From
“The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst
13 November
I pack
around with me an apologetic attitude that my world is SO small, but that's not
quite true. Or rather, it’s not any smaller than anyone else's. Take a look,
say, the world of the U.S. Secretary of State. The President calls him to
discuss a trouble spot, say, in the Middle East [that’s always a good bet since
that’s a chronic, festering trouble spot as far as the eye can see]; here’s the
strategy you’re to follow, the President will tell him; if you need to, kick
the following butts this much and no further; now, go get the job done. So he
takes his limo [not a taxi] to Andrews Air Force Base and jets off to the hot
spot du jour. But he
doesn't fly coach or even first class. It's a government jet, which means he's
hermetically sealed from ordinary people. When he arrives he's still
hermetically sealed – once again a limo, not a taxi. Then comes the
horse-trading. Kicking butt happens, of course. That is, maybe the over-riding
need to honor American interests necessitate something very like selling out
what had been rock-solid principles he had lived by when he was younger and
more naive. [The sell-out is subtle because that’s the way the educated and
powerful do these things. But it’s not the first time, and won’t be the last.]
There's the inevitable press conference at which he will take the opportunity
of a question to give the administration's spin on the issue at hand. [As is
the way for whatever reason, the reporter will NOT say, “with respect, Mr.
Secretary, would you please now deal with the question you were just asked?”]
And when the horse-trading is all finished, hopefully the bitch goddess Success
will have been placated sufficiently. Then it's back to the White House in
those hermetically sealed vehicles to report to the President.
So, you
see, his world, for all its flash and glitter, for all its smoke and mirrors,
is about as narrow as yours and mine, right?
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