May 17, 2005
Connections
Two quotes that I came across today, in quite different places, somehow link up in my mind.
A Thai police officer, in John Burdett's new novel Bangkok Tattoo (quoted in this review), offers this:
Col. Vikorn candidly reveals an even harsher view of the United States, spoken not in anger but with his characteristically urbane political realism: "The great weakness of the West is that it has nothing with which to inspire loyalty except wealth. But what is wealth? Another washing machine, a bigger car, a nicer house to live in? Not much to feed the spirit in all that. What is the West but a gigantic supermarket? And who really wants to die for a supermarket?"
Natalia Dushkina, granddaughter of architect Aleksei Dushkin, in Nicolai Ouroussoff's feature in Sunday's Times Magazine:
"The [Rossiya] hotel is not a masterpiece of architecture. But I prefer to have a monster of the 70's than something badly built by some foreigner in a neo-historical style. ... In the same way, there is no plan to destroy the Palace of Congresses, but I think this is the dream of the general public as well. In the past 10 years, we have built up this strong feeling that life exists only in money. It is the most horrible thing that happens to people."