Normal Human Response
Dick Cheney shooting quail and friends. The Muslim world going crazy over a few unfunny cartoons. The media blowing everything out of proportion. Where's the common sense in any of this?
David Brooks had a good column about this (the Cheney part and basic human response anyway) in today's NY Times http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/opinion/16brooks.html.
Where did this all start anyway, taking everything and politicizing it into a kind of hyper sensitive reality where there is never any common ground for rational discussion? Aren't some things just simple tragedies, simple modes of provoking rational discussion? Have we lost a sense of simple human decency where we look at something and say that's really bad, I feel for those people?
OK, I am certainly no fan of Dick Cheney, and actually think he should resign, not because he accidentally shot someone while hunting, but because he is the symbol of 5 years of secrecy, corruption and incompetence in a government that completely misunderstands the world and how to be an engaged leader solving human problems, not to mention a failure to actually protect us, which should be government's primary concern.
One can only imagine that if rather than invading Iraq, our so-called leaders had engaged with the Muslim world in a dialogue about the right response by all responsible people to the threats of fundamentalist terror groups (religious or otherwise), things like the Danish cartoons would have ever seen the light of day. No, I don't blame all ills in the world on the US government, nor do I think they bear direct responsibility for the publishing of what might be construed as offensive cartoons. In fact, it seems increasingly unproductive and odd that the Muslim world can't look itself in the face, recognize some of the ills that have grown out of its teachings and had their own internal dialogue about how they act and engage in a modern world.
But choices have consequences, and the choices made by the Bush Administration have had more than disastrous consequences for many people's lives.
Whatever did happen to "compassionate conservatism" anyway? Gone in the fog of war, like so many other things, I guess.
David Brooks had a good column about this (the Cheney part and basic human response anyway) in today's NY Times http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/opinion/16brooks.html.
Where did this all start anyway, taking everything and politicizing it into a kind of hyper sensitive reality where there is never any common ground for rational discussion? Aren't some things just simple tragedies, simple modes of provoking rational discussion? Have we lost a sense of simple human decency where we look at something and say that's really bad, I feel for those people?
OK, I am certainly no fan of Dick Cheney, and actually think he should resign, not because he accidentally shot someone while hunting, but because he is the symbol of 5 years of secrecy, corruption and incompetence in a government that completely misunderstands the world and how to be an engaged leader solving human problems, not to mention a failure to actually protect us, which should be government's primary concern.
One can only imagine that if rather than invading Iraq, our so-called leaders had engaged with the Muslim world in a dialogue about the right response by all responsible people to the threats of fundamentalist terror groups (religious or otherwise), things like the Danish cartoons would have ever seen the light of day. No, I don't blame all ills in the world on the US government, nor do I think they bear direct responsibility for the publishing of what might be construed as offensive cartoons. In fact, it seems increasingly unproductive and odd that the Muslim world can't look itself in the face, recognize some of the ills that have grown out of its teachings and had their own internal dialogue about how they act and engage in a modern world.
But choices have consequences, and the choices made by the Bush Administration have had more than disastrous consequences for many people's lives.
Whatever did happen to "compassionate conservatism" anyway? Gone in the fog of war, like so many other things, I guess.
posted by Paul Salinger at 1:10 PM
1 Comments:
Nicely said, Paul. I also appreciate your comment in the bio section -- something about "rationalism over dogma." Kind of sums up my take on things.
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