Dostoevsky on the Election

Doesn't this passage from Notes from Underground resemble much of the rhetoric regarding Bush and Kerry, especially the "assertive fool" vs. "indecisive flip-flopper" labels, and the dangers inherent in both? If you're so inclined, think of this in terms of the differing approaches to justifying the war in Iraq:

I repeat, I emphatically repeat: ingenuous people and active figures are all active simply because they are dull and narrow-minded. How to explain it? Here's how: as a consequence of their narrow-mindedness, they take the most immediate and secondary causes for the primary ones, and thus become convinced more quickly and easily than others that they have found an indisputable basis for their doings, and so they feel at ease; and that, after all, is the main thing. For in order to begin to act, one must first be completely at ease, so that no more doubts remain.

I think that well sums up the criticism (and some of the defense) of Bush's approach to the war. He is decisive, he emphasizes moral clarity, and leaves no room for gray areas or self-doubt. In contrast, I think it hard to argue with the notion that Kerry is more concerned with solving ambiguities, at the risk of seeming indecisive.