March 17, 2004
Rip Van Winkle
Once in a while I think of the hypothetical guy who fell asleep before 9/11 and then woke up this winter well after Bush invaded Iraq in response. He'd be a lot more dumbfounded and enraged at Bush and our cowlike acceptance than we and our media have been, I'm certain of that.So, I left for vacation on the day of the Spain bombing, and today I'm watching CNN Headline News and I see the headline that Spain's election of the Socialist party is a win for Al Queda.
I think this is where the Rip Van Winkle effect works in my favor. What the hell is everyone smoking? Do they honestly believe this is somehow a win for terrorism? Even Jon Stewart was in on the act on last night's Daily Show. Only the dullest thinking dimwit would be thinking this. Seriously, people have to get a hold of themselves.
To spell it out. It serves Al Queda's purposes to have an aggressive government coalition suppressing the middle east as Bush has been doing. Their whole success has always been in playing both ends against each other. They make "the enemy" out to be the big evil, the big evil comes back and clumsily smashes some generic arabs, Al Queda sabre-rattles some more and makes noises about how it just goes to show the middle east that we hate their entire way of life and want to destroy them all, and Al Queda's recruiting is then even more successful.
We played right into their hands after 9/11. "Duuhhhhh... they attacked us because they hate FREEDOM. Duhhh." Even Aaron Sorkin got into the act. Idiots. And here, we're in danger of playing into their hands once again. (And by "they", I mean both our right-wing neohawk freaks as well as Al Queda.)
A fear-mongering manipulative imperialist could argue that a bunch of quavering Spanish wimps were scared and laid down before the mighty terrorists. I've got memories of a million marching and protesting Spaniards that say otherwise.
Kerry better handle this right. It'll take the sort of shameless courage that I doubted he had. If he handles this well, it'll go a long way towards alleviating my concerns.
In response to the Rip Van Winkle effect, this also calls to mind the phrase of "boiling the frog." The theory goes, if you put a live frog in a cold pot of water and ever so slowly turn up the heat, notch by notch over a long period of time, the frog will not know he is being cooked. He won't notice the temperature change and he won't be struggling to get out of the pot. It's so gradual that he's cooked before he realizes what happened to him. An awful image, I know, but the point is that when the US public is a boiled frog, having the heat slowly, slowly turned up, one tiny notch at a time, they're less likely to get upset than if, like Rip, they woke up one day and saw all that had happened at once.
Posted by: Tamara at March 17, 2004 06:28 PMI would be grateful if i can consult you about this short story! My resarch paper is on it.
Posted by: Melinda at March 14, 2008 01:52 AM