Clarice Feldman: Ferguson, Missouri, to Gaza, Damascus and Sinjar

American Thinker ^ | August 17, 2014 | Clarice Feldman

[jazusamo]

An online friend “Miss Marple” notes the similarities between the thuggery in Ferguson, Missouri and the depredations of the Middle East’s jihadi wild packs:

I read a book by the historian Barbara Tuchman [A Distant Mirror. The Calmitous 14th Century] which theorized that the Hundred Years War was caused by a culture that was adolescent, because so many older people had died during the Black Plague.

All of the nobles and rulers at that time were in their late teens and had not much guidance from older, calmer heads.

That idea has remained with me ever since I read the book, and when I see crowds of angry young men, whether in the Middle East of urban America, I think about it. Adolescent cultures react emotionally, are disproportionately concerned with machismo and being respected, act on impulse, and have no long-term goals.

I think there’s something to that. It is not, however, the only connection between the two places and events.

Obama and his policies -- on foreign affairs hopelessly naive and on domestic matters fashioned only for personal political advantage -- are also intimately connected with this havoc.

Let me explain. Most of us are by now wise to a few things about American race riots.

In the first place, the media has a template that shapes the initial reports -- a template as false as it is incendiary. The slain young black man is always initially described as an honor student and a saint and is pictured as a very young, presumably fragile, boy. When the truth that he was something of a thug comes out and that he was quite a bit older and larger than pictured, the damage has already largely been done...

[TEXOKIE]

I agree. It has been a while since I read it, and I think I need to haul it down off the shelf and give it another go!

[fieldmarshaldj]

There’s already too much undocumented shopping going on in these communities.

[no-to-illegals]

lol ... fieldmarshaldj. Brain was not engaged with finger wires and is prevalent during most brain and finger exchanges to keyboard from here. yep, point was lost on one fatal keystroke ... lol.