Mark Phillips: The American Question

1/16/03: Karmic retribution.

Right-wing blogmeister James Taranto accused singer Cheryl Crow of hitting a sour note last week:

Reuters reports that songstress Sheryl Crow donned a T-shirt saying "War is not the answer" at last night's American Music Awards. "I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow," Sheryl crowed. "I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies."

OK, that "karmic retribution" stuff is pretty daffy, and war often is the answer (much of Europe may be run by weenies, but that sure beats Nazis). Still, Crow has a point about the desirability of not having enemies. So let's kill them.

Two facets of this distasteful writing seem worth noting.

1. The atavistic joy in violence it seems to project. There were a handful of counter-demonstrators at the huge antiwar rally in San Francisco last Saturday, January 18, who projected the same troubling psychology. "Fry Mumia," and "Nuke Iraq" were among their slogans. Right-wing politics has traditionally been associated with irrationality. Yet it seems so shocking to be confronted by it.

2. Crow's point of view is strategically more sophisticated than Taranto's. Crow recognizes that acts of aggression will be followed by acts of resistance, as they always have been and always will be through the whole history of suffering humanity. As Israel has proven with its sixty-year experiment, war with Iraq will not contribute to a more-secure America. It'll make things worse. Crow's language may seem "daffy" to Taranto, but she's right, and he's wrong.

Taranto's atavistic joy in death dooms our people to permanent war. One questions the "patriotism" of that joy.

Back to 2003 menu
Back to Mark's Blogspace main page

More Information

1. "All roads lead to Tehran", Phillips
2. "Complexity", Phillips
3. "weblogs: a history and perspective", blood
4. "You've got blog", Mead
5. EatonWeb Portal
6. BlogHop
7. Blogger
8. Blogroots
9. The Pepys Project