February 13, 2002

As Good as Hyperbole Gets

As Good as Hyperbole Gets

I admit, I have a soft spot for hyperbolic comparisons of the posturing of current French politicians with some of their more ignominious forebears during World War II. It's not really fair, but I find it irresistible. So I quite enjoyed Michael Kelly's column which says that the "Axis of Evil" doctrine is "as good as doctrine gets."

"The chief points," he writes, "for the "axis of evil" doctrine may be seen in considering the chief points against it," including:

It is "simplisme." It is simplistic, or simple-minded, as the French foreign minister, whose name is Petain or Maginot or something, sniffed last week. C'est vrai. It is indeed "simplisme" to pick fights with evil regimes just because those regimes want to kill you or enslave you or at least force you to knuckle under and collaborate in their evil, when one might choose the far safer and far more profitable path of shrugging one's shoulders in a fetchingly Gallic fashion and sending one's Jews off to the camps, as one's new masters in government request.

On the other hand, as the foreign minister might have noticed, the French may today enjoy springtime in Paris without the annoying sounds of jackboots all over the place, and the reason for that was the simple-minded determination of the British, the Russians and the Americans to fight the Nazis and to die by the millions, in order to make the world safe for, among other creatures, future French foreign ministers. "Simplisme" works. Against evil, it is the only thing that does.


Simplisme Works. I think I'll write it on the bathroom wall.

Posted by Dr. Frank at February 13, 2002 12:11 AM | TrackBack