Taleb and Blyth in Foreign Affairs:

Nicholas Taleb and Mark Blyth ask "Why is surprise the permanent condition of the U.S. political and economic elite?"

Or as Glenn Reynolds tags his pieces "Unexpectedly!" Absolutely everything is unexpected with the highly credentialed superachievers.

This "why" is the question of the 21st Century and the answer is doctrine and ideology. Or as Voegelin put it, a gnostic disjunction from reality.

Taleb and Blyth: "the artificial suppression of volatility—the ups and downs of life—in the name of stability" breeds catastrophe.