mandates of reality.

How long will these games go on?

The Road to Kabul Runs Through Beijing (and Tehran)

While the attention of the US public and the news media here has been consumed (understandably enough) by the congressional debate over the economic stimulus plan, America's war in Afghanistan has nearly collapsed because of logistical problems.

...

The president was concerned by a lack of strategy at his first meeting with Gates and the US joint chiefs of staff last month in "the tank", the secure conference room in the Pentagon. He asked: "What's the endgame?" and did not receive a convincing answer.

From George Friedman, a year ago:

The endgame of the US-jihadist war always had to be played out in Pakistan. Any hope of defeating the Taliban, or of reaching some sort of accommodation, depends on isolating them from Pakistan. So long as the Taliban have sanctuary and logistical support from Pakistan, transferring all coalition troops in Iraq to Afghanistan would have no effect.

From yesterday:

We should probably tell you that the full title of this game is Zombies! Apocalypse - Massive Multiplayer Online Zombies Massacre, even though that's basically given away the point of it all.

Obama May Postpone Afghan Surge