- Feb 5, 2002
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In 1953, the Swiss novelist Max Frisch published a play called The Arsonists. It's a pitch dark comedy about a small town ravaged by a group of maniacs disguised as traveling salesmen, who sweet-talk their way into people's homes and then set them on fire. Its protagonist is a dolt called Biedermann—bieder being German for honest, respectable, and upright. He's aware of the danger, and yet, when the arsonists knock, he lets them in. The tragedy, Frisch argues, is that he almost has no other choice: The arsonists are such smooth talkers that it's easy, when listening to them, to ignore the large drums of kerosene and the matches they're holding in their hands.
I thought of The Arsonists this week when I heard snippets of a podcast interview featuring former president Barack Obama on the Middle East. "Nobody's hands are clean," Obama said. "All of us are complicit."
Nah, man. Not all of us are complicit. It's just you.
Continued below.
www.newsweek.com
I thought of The Arsonists this week when I heard snippets of a podcast interview featuring former president Barack Obama on the Middle East. "Nobody's hands are clean," Obama said. "All of us are complicit."
Nah, man. Not all of us are complicit. It's just you.
Continued below.
Sorry, Obama: 'We' Aren't Complicit. It's You Who Has Blood on Your Hands
Maybe we can finally see Obama for what he truly is: The man who set the world on fire.
www.newsweek.com
