Robert Fisk

[Gordon Fitch]

Yoshie wrote:
>>> I take it that Fisk was trying to say, a little hyperbolically, that
>>> he could identify with those who blindly attacked him, merely because
>>> he looked "Western," unable to understand what forces were actually
>>> responsible for their oppression, much less how to counteract them
>>> effectively; and also that he could imagine what circumstances were
>>> likely to breed such murderous rage and make it indiscriminate.
>>> That's a way of looking at the world that a certain kind of literary
>> > and sociological imagination teaches you.

Bradford DeLong:
> You really don't get it, do you?
>
> A lynch mob chases an innocent man, eager to beat and possibly kill
> him not because of anything he has done but because of the color of
> his skin. One can say that one understands the sources of their fear
> and rage. One can regret the upbringing that has given them such
> a--racist--way of responding to the world. No matter how much
> literary and sociological imagination one has, only a murderous
> racist can say that in their place one would join the lynch mob.

Well, it seems like a common enough reaction, given that a
number of Middle-Eastern types were attacked in this country,
and tribal fetishism still seems to be running pretty high.
(We see 90% support for bombing and killing thousands of people
who had nothing to do with the _casus_belli_, which seems
like pretty much the same sort of thing.  If a little cooler
and calmer, it is still mindless and it still kills.)  I
hypothesize that, rather than murderous racism, Mr. Fisk was
indulging in a little silly hyperbole.  In fact a bit of
reflection would inform him that he could never be an oppressed
Afghan; he is locked into Robert Fiskness at least until his
next incarnation.  He picked up a whiff of the hatred in which
Americans in those regions bathe, and that was his maybe
excessive way of expressing it.  Big deal.

-- Gordon