Washington

INTELLECTUALS are always in search for grand theories like The End of History or The Clash of Civilizations, and journalists are on a journey to uncover trends - like whether the fortunes of a particular leader or political party is waxing or waning - all for the purpose of making sense of our political reality and giving it some order.

But reality, especially when it comes to politics, tends to change at a speed of a tweet, or, as they say in politics, 24 hours can prove to be an eternity. The political narrative drawn up by academics and pundits one day ends up being overrun by events a week later ... when your average blogger posts that, contrary to what he had predicted last Thursday, the United States is not going to attack Iran or that Senator Bernie Sanders would probably not win the Democratic presidential primaries.