The Russians are Clumsy

Maybe I've been too busy, but this Russian school seige, it seems to me, didn't get quite as much press or analysis as I would have imagined.

Something bizarre has happened with the world and the narratives we use to shape our perceptions of the world. During the cold war anything the Russians did militarily was bad - it was aggressive and threatening. This applies to the first Chechyn war even after Communism fell and Yeltsin was president. I think the world empathized with the Chechyn's. The same goes for Osama and his crew against the Russian's in Afghanistan. Look at the friendly portrayal of an Afghan Arab in the Living Daylights, an underrated Bond film. He's a cool, stud, pretty much our picture of Osama bin Laden in those days.

This willingness to root for the underdog has emboldened those who can manipulate the "underdog" idea. Unless the underdog is quickly able to transition into a gracious winner, after defeating a foe, he becomes something else, someone not worth rooting for anymore.

That's why I don't think the Red Sox or Cubs should or deserve to win a World Series. They wouldn't know what to do with themselves. They'd lose their loveable identity.

Look at Yasser Arafat. He won a Nobel Peace prize, a guy more responsible for the repression of his own people, both by not negotiating peace and by imposing rough justice and allowing deep corruption to stunt growth, than anyone else in the world.

For so long we've been accustomed to rooting for underdogs, that we've stretched ourselves to the point where we sometimes forgive what shouldn't be forgiven.

This post is all over the freaking place....that's my head right now.