You Never Get Wise, You Only Get Older

Congratulations to Ms. Heather Norman for correctly naming "Gravity" by Embrace as the Sunday Song of the Day.

It seems that more and more, the amount of information in our world is simply staggering. This tidal wave of data, writing, and commentary has caused the citizens of the world, and particularly the information-mad United States, to each become specialists in a given area. We don't really know a lot about anything outside of our specific area of interest, but if you hit the topic that really piques our interest, we are capable of holding forth with our opinions for hours.

My question is: How does someone cut across these lines of specialized interest to provide commentary on the subjects that should matter to all of us? Perhaps I am expecting too much, but this is the significant question that I have in mind as I begin George Packer's last book, The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq.
Perhaps this is not a fair expectation to hold for Packer's book, but I am eager to see how he is able to handle an issue that has been divisive for so many in our country and around the world. It seems that we all bring certain expectations and anticipations into any experience that we have in life, whether those are explicitly stated or not, but this is one of the first times in my life that I have gone into a book looking for something so strongly. I'll check in from time to time as I read to provide you with what I find.