“Person of the Year,” TIME stipulates, “is an annual issue that features a profile on the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that—for better or worse—has most influenced events in the preceding year.”
My Person of the Year flouts TIME’s criteria. He has not “influenced events in the preceding year”; he has been irreparably influenced by events beyond his control. He has not triumphed over adversity, for how can he? To do so, he’d have to be super powerful, like a Super Power. He’d have to be someone with a say; someone whose vote actually counts. He’d have to be wealthy; stupendously strong; immune to daisy cutters, cluster bombs, RPGs, and IEDs.
My Person of the Year is the Common Iraqi.
Yes, it is misguided to celebrate victims. But then I am not celebrating The Average Iraqi. I’m suggesting that he serve as a symbol for the ravages visited by the state. He has constituted collateral damage for two administrations. And he’ll continue to be a pawn in the grubby hands of whoever seizes power in that failed state.
The Average Iraqi’s vote is not a triumph over adversity; it’s a victory over reality, for it is folly to equate freedom with symbols, and rhetoric with reality. Casting a vote to give someone power does not make a man free; freedom is the knowledge that even if one doesn’t perform that ritual, nobody can exercise power over one’s life, liberty, and property.
The Average Iraqi is a tragic hero, not a Randian hero. His image should be seared in the minds of men with a conscience. He is the repository of state evil; first Saddam, and then a faraway president and his Revolutionary Assembly sealed his fate without his consent.
Category Archives: Media
Warring, Torturing, Spying, Lying—Just Do It!
CNN Correspondent Jack Cafferty succinctly sums up the moral depravity of this administration. Readers (usually party Republicans, not true conservatives) who cannot get past partisan proclivities, despite my exhortations, should pay attention to Cafferty’s (“conservative”) quip about Harriet E. Miers. Altogether, Cafferty, who has also suggested sacking New York City’s transit workers should they strike, strikes me as a cross between John McLaughlin and Jon Stewart (A good combination, of course):
“Who cares about whether the Patriot Act gets renewed? Want to abuse our civil liberties? Just do it.
Who cares about the Geneva Conventions? Want to torture prisoners. Just do it.
Who cares about rules concerning the identity of CIA agents? Want to reveal the name of a covert operative? Just do it.
Who cares about whether the intelligence concerning WMDS is accurate? Want to invade Iraq? Just do it.
Who cares about qualifications to serve on the nation’s highest court? Want to nominate a personal friend with no qualifications? Just do it.
And the latest outrage, which I read about in “The New York Times” this morning: Who cares about needing a court order to eavesdrop on American citizens? Want to wiretap their phone conversations? Just do it. What a joke. A very cruel, very sad joke.”
Served Straight Up
‘The story of Joseph Farah and the president’s “Happy Holiday” card was first reported by The Washington Post, and is now being carried by newspapers around the world. Bush and his multiculti madam sent out 1.4 million cards, wishing the recipients a happy “holiday season.” (The presidential pets featured on the card. How pathetic.) Here’s The Scotsman:
“Joseph Farah, the editor of the conservative website WorldNetDaily.com said that Mr Bush ‘claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian, but sure doesn’t act like one.’ He added: ‘I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it.'”
That’s completely cool. And I hope Mr. Farah didn’t recycle the thing, although I am sure the pinko president had it printed on recycled paper.
‘Israel has tested an anti-ballistic missile, Arrow Weapon System (AWS). According to Jane’s’ Defense Weekly, “It successfully intercepted a target simulating an Iranian Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) in a test over the Mediterranean on 2 December.”
Talk about a quick quip: When asked by the press how far he would go to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb, Israeli army chief Dan Halutz replied without hesitation: “2000 km!”
‘Sean Mercer, aka Dr. Rock, on the difference between electrical engineers (himself) and computer programmers (lesser beings): “They (programmers) manipulate ones and zeros; we (electrical engineers) manipulate the laws of physics.” It sounds even better in that tart English accent.
UPDATED (12/8/2023): Monopolizers And Flyters (November 23, 2005)
Culture, English, Intellectualism, Intelligence, Literature, Media, The Zeitgeist
Leave a reply
On the flyting that flew between the two, Christopher Hitchens and George Galloway
Who monopolizes the market place of ideas in the Guardian’s view? The answer is assorted activists, liberal-leftists, statists, feminists, and other lightweights. Read the paper’s top 100 intellectuals and tell me it doesn’t distress.
I don’t profess to have heard of all the characters on the list. Far from it. But of those I recognize, I guess I’d go with German philosopher Jurgen Habermas. This is not to say I endorse his views or all his influences (the unlovely Theodor Adorno comes to mind). But this is not about agreeing with a thinker, only acknowledging his place on this list.
I’d also go with Pope Benedict XVI, and the marvelous Australian art critic Robert Hughes whose profundity, knowledge, and critical faculties are a credit to his Jesuit teachers.
I see Newsweek‘s wishy-washy Fareed Zakaria is considered an intellectual giant. Woe is me! Amos Oz is a popular writer (and not a good one when compared with Meir Shalev or Shy Agnon), but hardly one of the top intellectuals around. But if one is of the Left, one has an advantage in the selection process.
Now hold your horses, will you, because I also admire Christopher Hitchens as a stylist, conversationalist, and an extraordinary flyter. What is flyting, you ask? It’s an ancient Scottish form of invective, a true master of which is the MP George Galloway. I don’t care for his or Hitchens’ ever-shifting views, but I loved the flyting that flew between the two. Galloway called Hitchens a drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay. Hitchens responded over the pages of an august publication by likening the lickspittle praise Galloway once bestowed on him to spittle flung in place of argument. Later on, the two dueled deliciously on C-Span, where, I’m afraid, Hitchens proved his uncontested superiority in this spontaneous rhetorical art.