The Punk-Test Of Liberty’s Limits
From the desk of George Handlery on Thu, 2012-08-30 06:35
Can one handle fish and not smell? Is it possible to spread honey without becoming sticky? Could “Pussy Riot” be discussed and not stoop to their level of lewdness? Such thoughts arise as one sets out to discuss a story behind the news that was.
Here the essentials, in case you missed the matter. “Pussy Riot” (PR) is a once ignored Russian female punk-rock band. It has a record of public sex acts, ranging from simple copulation to the vaginal insertion of a chicken in a supermarket. To “express itself” through an act of “art”, in Moscow PR invaded the cathedral of “Christ the Savior” to stage a political “action”. The analogy is to invade the Vatican. A show was put on. It asked the Virgin Mary – she herself has been told to switch to feminism- to remove Putin. The label: “a punk prayer”. The mischief scored in the internet. After less than a minute, the exhibition that revealed all including the panties of the artists was stopped. Arrests and then a trial followed. The verdict of two years, out of a possible seven, has shocked the foreign media. Count on copycat imitators emerging.
The World, Its Vote, And American Elections
From the desk of George Handlery on Sun, 2012-08-26 15:39
Seldom is the topic of this column taken from a long list of planned topics that wait being unthawed. This time the unplanned stimulus comes from a video interview of foreign-born residents in New York. The question put to them was their view of Obama. How would they vote in November?
Inquiries reflecting the views of “the man in the street” often induce shudders that travel down the spine of your columnists. (The pronouncements of some politicians are not entirely exempt.) Sidewalk interviews from America confirm the worse prejudices about the country. Asking the passers-by is a popular art form practiced stateside. When done in Europe, the results reflecting unawareness and irrationality are equally discouraging. US-made ignorance’s boldness has much to do with the courage by which imbecility and lack of knowledge are fearlessly exhibited for all to see. The support comes from a popular culture and from a school system programmed to produce not education but good feeling that ends in failure. Unawareness facilitates the unabashed voicing of unfounded judgments. The justification of these proclamations is “my view is as good as yours, because we are all created equal”. Frequently, the upshot is sad hilarity.
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