Nope. There is a difference between saying that one understands the sources of murderous, indiscriminate rage and saying that one would join in such murderous, indiscriminate rage. To say that if one were in their shoes one would join the lynch mob--one would chase innocent strangers with intent to beat and possibly kill them because of the color of their skin--is to say something extraordinary about one's own personality and moral identity. Brad DeLong
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Okay, I'll take stab at it. Fisk wasn't innocent, Afghanis were not racist, and these scenes are as old as history. US-EU can not declare war, bomb the shit of a place, killing thousands, and expect US-EU civilians (an arbitrary and murky designation) to drive around unarmed in the same place with impunity.
I mean this is what those State Dept travel advisories are supposedly about.
To have a certain reserved sympathy for this beating is not bizarre or twisted, it is the realization that you were the wrong person, in the wrong place at the wrong time, and knew it.
So given all that, which seems completely self-evident to me---that is needs no explaination at all---I have to wonder at why Brad doesn't understand it.
And make no mistake, if George Herbert Walker Bush ever walked around Havenscourt (66th Avenue village), or the avenues on International Way (formerly E 14th) unarmed, you can bet somebody would kick his ass.
Chuck Grimes