Nutcases beget nutcases. And so we tumble onward, caught in the crossfire of our extremists. If I had to put money on how the world will end, I'd bet fundamentalist absolutism will play the central role. It's the scourge of our primate brains.
Nicholas Kristof distills for us the latest example:
[I]nitial reports are that the assault on Gaza is focusing Arab anger on Mr. Abbas and moderate neighbors like Jordan, undermining the peacemakers.
My courageous Times colleague in Gaza, Taghreed el-Khodary, quoted a 37-year-old father weeping over the corpse of his 11-year-old daughter: “From now on, I am Hamas. I choose resistance.”
How one responds to that scene, whether it makes one think Muslims are inhuman or human, I would contend, is very likely to determine whether one is labelled a conservative or progressive.
