Saturday, February 5, 2011

Dogged pursuit of significance

-- February 3, 2011


As I skimmed over the headlines this morning and throughout the day, I could see that the reporters in Egypt have formed their herd and they now all sound the same. The NYT is superlative by volume if not by weight. It squirms to discern the significance of the tumult

Among all these stories, I was struck by two headlines that were all Pollyana though from very different perspectives.

One  that kept changing through the day on top of a story about the meaning of the protest to the greater Arab world with the perspective and bombast of al Jazeera.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/world/middleeast/03arab.html

The other a labeled opinion by Tom Friedman who sets up a heartfelt call toward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. After establishing that he has contacts with top politicians and that Israel is nervous, he concludes it would a good thing to call a truce. Wow! Even Jimmy Carter knew that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/opinion/02friedman.html

My point is that no one is going to be able to know the underlying meaning of the events as they happen, and we won't ever be able to sound smart until it's long over. For now, all I want to know is what is happening.

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