Thursday, January 27, 2011

Rethinking America's foreign policy

It seems to me that we (I include myself in this) Americans need to pause and reflect upon the individuality of our fellow humans. (A vague, ugly sentence, I know.) What I mean is this: We are a world of individuals, not, as is so often assumed, a bunch of nations filled with folks who have adopted that nation's persona, as depicted in the media and by our governers. Of course we Americans know that about ourselves. We know we're not all loud, assertive credit-hungry wastrels who worship movie stars and devour McDonalds twice a day. But we do tend to generalize about residents of other nations, don't we?

This facet of our culture (and it's likely not just an American trait) is called to mind by this brief article, quoting the Chinese woman who just won a tennis match to become that country's first finalist at the Australian Open. She doesn't sound very "Chinese" does she?

Monday, January 24, 2011

If you want to know where I stand on Obama and "liberals"

check out these two articles that appeared today: One is by a mainstay of mine, Chris Hedges, on Truthdig, and the other by a fabulous thinker/writer Michael Brenner who, in his HuffPost article, describes present-day "progressive Democrats" as "the kind of people that your mother wanted you to hang out with in high school -- short of Canadian exchange students being available."