Robert Redford and the Blame America First Mentality

CNSNews.com ^ | 3/22/02 | Sterling Rome

[Skooz]

I suppose he means that bunch of self-absorbed narcissist in Hollywood who earn a millions pretending to be real people.

Excellent. What makes these airheads who make their living pretending to be other people any more qualified to speak on issues than, say, pipefitters, roofers, cab drivers, or hotel maids?

[TwakeIDFins]

Perhaps we were too closed, too preoccupied to see it coming.

When he says "we" who is he talking about?

Probably the majority of Americans.

Did you see it coming? If so, why did you not warn your compatriots?

We Americans were too self-absorbed to see it coming. We were too sure of our own virtue, and of our own strength. In response to the terrible attacks, many Americans have renewed our efforts to understand the rest of the world. Most of us now understand that we ignore the rest of the world at our peril.

We enlist Pakistan's help in driving the Taleban out of power in Afghanistan. That's a good thing. Musharraf is turning out to be an insightful and wise leader of that country. But various events, including the killing of Daniel Pearl, terrorist attacks against doctors in that country, and terrorist attacks against Americans in Pakistan, have shown that the job is not done yet--and it is not easy. Part of getting the job done, is understanding what's going on over there, and how to ensure that the mullahs are marginalized in their own land.

We, in America, need to focus our educational efforts on the rest of the world. We need to understand other peoples and other cultures. Since a failure to understand will lead to more terrorist attacks, it's simply in our selfish interest to make the effort.

[EllaMinnow]

Hmm..so in Robet Redford's worldview, I can prove my openness and lack of greed by paying 200.00 for a 40.00 shirt.

Oh, yeah, he can put my money to better use than I can! For a minute there, I forgot my place in Redfordworld.

[KSCITYBOY]

Yes we do need to understand other cultures, in our never ending quest to seek out and destroy terrorists who would kill innocent people in order to dictate to us what our foriegn policy should be and prop up some pathetic ideal islamic society run by a two bit warlord named bin laden. The interesting thing here is that the terrorist were really the ones who didn't understand our culture. They believed they were dealing with the Americans you see on CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC. They thought the all Americans were the self-absorbed, feminized, narcisistic, whimps protrayed on American TV. They failed to realize that there are still many Americans willing to defend the US.

[Skooz]

Very good points. They skimmed to top layer of our Hollywood-pseudoculture and assumed that pathetic, shallow, self-absorbed, weak ideology ran through our society all the way to the bottom. It was THEY who misunderstood US, not the other way around.

We are not to blame in any way for the 9/11 attacks. The only blame rests on the perpetrators. Period.

[Skooz]

So, your premise is that if we "understood" the rest of the world, the terrorists would have never attacked us? Please explain.

[GATOR NAVY]

We, in America, need to focus our educational efforts on the rest of the world. We need to understand other peoples and other cultures.

I agree 100%. Here's a link to thread that helps us to understand the Muslim culture: In Saudi Arabia, ideology is far more important than biology

Read it and weep.

[LiberalBassTurds]

It is always wise to know your friends and enemies intamately. Where your premise falls apart is that knowing/understanding other cultures is done on a personal level and is at best only surface level. You only see what they want you to see.

If understanding Arab culture as Americans could have prevented 9-11 then answer this .... why can't we understand/anticipate/prevent the actions of our own sociopaths (ie. serial killers) as American where we have greath depth of cultural understanding?

The answer is, regardless of how well you know a culture you can not convert disturbed people to model citizens, nor can you prevent people bent upon destruction from realizing it.

[TwakeIDFins]

So, your premise is that if we "understood" the rest of the world, the terrorists would have never attacked us? Please explain.

No, that is not my premise.

I believe that, by acting as though we were an island, our society failed to appreciate what was going on in the rest of the world. Because of that, we failed to do the following:

1. Take seriously what was happening in Afghanistan, and relate it to a threat to our country's security;
2. Pay attention to complaints against America in the Arab world, and take steps either to address those complaints or to anticipate the consequences of the rage that some were expressing; and
3. Allocate necessary resources to sectors like INS and to airport security.

...Among other things. One or more of those steps might have prevented the outrage of Sept. 11. We could blame politicians for not allocating the resources to INS, but they were responding to the will of the electorate...and, therefore, we failed to do what was necessary to prevent it.

This is not "blame the victim." If some sleazeball steals my car, he is a sleazeball, and he should be caught and prosecuted. But if I fail to learn from it -- if I fail to lock my car, for instance, then I haven't learned any lessons from the event, either.