Squeek
connoisseur of tidbits
I listened today as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a large group of Columbia University students. A bold move by the university, Columbia has been criticized by some for providing Ahmadinejad an opportunity to enjoy a right he denies his own people: Freedom of Speech.
Smart and well educated, Ahmadinejad seemed confident except for moments when his audience erupted into laughter in response to a few of his serious comments. Myself, I wasn't particularly surprised. I see Ahmadinejad as a peculiar kind of intellectual who was likely to greatly underestimate his audience and its ability to think.
Ahmadinejad is a snake oil salesman. His is intellectualism for unsophisticated thinkers, and it sells when customers are effected, somehow, and not at their best. The desperate are big-time buyers. So are the deeply opinionated. The hateful are prime customers.
How do you explain to a man like Ahmadinejad, who teaches at the doctorate level, that some of his ideas are just plain stupid? You don't. Folks like Ahmadinejad will invite you to engage them and their ideas. They have to figure it out for themselves. They are to be ignored and pitied.
Unfortunately, Ahmadinejad can’t be simply ignored. He’s in a position of great influence in the Middle East, and his government is working hard to develop nuclear power. It's definitely a worrisome situation.
Smart and well educated, Ahmadinejad seemed confident except for moments when his audience erupted into laughter in response to a few of his serious comments. Myself, I wasn't particularly surprised. I see Ahmadinejad as a peculiar kind of intellectual who was likely to greatly underestimate his audience and its ability to think.
Ahmadinejad is a snake oil salesman. His is intellectualism for unsophisticated thinkers, and it sells when customers are effected, somehow, and not at their best. The desperate are big-time buyers. So are the deeply opinionated. The hateful are prime customers.
How do you explain to a man like Ahmadinejad, who teaches at the doctorate level, that some of his ideas are just plain stupid? You don't. Folks like Ahmadinejad will invite you to engage them and their ideas. They have to figure it out for themselves. They are to be ignored and pitied.
Unfortunately, Ahmadinejad can’t be simply ignored. He’s in a position of great influence in the Middle East, and his government is working hard to develop nuclear power. It's definitely a worrisome situation.