Marco Aurélio Garcia

As most of you well know, I am not easily impressed by most public figures, even those who, living in the second row of public renown, are alleged to be the real brains of the front men, eg. the Peter Mandelsons (Blair), the Karl Roves, the Rahm Emanuels, the Rubalcabas (Zapatero) etc.

But there are always exceptions to the rule.

Last night, I read a very, very long and interview with Marco Aurélio Garcia, the man who is said to be the eminence grise behind Lula's foreign policies in Brasil. All I can say is "Wow"!

What I observed was public figure with a formidable intellect, broad cultural formation, superb control of the spoken word, a great sense of history, morally-anchored postures, frankness, a sense of humor, and most of all an incredibly detailed and generally quite humane, view of where he wants/needs to take his country and the region where it is located.

I must say, the sense of admiration I felt before Garcia, carried with it a good bit of sadness.

We used to produce men and woman like this, Kennan comes most immediately to mind. But there were in our elites numerous others.

We now have piggy pigmies like Clinton, Holbrooke, Dennis Ross, Elliot Abrams, people of unbelievably narrow cultural vision who are largely prisoner to their own ambitions.

When you look at Garcia beside the glorifiied political hacks who are now running our foreign policy, it makes you cringe.

...And leaves little doubt about which society is on the ups and which is on its way down.