Scott Simon sermonizes about evil this morning. Simon decides that the premeditated killing of civilians doesn't deserve to be probed for motives:
"A word like 'motive' seems to imply there was reason or purpose. It suggests that, however profane their actions, the terrorists had the incentive of some goal in mind."He notes that when human beings are "the very objects of damage" it is simply evil, no matter how "terrorists and apologists may ultimately embroider the assault with supposed political significance."
Maybe Simon is right when he says "that evil men and women see no innocents in the world. They will slaughter mothers without conscience and their children, too, because mothers give birth to children who can grow up to be their opponents." Given this new, righteous Scott Simon, I'll look forward to his denouncing ALL targetings of civilians whether done by terrorists in India or by the US government and it's friends and proxies.
4 comments:
Well, I guess we knew it was coming. 'Evil' is the perfect subject for a Simonized Sermonette. After the Neocons and BushCorp abused the word, it's left to a Saturday morning radio host to restore it to respectability, with an innuendo that the Neocons have been right all along. Who better than the Simonizer, who has the guts to actually use the word 'evil', to lead us back when we go astray?
One more thought about this morning's show. You know, in show business, there's good vaudeville and bad vaudeville. Either way, it was a hodgepodge, with slapstick mixed with operatic arias, jugglers and scenes from 'Hamlet'. NPR's magazine shows emulate this model, but without the flair. At least in vaudeville you could get some pretty good talent. Today we indeed had Scottie's Sermonette, but a GREAT DEAL of time was spent on a spectacularly unfunny and poorly-produced 'segment' with our vaudevillian Scott and Dave Barry goofing around at a science show. It BOMBED, people. Give 'em the hook!
And gosh, I couldn't forget our dear Gwen's Jungle Storytime, with special features like: I'll Take You By The Hand So's We Can Visit Some Neat Gorillas (With Special Conscientious Observations On The Poor Folk Who Live Nearby, as a feel-good bonus). Thank heavens Kipling's not alive to hear this Discovery Channel For Kids rubbish.
Quandary: how can we take a Simonized Sermon seriously when it's surrounded by FUN?
Modest suggestion (and not for the first time): NPR, dump the vaudeville approach. Separate features from news stories. You guys don't know how to make the mix work.
PS: Oh, yesterday Insfreak celebrated the birthday of Jon Stewart by delivering a full-of-snot zinger, calling him a 'fake' newsman. Insqueep been dwinking sour gwape juice. His limp touché, flung in the totally brilliant satirist and social commentator's direction, only made the saber come back and hit him in the face. No doubt he thinks Mark Twain was a fake, too.
hear, hear -- listened to the same crap -- what self-righteous, self-unaware stupidity.
I love Simon's very high horse. He can see a lot from up there, and his buoyant, mirthful laugh rolls across a grateful waking nation.
I also remember this attitude during his brave Wall Street Journal attack on Michael Moore and
his film decrying the Iraq war. ("When Punchline Trumps Honesty - There's more McCarthy than Murrow in the work of Michael Moore").
Like other propaganda, "labeling" is simply a way of ensuring that your views will be imposed on others.
Like so many other announcers at NPR, Simon is an expert propagandist.
Post a Comment