A Jewish Tocqueville Muses on America in the 21st Century…
A somewhat quiet and task-oriented past few days on the home front – hence, this will be a short blog entry. Spent a mellow New Year’s Eve with my family…the highlight was probably an hourlong televised dedication to Ed Bradley, the famed 60 Minutes reporter who died recently. Bradley had quite the life – he was friendly with Ray Charles and numerous musicians (and sometimes joined them onstage) and covered the Vietnam War and other conflicts around the planet. I sometimes watched 60 Minutes years ago when living in the States – it was one of the few interesting things happening on Sunday nights. But I wasn’t aware of the richness of Bradley’s life, only the resonance of his voice and the excellent of his reporting. And while his life was singular in its achievements and friendships, it made me think about how many others live fascinating lives that are ‘below the waterline.’ I’m not a big fan of auto/biographies, but perhaps I should pick one up every now and then…
Read an article in The New Yorker that really hit home, probably because it provided precision to some thoughts I’ve had and have shared with you regarding the so-called ‘war on terror.’ I like reading articles that I agree with…particularly in a reputable rag like TNY – makes me feel semi-intelligent. The article counseled a ‘disaggregation’ approach, i.e. the West shouldn’t play to the ‘enemy’s’ global information strategy of making every conflict a single, unified fight. And make no mistake, we’re in a global marketing fight in which military actions are only one plank – usually, the most blunt and least impactful one. It’s not immediately clear if the Bush Administration understands this. Integrating all the various conflicts into a ‘war on terror’ instigated by ‘Islamo-fascists’ helped Bush scare American voters and get re-elected…and I imagine he and Cheney and the other numbskulls really are drinking their own Kool-Aid on this one. So we’re about to pour more kids into Iraq, where they’re expected to ‘stabilize’ the situation. That has about a 5% chance of working…the more likely scenario is that we lose a lot more limbs and lives and get out of there with our tail between our legs, or worse…all this, of course, coming after Bush leaves office and joins several corporate boards of directors. Do I sound angry? I sure hope so.
The article went on to advise defining the ‘enemy’ as narrowly as possible, and tackling individual ‘enemies’ in local, highly relevant ways. I completely agree…but worry that it’s getting late in game. Because we’re defined the ‘enemy’ in monolithic terms (does that make you recall the Cold War?), we’ve helped to create a global insurgency that was previously a collection of fragmented hot spots.
Getting back to my earlier comments (from an entry a few weeks back) about Arab nations blaming Israel for all of their troubles…my point of view was, and remains, that Israel’s an easy whipping boy for deeper, more intransigent issues facing most of these countries. If the Israel-Palestine conflict were resolved, somehow, magically, then some other conflicts might calm down; I don’t dispute that. But the Middle East’s profound issues predate the formation of Israel and stem from the decline of the Caliphate and its extensions in Spain and elsewhere. The Mongols ransacked Baghdad in the late 13th century, overthrowing the Caliphate based there and turning the entire region on its head. And, in my perhaps uneducated/simplistic opinion, the former heights of Muslim/Arab civilization have never recovered. The region spent centuries under the thumb of the Ottomans, who starved them of resources and pride…then, when the Ottoman Empire fell after WWI, the British and French picked up the ball but predictably weren’t able or willing to bring about deep change to the region (besides helping to found Israel, of course). That, to me, is the true ‘integrated problem,’ not the Israel-Palestine conflict or the ‘war on terror’ created and marketed (quite ably, but dangerously) by the Bush Administration. And until the average Arab/Muslim guy on the street is better-educated and given more opportunity in life – helped in part by more capable, credible regimes – it will remain easy to blame Israel/America for all their problems and the urge to join terrorist organizations will remain appealing.
Do I sound defensive here? Am I off base? What do you think? Chime in, dear readers…I’m always happy to be disabused of erroneous opinions…
Anyway, this is why I read the The New Yorker. No publication has more wide-ranging and provocative pieces. Highly recommended.
Had lunch on New Years Day at Town Pizza in Newton Center. One of the things I missed while overseas was veal parmigiana, particularly in the form of a submarine sandwich, aka sub aka hoagie aka hero. Town Pizza does a nice one, and I try to have one every few weeks while over here. While waiting for the sub, I sat at a table and was subjected the grating conversation of a youngish couple sitting nearby. They were chatting on their mobile with various parties about buying a house…apparently they had just gone to see a property and were in the process of deciding their plan. And they were telling every single person they knew about the minutiae. The floor plan, the financing options, the color coordination, you name it. I looked around for a sharp knife, but thankfully I was out of luck. Not sure who I would have stabbed if there was one within grasp – them or myself. Did I mention that the young woman, a blonde with a sizeable tush, had the classic Valley Girl accent/diction? Forget the war on terror – I think a better investment would be a war on Valley Girl talk – we should have confined it to California when it arose 20 years ago. Now every woman under the age of 35 speaks it…and have spent a few days in London recently, I found it especially maddening. The gulf between the Queen’s English and Valley Girl English can only be measured in light-years. Give me the Queen’s English any day…
Read an article the other day about the life and times of the French author/bon vivant Boris Vian. I read his I Spit on Your Graves last year – and thought it was good fun. Go and pick up a copy on Amazon.com. The article had a quote by Vian about his observations on America – apparently he really loved the music, particularly jazz, but thought the women were silly and had large butts. Interesting. It’s a good thing Boris wasn’t sitting with me in Town Pizza on New Years Day…it’s likely he would have gone and found a knife somewhere.
This, I should mention, is an ongoing theme/complaint for me whenever here in the States. Perhaps it’s just that I meet such interesting people on the road, and then when back home I’m confronted with the cloying normalcy of everyday American life. Not sure. But it’s real and it does drive me insane. After eating my veal parmigiana sub, I went and had a cup of tea at (where else) Starbucks. You can’t find an old-style coffee shop anymore, only chain stores. Whatever. Anyway, sat down with my laptop and took care of some computer fine-tuning – with the anti-virus software updates and what not, it’s harder to keep a computer tuned than to maintain a car. All the while I was taking care of matters, conversations were taking place at the two tables next to me. At one, two middle-aged guys were cycling through a series of banal topics – at one point I wondered if they were auditioning for a lame TV sitcom. They started with the question of whether men and women can be friends…and didn’t make much evident progress on that. Then they spent an hour discussing car insurance. Ugh…
At the other table, two women were getting into finer points of buying a refrigerator. The arcana of wattage, interior lighting, number of doors and drawers, holy shit. How could two reasonably intelligent people sit there and muse on such insignificant crap for more than 5 minutes? I know that women tend to bond through casual discussions and exchanges of opinions, which is perfectly fine – I just wonder where, if anywhere, more interesting topics are being debated. Perhaps this is such an affluent and comfortable country that refrigerators and car insurance are the pressing issues…but I doubt it. I do think that the success of the U.S. has led to massive complacency and lack of debate – if you read articles in countries like India, France, etc. you quickly discern a greater degree of deliberation and provocation. The U.S. has perhaps the freest press in the world…and there are some excellent reporters and writers here…but somehow there’s not much trickle-down and the street-level debate centers on boring stuff. That bothers me…if you ever catch me bending your ear about car insurance, feel free to box my ears. Actually, deafness may be a blessing these days…
One final complaint about the U.S. It doesn’t seem as much fun as it once was. Perhaps I have an idealized image of ‘the old days,’ I don’t know. Anyway, here’s an example: earlier today I was doing some errands (buying a new pair of Tevas for the cruise, not buying car insurance) and felt like a glass of wine around lunchtime. Went into the Met Bar, a chi-chi restaurant/bar in Newton. I’ve wanted to check this place out for some time, and this was a good chance. Went inside, glanced over at the very nice-looking bar, and asked about sitting there and having a drink. ‘The bar’s not open for lunch,’ I was told. ‘We don’t have a lunchtime bartender.’ Well, why the hell not? Am I the only person in the area who is sufficiently debased to actually want a single drink before 6 p.m.? How dreary. So I went into ‘Finagle a Bagel,’ where I had a (processed) turkey sandwich on a decent bagel. The sandwich was filling but highly forgettable. No drink. Give me Spain, a country where most people take their lunch standing up in a tapas or bocadillo joint, where the ham is sliced off a pata (pig’s leg) hanging from the wall, stuffed into a fresh roll of French bread, and paired with a nice fresh draft beer.
Sorry for the cranky nature of this entry…but I hope it’s entertaining. It’s certainly honest.
Will be on a cruise with my family starting this Saturday…and am not too sure about Internet access on board. Nor about free time – many activities are planned. So check in late next week, the usual time I post. If there’s nothing new, I’ll post soon thereafter. You are indeed all patient souls…thanks for putting up with me. Happy New Year to all of you.
Tags: Travel
mbsloney
Leave a Reply