Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Wisdom from unlikely places, to unintended targets
There's a lot about the C-Span interview with aging Walter Cronkite, transcribed in part by James Taranto in "Best of the Web Today", that has me wondering about the former news presenter's cognitive processes - which is to say I largely disagree with him.
But I thought the part of the interview highlighted by Opinion Journal was kind of interesting:
" ... (M)oney? ... That's exactly the reason that those Arabs are so mad at us. We are--they see our television. I blame television for a lot of the problems we have today. Before television, they didn't know what we were like [audience laughter and applause]. But now they do. They see these riches, these riches pouring out of us. Every doxy on the air has gold and diamonds and sapphires, and they drive great big cars; we live in these magnificent houses. And they're starving to death. They're watching a television set energized by a hand--by a foot pump, one set to the village. They gather there every night. What do they see? I dunno, "Sex in the City," for heaven's sake [audience laughter].
I think if I were hungry, if I were starving, if my family were dying of AIDS or any other illness, and there was no medical help there, and I was watching this rich nation play at its own fashion, I'd be pretty damn mad. I'd be pretty damn mad [audience applause]."
In other words, Cronkite imagines that the simple emotion of envy, the same one forbidden by those 10 Commandments that make up the bedrock of Islam, Christianity and Judaism alike, fuels hatred of the US and it's western allies. I think it's a reasonable point.
One that would be lost on the so-called "religious" fanatics who perpetrate terrorist attacks against western targets, who flagrantly transgress this and other of their own Lord's commandments, while purporting to wave a righteous flag.
This aspect seems lost on old Walter Cronkite, apparently. Just like fellow Journalist Phillip Bennett (see blog below), Cronkite excuses (actually doesn't even refer to) the highly suspect bahaviour of US opponents, reserving contempt and criticism only for his homeland.
