A Pig Returns to the Farm, Thumbing His Snout at Orwell

Peter K. peterk at enteract.com
Wed Nov 27 04:57:35 PST 2002


Yoshie: At 4:06 PM -0500 11/26/02, Todd Archer wrote:
>>What's most interesting to me in the parable is the responses of
>>farm animals to the beavers: "The book ends with the farm animals
>>crying out for revenge against the fundamentalists: `Kill the
>>beavers! Kill the beavers! Kill! Kill!'..." (@
>><http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/25/books/25ANIM.html>). Cries for
>>revenge were not the only responses in the USA, but certainly they
>>were the dominant strain in public discourse.
>
>Oh yes, no doubt about that part, but it's hardly subtle.

Where's the evidence? One of my friends came to Chicago for the American Heart Association conference recently (the drug companies were all over it) and I took him and some of his doctor friends out to dinner and then to bar after bar after club, etc. I'll admit I had a little trepidation because 2 of the guys looked exactly like the 911 highjackers and Chicago's ethnic whites can be assholes, but there was no trouble all night. Nothing. The Pakistani friend however, said he won't go back to visit his family in Pakistan because it's such a hassel, he said something like he might not be able to get back for 6 months. It's ridiculous.

It's easy to forget, however, that Bush set the tone and took the unprecedented step of going to that Mosque and saying Muslims aren't the enemy. Quite unusual for a politician. I think Grover Norquist convinced him to do it. People will argue that the toppling of the Taliban was revenge. I'd argue it was to prevent future 911s and has worked thus far.

Anyway, maybe Yoshie and Todd need to get out and talk to more Americans. Fox News and the Weekly Standard aren't the dominant strain of America.

Peter



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