Thread: Response to Terrorism

There's an article in today's Guardian about how Russians are responding the terror threats with a mixture of stoicism and dark humour.

From the article:

At a cocktail party held to welcome the new British ambassador, I met a Russian media critic, known for his toadyish apologies for the Kremlin. He sweated a bit from the forehead - more from the whisky than the heat - as he explained how Russia would beat terrorists, a wry grin underscoring that he was only partly joking.

"We will shock them with our incompetence and our disregard for human life", he said. "And eventually they will just give up, seeing the attacks are pointless and change nothing."

Originally Posted by TexasMark

There's an article in today's Guardian about how Russians are responding the terror threats with a mixture of stoicism and dark humour.

From the article:

At a cocktail party held to welcome the new British ambassador, I met a Russian media critic, known for his toadyish apologies for the Kremlin. He sweated a bit from the forehead - more from the whisky than the heat - as he explained how Russia would beat terrorists, a wry grin underscoring that he was only partly joking.

"We will shock them with our incompetence and our disregard for human life", he said. "And eventually they will just give up, seeing the attacks are pointless and change nothing."

How very sad to hear it from a person responsible for highlighting the events

Perhaps he just “highlighted the events”?

Originally Posted by луговой лютик

How very sad to hear it from a person responsible for highlighting the events

On the contrary, I think such a sense of self-deprecating humour is very healthy.

Whoa. Self-depreciation is surely only a virtue when your intentions are good.

Would a self-deprecating fascist get your vote?

Originally Posted by TexasMark

There's an article in today's Guardian about how Russians are responding the terror threats with a mixture of stoicism and dark humour.

From the article:

At a cocktail party held to welcome the new British ambassador, I met a Russian media critic, known for his toadyish apologies for the Kremlin.

???

Originally Posted by TexasMark

He sweated a bit from the forehead - more from the whisky than the heat - as he explained how Russia would beat terrorists, a wry grin underscoring that he was only partly joking.

"We will shock them with our incompetence and our disregard for human life", he said.

Does he talk about media critics?

Originally Posted by TexasMark

"And eventually they will just give up, seeing the attacks are pointless and change nothing."

I hope so.

Originally Posted by joysof

Whoa. Self-depreciation is surely only a virtue when your intentions are good.

Jeezz. Talk about generalization. I did not say it was a "virtue". My point is merely that in this example I thought it was showing a healthy ability to look on a bad situation with humour. You're making it sound like I've published an article establishing self-deprecation as an exemplar of some sort of Platonic good!

I think you are missing the context of this article. It was essentially a simple human interest piece showing Russians dealing with a horrible situation in their own way. At least in the UK, where this was published, I believe this whole article would have read in a very chartiable way and would have engendered only good feelings from the reader.

The section I quoted is, quite obviously, just a joke. Not any sort of official pronouncement -- notice the writer of the piece quite pointedly does NOT give the critic's name. It's possible that there is something in the tone of this piece that is getting "lost in translation."

Originally Posted by joysof

Would a self-deprecating fascist get your vote?

I don't know where to even start responding to this, maybe just

I could, of course, make some light-hearted comment that references a well-known Texan politician and the fact that millions of people appear quite likely to do just that. . . but, of course, that would mix humour and politics and, clearly, that is absolutely forbidden.

Originally Posted by TexasMark

Originally Posted by joysof

Whoa. Self-depreciation is surely only a virtue when your intentions are good.

Jeezz. Talk about generalization. I did not say it was a "virtue". My point is merely that in this example I thought it was showing a healthy ability to look on a bad situation with humour.

I fail to see how 'healthy ability' lies outside the 'virtue' ballpark. Gallows humour is wonderful, I grant you that. It is, however, perhaps rather more wonderful when it doesn't emanate from such an Establishment figure as this seems to have. By all means poke fun at the status quo, but not whilst helping to perpetuate it. I'd rather a 'toadyish media critic' kept his mouth shut; he's hardly Elena Bonner, after all.

I think you are missing the context of this article. It was essentially a simple human interest piece showing Russians dealing with a horrible situation in their own way. At least in the UK, where this was published, I believe this whole article would have read in a very chartiable way and would have engendered only good feelings from the reader.

I think it might do you some good to read it again. Nick Paton Walsh is rather too good a journalist to write a 'simple human interest piece' on a topic like this. Much of the content, describing as it does a society careworn by terror, leaves me feeling rather less than warm and fuzzy.

N.B. I read this article in the UK.

The section I quoted is, quite obviously, just a joke.

The Guardian ain't Mad Magazine, thank Christ.

Not a response (I try to avoid those endless back and forth internet board discussions -- they rarely resolve anything), but, a propos of Mad Magazine, which I have not read since being a child, a friend sent me this link, which is actually quite funny.

http://www2.warnerbros.com/madmagazine/ ... jesus.html

I understood your original posting clearly TM. For me, I found it of value and even read it to my friends. I don't think that there is any need for criticism.......it is what it is.

"... You probably read all of the editorials in the leading Western newspapers following the beheadings of the two American contract workers in Iraq last week. Like this one in The Washington Post: "There can be no excuse, no justification, no rationalization for the barbarity of beheading American hostages Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley...But the underlying causes of the Iraqi insurgency have yet to be dealt with. Namely, America's brutal military occupation of Iraq, in which thousands of innocent civilians have died, and its backing of an illegitimate and unpopular puppet regime..." Oh, I'm sorry, they didn't print that. Not one Anglo-American paper wrote that. I made it up myself, just quoting from their editorials on Beslan"
(www.exile.ru)

Precisely.

Well, if it is true that the new regime in Iraq is so unpopular, then obviously we have not killed enough Iraqis yet.

Originally Posted by DDT

Well, if it is true that the new regime in Iraq is so unpopular, then obviously we have not killed enough Iraqis yet.

Jesus Christ. Call me a starry-eyed idealist, but somehow I expect the US to behave at least SLIGHTLY better than Saddam Hussein did.

Hey Lyndsay, I'm just trying liven the board up a bit today. Mike said that we are getting a little "boring" lately.

If the alternative is your presence, here's to boredom.

I'll drink to that!!

Originally Posted by joysof

If the alternative is your presence, here's to boredom.

bull

Oh Kamion......not you too! And all this, just at a time in my life when I was beginning to be able to have a deep and meaningfull relationship again. Oh my!

I've been in and out of these conversations. Why does everyone hate DDT?

Try an old thread or two; form your own conclusions.