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| Lileks: "an unnerving momentum" |
| 2006-08-08 |
| Today's "Bleat." I am not a gloom & doom person, except when it comes to myself, and I am still optimistic in general, since I learned long ago that depending on a US-USSR thermonuclear exchange eventually disappoints and promotes bad savings habits. Nevertheless, when you wake up and read that the entire Alaska oil supply is OFF LINE for the next nine years or so, you wonder: what next? Texas-sized comet chunks heading for America? Comet-sized Texas chunks heading for Europe? The pace of bad news seems to have picked up an unnerving momentum. Enough with the flow. Some ebbing would be nice. Mind you, it’s not the actual news that bothers me as much as the reaction to it; the reactions speak to something amiss in the heart of the West, a failure of nerve, a fatal lack of faith in the civilization we’re entrusted to defend. But the heart has two ventricles. There’s a large portion of America who – well, no. I can’t make generalizations like this, because they’re ridiculous, and it’s not for me to speak for 150 million of my countrymen. But I’ve had this suspicion for the last year. People joke about the “American street,” the basic Joe’s rising animosity to the Middle East. I don’t think there’s a rising hatred of the area; I think there’s a growing indifference. In the end, that’s worse. In the end, most Americans simply don’t care what happens to the Middle East aside from Israel. They’d like the region to be free; they’re happy when everyone gets to vote. They don't give a fig about Libya but it would be nice if Egypt was safe, what with all those museums and the like. They’d be perfectly fine if every nation in the Middle East was like France – open, free, stable, great vacation destinations, full of politicians and intellectuals who didn’t like the US but confined the rhetoric to tart epigrams or unreadable academic polemics. It’s the seething sectarian nutwad component that makes people weary. The looped scripts, the Jew-slagging, the misplaced blame, the unslakable aching sense of injustice over things that happened 500 years ago. Okay, well, sorry about the Crusades. Now you Persians apologize for Ionia and the war on the Greeks. C’mon. C’monnn, ya knuckleheads. I knew Darius, and he was a Party. Animal. But let’s send it all to the big Bygone House and hug, for Mr. Planet’s sake! (Bill Murray for UN Secretary General. Seriously.) But this isn’t going to happen. Mind you, I’m not raising this to debate the veracity of the claims or the reactions, just to note what many people think, inasmuch as they think about it at all. (Which they don't, and that's why it seems a spiky shouting ullulating Durkastan, just like America seems like Fat-Ass Burger Whore Town to others. ) So. As I was saying: most people would like the Middle East to be free and happy and prosperous and free of incomprehensible religious differences (Sunni, Shiite, Sufi – help us out, guys; do they all have to start with S?) and generally off the radar. Thirty years of hearing Death to the Great Satan, however, hasn’t left the average American mad. It’s left them bored. It's left them disinterested in the final consequences to the societies in which the chanting mobs appear. They don’t care. And as I said, that may have more injurious consequences than Disappointed Engagement or Active Animus. The former leads to withdrawal; the latter leads to rash plans quickly nixed when the anger cools. A nation that no longer cares about what happens Over There is a nation, I think, that has already made its peace, however subconsciously, with a horrible conclusion. Just a thought. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #10 Everyone w/a clue knew end game after the 2nd jet hit the WTC - we give them their shot, they fail, not our problem. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2006-08-08 23:32 |
| #9 Ima stealing too.. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-08-08 22:05 |
| #8 Steve, You may consider the term "prejudicially terraformed" stolen. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2006-08-08 21:47 |
| #7 Last photo I saw Lindsey Lohan's back and skin looked like an 80 year old's with skin cancer! Seriously - write her off! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-08-08 13:12 |
| #6 WX, I don't know. Sort of the Parable of the Cave. Some people just don't want to know. "Can we please stop talking about Iran and Korea and WMDs so I can go back to reading about Lindsey Lohan's breasts?" |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2006-08-08 12:38 |
| #5 Mike, I don't know how you arrive at any conclusion without a few paragraphs on how and why our media bullshits the shit out of us daily, tirelessly, and relentlessly. If it were possible for us to drop a crow bar into the MSM operational gears and bring them to a sudden halt, an additional 30 percent of Americans would awaken to the truth about the world on the same day. That would have an impact on our behavior and on our worldview. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-08-08 11:08 |
| #4 It's left them disinterested in the final consequences to the societies in which the chanting mobs appear. They donÂ’t care. Meaning if they got "Prejudicially Terraformed" we wouldn't lose any sleep over it. |
| Posted by: Steve 2006-08-08 10:33 |
| #3 But for whom? The answer is inherent in the question. Hint: it isn't us, because that would interfere with the soccer carpool. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-08-08 10:13 |
| #2 Good question given the current state of public discourse in America but I have a sneaking suspiciion that if it came down to a choice between "us or them" we'd suddenly find an overwhelming majority more than willing to actively support our side of the conflict. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2006-08-08 08:48 |
| #1 that has already made its peace, however subconsciously, with a horrible conclusion. But for whom? |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-08-08 07:24 |