Good Question

Did you see Bayram Balci over at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace yesterday? Of course you did!

Meanwhile, the elusive and even obscure figure (Gulen) claims to combat corruption and authoritarianism, by infiltrating the government.While fighting corruption and authoritarianism is an honorable mission, how it is being carried out makes it un-democratic. The officials who have infiltrated the government are loyal to a mysterious religious leader’s community and not to the state (which is supposed to be run by a democratically elected government and not by a mysterious religious structure).

I once wrote a post called Eyes Wide Shut In Illinois, in which I speculated about why this abundantly evidenced story about the Gulen-linked charter schools in our midst remains taboo for people outside the Sun-Times. My theory was that the Movement has handed out so many junkets and awards that there are very few people left in authority in Illinois who can honestly say they haven't dipped their toes in the water and received a gift of flattery, of travel, or something else. I still maintain that to be the case.

But there must also be something more at play. Is it a type of black swan event? Is it so beyond the range of normal expectation that people have a collective blindness to it? Or is it the opposite? Are people just so jaded now that this phenomenon seems banal? Public schools connected to a mysterious international political force engaged in illegal wiretapping? Duh. Of course that's going on! What did you expect?

You tell me.