The two extremes
Since September 11th, I have been voraciously reading news sites, personal weblogs and any other kind of commentary I can find on the web.
For the most part, there is overwhelming concensus. In fact, this kind of concensus (of sadness, condemnation and anger) on a worldwide scale is unparalleled.
Having distilled the reports and commentaries of the last month, I’ve noticed two extremes.
In the right-wing corner we have Ann Coulter with her racist rantings:
"Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims".
And on the left (and it saddens me to say it) we have the misguided rightousness of Arundhati Roy:
"The September 11 attacks were a monstrous calling card from a world gone horribly wrong. The message may have been written by Bin Laden (who knows?) and delivered by his couriers, but it could well have been signed by the ghosts of the victims of America’s old wars."
This two articles are litmus papers for the mind. If you find the arguments of either side to be reasonable, then your brain is either dangerously acidic or dangerously alkaline.
Luckily there is a middle ground. That’s where you’ll find most of us. That’s where you’ll find this superb article by Ian McEwan.
Thursday, October 4th, 2001 2:02pm
Illustrations
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