Forrest, Pinot Noir and the danger of acting military
This is just a rumination on several things I've encountered lately. While recently in Tennessee visiting my sister, she told me about a friend of their's who has named their boy Forrest, after Nathan Bedford Forrest. Now, Nathan Bedford Forrest was a slave trader before the Civil War, became a General in the Confederate Army and after the war was the first Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. To name your child after him either means that you are a Klan member or you have no sense for the dignity of other people.
At work the other day as I was coming back from the kitchen through the hallway of cubicles to one of my own, I approached a work colleague, coming to replenish his coffee cup. Before passing me he lifted his arm to give me a "salute" and in the process hit his elbow sharply on the corner of a cubicle wall. Later, when I said to him that his behavior is a sign of the danger that comes through military behavior, he launched into a not so well fashioned argument about the need for a military, how important they are, how human nature is such that having a military is necessary, etc.
Call me idealistic or naive but I don't buy into any of this logic. Militaries are inherently dangerous and kill people. Emulating their behavior and wounding yourself in the process is a clear sign of the idiocy of acting military.
The last rumination is of a conversation with another work colleague at a party. He announced to me at the party that there are no good red German wines. When I told him that there are German pinot noirs, he was flabbergasted and said that he would have to learn the word for pinot noir. Has he ever tried many German red wines or was he acting out of a unlearned prejudice? He and his wife have been in Germany for over a year now, learning little of the language in the meanwhile, being just as mystified by German culture as they probably were when they arrived. Have they made any efforts to get to know the local culture or do they live in typical American arrogance, disdaining things that are not American, continuing to live American lives in the southern part of Germany?
At work the other day as I was coming back from the kitchen through the hallway of cubicles to one of my own, I approached a work colleague, coming to replenish his coffee cup. Before passing me he lifted his arm to give me a "salute" and in the process hit his elbow sharply on the corner of a cubicle wall. Later, when I said to him that his behavior is a sign of the danger that comes through military behavior, he launched into a not so well fashioned argument about the need for a military, how important they are, how human nature is such that having a military is necessary, etc.
Call me idealistic or naive but I don't buy into any of this logic. Militaries are inherently dangerous and kill people. Emulating their behavior and wounding yourself in the process is a clear sign of the idiocy of acting military.
The last rumination is of a conversation with another work colleague at a party. He announced to me at the party that there are no good red German wines. When I told him that there are German pinot noirs, he was flabbergasted and said that he would have to learn the word for pinot noir. Has he ever tried many German red wines or was he acting out of a unlearned prejudice? He and his wife have been in Germany for over a year now, learning little of the language in the meanwhile, being just as mystified by German culture as they probably were when they arrived. Have they made any efforts to get to know the local culture or do they live in typical American arrogance, disdaining things that are not American, continuing to live American lives in the southern part of Germany?
posted by paulmediaeye at 12:48 PM
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