Michael Ignatieff: “Humanitarians may be as racist as realists. The same condescension that prompts realists to stay out of the quarrels of little peoples can prompt humanitarians to plunge in to save them. If humanitarians – then and now – often underestimate the costs of intervention, it may be because they condescend to the capabilities of the butchers they are out to defeat. If they overestimate the gratitude of the people on whose behalf they intervene, it may be because they are too much in love with the fantasy of helpless and thankful victims.”
Tag: 09.24.08
The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial – Does It Work?
“Moving as the ensemble is, the overall effect is also oddly unresolved, almost nihilistic. ‘This happened,’ the memorial seems to say. ‘We don’t know why, and we don’t know what it means.'”
You Mean They Still Have Glass Milk Bottles?
“An artist who scratches out frescoes of farmyard scenes and animals on her neighbours’ milk bottles and leaves them without explanation has revealed herself. The artist had mystified the village of Stourbridge, in the West Midlands, for months.”
Is E-Literature Just One Big Anti-Climax?
“Since its inception, e-lit has been struggling to free itself from its generic limitations and now seems to be on the verge of doing so. At long last. Although interesting, its early manifestations were hardly groundbreaking… Besides, if you really want to add sound and pictures to words, why not make a film?”
The Problem with Spanking Kids (And Why We Keep Doing It)
“The science also shows that corporal punishment is like smoking: It’s a rare human being who can refrain from stepping up from a mild, relatively harmless dose to an excessive and harmful one. Three cigarettes a month won’t hurt you much, and a little smack on the behind once a month won’t harm your child. But who smokes three cigarettes a month?”
Headscarves and Kalashnikovs – The Women of the Kabul Police Academy
“Of the over 1,600 cadets at the Kabul Police Academy, only 10 are women. They are breaking traditions and taking considerable personal risk.”
Why Can’t Science Journalists Just Tell It Like It Is When It Comes to Particle Physics?
“God was mostly off the table in recent weeks – except in His particle form – as the Large Hadron Collider revved up for a massive series of experiments in subatomic physics. But among science journalists, there was plenty of protective coloration of another variety. Much of the prose from the hundreds of stories heralding the event arced decidedly toward the purple.”
“Naked Clowns Are Coming to Haunt Your Dreams”
“Graduates of San Francisco’s Clown Conservatory Class of 2008 have stripped down to their birthday suits to make a 2009 Naked Clown Calendar.”
Toto, I Don’t Think We’re in the Bronx Anymore
“What might [the first break dancers] make of Break Out, the Korean dance-comedy spectacle now having its North American debut at the Union Square Theater? I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it myself.”
The Power of Positive Thinking (to Cause the Financial Crisis)
Barbara Ehrenreich: “Everyone knows that you won’t get a job paying more than $15 an hour unless you’re a ‘positive person,’ and no one becomes a chief executive by issuing warnings of possible disaster… [F]or those at the very top of the corporate hierarchy, all this positive thinking must not have seemed delusional at all. With the rise in executive compensation, bosses could have almost anything they wanted, just by expressing the desire.”