LILEKS RULES AGAIN!

It was so in the Cold War, when I was always admonished to see things from the Soviet perspective. Why, they’d lost so many in WW2! How this gave them license to put Czech dissidents in psychiatric hospitals and give them turpentine injections was never made clear, and eyes rolled when I brought that up.

Nowadays I am admonished to look at things from the Arab perspective. Well, I do. I read their papers as much as I can, as well nuggets gleaned from the MEMRI site. I see a legitimate cause long lost to a collective spasm of romantic insanity. I see a pathological hatred of the Jews that seems both delusional and self-destructive. The problems of the Arab states are the fault of the Arab states, but this cannot be discussed, so all anger must be directed at the Jews. It’s interesting to note after the 50s, the American culture never objectified and demonized Russians – on the contrary, we indulged ourselves with notions of the curmudgeonly Bear who, in the end, could be brought around with some good clear likker. If there is one remarkable and unnoticed aspect of the Cold War, it is the way in which the Americans eventually wanted to love the Russian people. Screw the Kremlin, fine, but we had no beef with Rooskie workin’ stiffs. You got your system, we got ours, but hell, it ain’t worth blowing up the planet over.

If Saudi Arabia had a Star Trek, do you think they’d put a Jewish Chekov at the helm?

Indeed. Of course the phrase “If Saudi Arabia had a Star Trek,” captures much of the problem all by itself, doesn’t it?