An excellent Richard Cohen column in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24764-2004Sep15.html
Featuring this deeply disturbing statistic: "A recent Pew Research Center poll found, for instance, that 51 percent of Democrats agreed with the proposition that "U.S. wrongdoing" contributed to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (only 17 percent of Republicans agreed). Those are astounding numbers, an indictment not really of America (for what?) but of those people who compulsively blame their own country for the faults of others. You can believe that U.S. support of Israel and the stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks, but the term Pew used was "wrongdoing." In this respect, these people and Osama bin Laden are in agreement."
Oy. Could this be ANY more polarizing?
I cannot equate "contributed to" to "blame?"
In my experience, the height of self-righteousness, if not narcissicism, is for me to take the moral inventory of others but never myself. It is at least unhealthy to focus who is to blame, a dwelling on the past that in my life is usually motivated by an aversion to dealing with reality, the present moment.
The answers don't bother me, it's the damn questions that need improvement.
Nick
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