Scene depicting the daily Two Minutes Hate directed against
the current enemies of the state from Michael Radford's 1984 film
adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
“My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.” ~ David Sipress [1]
Like every sane person, I’m gravely concerned with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and possible escalation of the war. The United States' response and media coverage of this terrible tragedy thus far has been equally disquieting. I’m no pacifist, but I see no good coming from America’s potential military entanglement in this fratricidal conflict. Unable to manage the withdrawal from Afghanistan, how can we trust this government to manage protracted hostilities (covert or otherwise) against a rival nuclear power?
Plain and simple, Biden’s effete and ineffectual Administration failed to prevent Putin’s war. Biden’s subsequent saber-rattling and reckless escalatory measures smacks of desperation as the home front seethes with discontent at his incompetence and gross mismanagement of these United States. If I didn’t know any better, I would think the warmongers on both sides of the aisle are purposely trying to draw us (and the rest of Europe) into another bloody conflagration.
Freedom Fries Redux [2]
“In a related story, in France, American cheese is now referred to as ‘idiot cheese.’” ~ Tina Fey [3]Reminiscent of the imbecilic anti-French response theatre that took place during Bush’s so-called “War on Terror” and more recent discrimination against the unvaccinated, the lemmings predictably started demonizing all things Russian. Tiptoeing around China’s connivance with Covid while strongly condemning any anti-Sino backlash, it seems some forms of bigotry are okay after all. Considering Hollywood’s lack of imagination and creativity these days, I half-jokingly expect the “Rocky” and “Rambo” franchises to make a comeback and cash-in on the war hysteria. If we can’t defeat the evil Russkies diplomatically, at least we’ll beat them on the big screen and newsrooms.
Call me unpatriotic, but I’m not going and burn my copies of Dostoevsky or Solzhenitsyn; I’m not deleting Tchaikovsky or Mussorgsky from my playlists; and I’m definitely not dumping my vodka or caviare (not that I can afford it any more). If a serious and competent statesman with a sensible foreign policy rose to the fore, he would get my support, until then my contribution to the “war effort” will be limited to voicing my displeasure with our government and prayers for peace in Ukraine.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli
Notes:
[1] Caption from a widely published cartoon by David Sipress dating from the Clinton Administration.
[2] Back in 2003 jingoistic restauranteurs absurdly renamed french fries “freedom fries” in retribution for France’s opposition to the war in Iraq.
[3] Tina Fey, Weekend Update, Saturday Night Live, 15 March 2003.
