". . . and Sauron is like President Nixon."
A reader named Melissa S. e-mailed to say that she explains Iraq policy to her 8-year-old son in terms of Harry Potter characters: “Dick Cheney is Lord Voldemort. George W. Bush is Peter Pettigrew.” Don Rumsfeld is Lucius Malfoy, while Cornelius Fudge represents administration supporters who deny that anything is wrong. And, she concludes, “Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter is Fox News.”Now this, surely, is child abuse. I am so thankful that, when she read The Lord of the Rings to my brother and me during the Nixon/Vietnam era, my mother did not sully the magic by mixing in contemporary politics. At least those were adult books (sort of). I can't imagine teaching a child of eight that the real world is as black-and-white as the morality of a children's book. That same Melissa S. is probably overprotecting that kid in all sorts of meaningless ways even as she ruins him in the way she proudly confides to Kristof.
That was one of the 400 comments from readers offering literary or historical parallels to the Bush administration and Iraq. - Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, February 4, 2007
In the same column, Kristof asserts that "Sun Tzu and Julius Caesar alike also appreciated the diplomatic benefits of treating enemy prisoners well; they would be appalled by Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo."
Yes, the Romans were famous as generous victors. The leaders of the conquered peoples would be paraded through Rome and executed midway through the proceedings. (I don't imagine things were a lot more friendly in China, circa 500 B.C.) I'm sure I don't have to explain where the Romans got all those slaves.
Labels: parenting
posted at 9:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home