Bill,
It would be unfortunate (and plain false) to even seem to accept a view of
the world cut in half: Americans and Britons on one side, and the rest of
the world on the other. Surely torture is un-American, and many true
patriots have had to flee their own government. One of the main advantages
of international forums like this one is that it teaches us to go beyond
jihad and evil. But if we simply have to talk about the lute on the current
background of accepted bipolar schizophrenia, in a black and white
caricature without color or nuance, then the terrorists will have won and
we will have lost.
For instance, the thumb-unders will go after the thumb-outs - the
nylgutters will take revenge on the mere gutters - and the freedom tabbers
won't allow for any numbers at all just to retaliate against the Italians
for electing Berlusconi... No matter what you do you cannot really leave
the world at the door - but we don't have to chose between anti-americanism
and patriotism, politics and lute topics, because unlike French fries and
cole slaw on a KFC menu, these things are not mutually exclusive options.
To attempt to prove this last point, I remember Paul O'Dette telling the
following anecdote: Francis I of France and the Pope once met in one of
those show-off friendly encounters that Renaissance monarchs used to enjoy.
One night, the king and the Pope exchanged lutenists: Francesco da Milano
played for Francis, and Albert de Rippe played for the Pope. After
Francesco was done, Francis thanked him and gave him his weight in gold.
After Albert was done playing, the Pope thanked him and gave him ... his
blessing.
Alain
At 10:40 AM 5/25/04, bill wrote:
>what say we give this thread a week and then put a lid on it.
>
>instead of everyone adding a comment and saying theirs should be the
>last, why don't we encourage everyone to say what they want to for
>seven days, let out all that latent anti-americanism or suppressed
>feelings of patriotism and then, hopefully, we can bury this thing
>dead-dead-dead and get back to discussing the minutiae of our mutually
>shared interest.
>
>agreed?
>
>gin clear - bill
>
>On Martedì, mag 25, 2004, at 17:06 Europe/Rome, Ariel Abramovich wrote:
>
> > Craig,
> > Your opinions on politics aren't welcome either, no matter how bad you
> > feel
> > as an American.
> > As a South American, I could have many motivations to express my
> > opinions
> > about US successive government's idea of "democracy" and "solidarity",
> > but I
> > keep them for a more appropriated context. No one cares here about
> > what I
> > think or feel about that, as no one cares what's your view of global
> > politics, or what your patriotic feelings are.
> > If members like you, offended or not by Arto's attitude (no matter how
> > rational or irrational his positions turned to be) insist in expressing
> > their own political- moral opinion (I've been posting a couple of
> > messages
> > warning about that) in the same email in which they condemn the use of
> > this
> > list for that purposes, keep in mind that you're not respecting the
> > decision
> > of the majority of the list's members, plus you're being incoherent and
> > unfair with many of us.
> > Once more: either we all speak freely, or we all keep the conflict's
> > subject
> > off.
> > Regards,
> > Ariel.
> >
> >
