Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Healthy cynicism
Consider the following sample of recent news and opinion stories:
- An "ABC News /Washington Post News Poll" finds a negative impression amongst US voters regarding President Bush's Iraq policy;
- A Sydney Morning Herald op-ed writer opines that the Nobel Prize for Literature virtually guarantees the failure of the awarded piece and its author, and cites Australian legend Patrick White as an example;
- An instalment of the television series "Cold Case" assumes that McCarthyism is evil and that the Rosenbergs were treated grotesquely;
- The share price of Google rockets past the US$300 mark, pushing the company's value past that of Hewlett-Packard and Time-Warner;
- Something called the "International Whaling Commission", or some such thing, rails against Japan's intention to increase its annual whale catch.
Is it just me, or is it a sign of either the times or maturity that cynicism colours my reaction to each?
As to the first item: the anti-Bush trend may be correct, but you have to wonder about the source, don't you.
As to the second: the unimpeachable bastion of accomplishment that was the Nobel Prize winner's circle in the 20th century is no more. Witness the demise of the Peace Prize.
And does anyone seriously like Patrick White?
As to the third: Anyone who has open-mindedly read the analysis of so-called "McCarthyism" in Ann Coulter's "Treason" must wonder about the Hollywood and medialand assumption that the Senator Joe was the devil's spawn, that the Rosenberg's did not pass on core nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, and that communist infiltration was not a serious issue.
As to the fourth: You have to wonder whether Google's price is justified - it isn't, apparently, in terms of current revenues and profits - and whether said price will plummet some time soon. Given the leftish bias evident to Google users and the pro-Democrat leanings of the company's honchos, I'm presently rooting for it's demise. Might be a good time to short.
At the same time and in that event, I hope it continues to out-strip Time-Warner.
As to the fifth: Noone dislikes whales or wants to see them perish from the earth, least of all the Japanese and the other whaling nations. In all the media guffaw, one has to search hard to find details of what the Japanese government actually said to the whaling commission.
Oh the cynicism! Was I always like this?
