Let me try this on you. I spent two years in a mining town
in Northwestern Ontario where I did some
journalism, and where I learned a great deal about the culture of both the
locals and the transients such as I was myself. And this is why I can report
the following to you with utmost confidence:
“When trying to make sense of mining towns, one of the most
important rules to keep in mind is this: What the locals tell you in private is
usually irrelevant. What matters most, and what explains their behavior more
times than not, is what they say in public in their own idioms to their own
town-folks.” Get it?
So let me reveal the big secret of those places. Both the
locals and the transients drink water but they also enjoy consuming tea,
coffee, soda, juices and alcoholic beverages. They breathe air because if the
don't they suffocate. They eat meat as well as fruits and vegetables. They wear
clothes during the day and change into more comfortable things at night. They
make love, make babies and die when old. Now that you know the secrets of the
mining towns, you have me to thank because only I could have reported this to
you.
Of course, now that you have read this, you will let your
fingers do the banging on your computer keyboard trying to locate a
psychiatrist of the Sigmund Freud caliber to tell you about the screws that
have gone loose in my head. And this is also what you would do if you read the
Tom Friedman column that came under the title: “Freud and the Middle
East ” published on November 12, 2014 in the New York Times.
It is in that column that he wrote: “When trying to make
sense of the Middle East, one of the most important rules to keep in mind is
this: What politicians here tell you in private is usually irrelevant. What
matters most, and what explains their behavior more times than not, is what
they say in public in their own language to their own people,” which if you are
a good observer, will realize it is what I reported above almost verbatim while
describing the people in mining towns. Is it a coincidence? No. Is it
plagiarism? No. It is a parody. I used Friedman's own words to show how absurd
they sound when placed in a context that is familiar to the readers.
And this is not the first time that Tom Friedman has done
so. In fact, if he believes he can tell a fictitious story in such away as to
make the readers believe it is true; he'll do that and take credit. But if he
has a real story that is no more sensational than describing someone who brags
about the exploits of his country, Friedman will start with a preamble to try
and tell the readers that he's divulging a big secret for which they should
thank him given that he is taking them in his confidence.
So then, what does our author say about the Middle East , which he asserts are the secrets to
understanding that place? Well, there are a few things. For example, there is
an excerpt – posted on some obscure website – lifted from an interview
conducted with an Iranian national that is boasting about the exploits of his
country. There is also the fact that the Turks are commemorating one of their
greats by naming a bridge after him, an act that does not please those whom the
“great one” harmed. And there is the notion that every Sunni may be dreaming of
an expanded Muslim nation in the way that every Jew may be dreaming of an
expanded Jewish nation.
And these happen to be the elements that the Middle Eastern
secret is made of. They were known, up to now, only to Tom Friedman, but thanks
to his generosity, more people will be exposed to them.
Finally, Tom Friedman summarizes that “there are so many
dreams and nightmares playing out in the Middle East
that Freud would not have been able to keep them straight.” This leads him to a
painful observation and a conclusion. The observation is to the effect that few
if any in the Middle East dream of
establishing what he calls a pluralistic democracy. As to the conclusion, it is
to the effect that half a dozen places need to be protected from the ravages of
ISIS .