Is there hope?
I tend not to be extremely political -- not in my daily life, and (by design) not in this blog. However, I read something today that really disturbed me. I'm currently reading The Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics, a mystery that is fairly entertaining for the most part. At one point, some accomplices get cold feet about the act of terrorism their boss is planning. They fear getting caught, and one of them says to the other, "If the Americans Abu Ghraib us, the entire world will stand up and applaud."
"If the Americans Abu Ghraib us".
The author did not feel that the phrase needed any explanation or amplification. It stood alone as a byword for brutality. My nation now has a global reputation for brutality, inhumanity, and torture. The nation that used to genuinely be the world's best example of the rule of law. All that's gone.
Maybe the new order in the House and Senate can win back some of our honor. I prefer hoping for that to thinking it's gone forever.
posted by Laura E. Goodin @ 1:01 AM (permalink)
1 comment(s)
1 Comments:
The British, from which I hail, have a number of these dark moments from their tenure as the world's superpower. you only have to mention "The Black Hole of Calcutta" in a metaphor or simile to Brits and they know it's horrific.
The Romans did unspeakable things to the Sabine women (and to each other). Australians have done some horrible thi ngs in the Pacific. The French and the English did dreadful things in the Indian Wars.
Noone is immune from such things, even those whose heritage is that of freedom and democracy. Even that heritage is seen through rose-tinted galsses, I fear. Jefferson had slaves, for example.
It's sad to think that everything we look up to only stands above us on splindly poles that will eventually snap, leaving us with nothing but a pain in the neck.
h
Post a Comment
<< Home