In this morning's edition of his biweekly New York Times column, Roger Cohen attempts both to be young and hip and and to dispatch a punchy rhyme, and falls flat in both regards (my emphasis added):
The most critical is a switch from the politics of anxiety to the politics of confidence. Bush and Cheney never emerged from the 9/11 bunker. Their attack-dog snarl alienated a globe asked to step in line or step aside. The expectation of fealty must give way to the entertainment of dissent. The next leader has to be curious. Presidential body language needs to say "I'm one of you." Facebook engagement must supplant fearful estrangement.
Forget real diplomacy, Hillary can just diffuse international crises by adding the relevant leader as a Friend. NATO can be replaced by a Network. And rather than economic sanctions, the likes of Iran and Myanmar can just receive a Poke when behaving badly. Then I'd really be forced to join.
7 comments:
Unfortunately I don't think Luke's ex-colleagues as the Ontario Ministry of Health will be able to read that editorial, due to blocking of all facebook-related internet content on ministry computers. I predicted as much.
You predicted as much? When? When??
Aldous, at least Roger Cohen is younger/hipper than my ex-colleagues, who can't even see Facebook, let alone use it to supplant fearful estrangement.
BTW, I bought a previously loved PowerBook today - you all have 7 days to convince me it wasn't a bad idea!
Luke, why are you responding to me, when John wrote the post and Nick wrote the comment? I'm totally confused.
Umm, I appreciate newness and warranties in computers, but if you want to play Russian roulette with your data...
P.S. See John, your unfamiliarity with Facebook made your own snip fall as flat as an overbeaten souffle. A "poke," everybody knows, usually has positive connotations and is never used to discipline one's facebook friends. If you really wanted to extrapolate Mr. Cohen's ridiculous comment properly, you would have mentioned Facebook's "Security Council sanctions" application.
Oh, sorry Aldous. You're usually the one who complains about columnists from the New York Times.
Hmmm. Nick, what do you think?
PowerBook or MacBook?
PowerBook G4 - 15 inch screen.
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