The Global Village

Pretty Lady can feel you wondering if she's gone Right Off The Rails. Either that, or she's lazy; why else would she post all four of those tedious, boring O'Reilly videos, which she is positive that none of you watched? After all, it is a fast-paced world, and you can't skim video. Moreover, anybody who watches O'Reilly is unalterably opposed to Mr. Obama, and supporters of Mr. Obama simply cannot endure Mr. O'Reilly. What, indeed, was the point?

Well.

Pretty Lady, as she has occasionally mentioned, lived for a time in a Very Small Town. This town was so small that it was literally, physically impossible to avoid persons with whom one had a conflict. One's ex-spouse's ex-lover regularly appeared at the next table in the café. One's landlady could be tripped over, at the end of the alley, casually slandering you to the millionaire's wife. If you switched bars to avoid your ex-boyfriend, you ran into his cousin at the other one. There were no secrets, and No Getting Away.

Under these circumstances, a person has two choices. One may play draconian power games, hold personal vendettas, muster cliques, and generally engage in a game of unending strife, which rends the social fabric and forces every innocent bystander into the fray. Life becomes dramatic, exhilarating, and in the long run, unbearably miserable.

Or a person can reach out for understanding, tolerance, common ground, and eventual forgiveness.

What impressed Pretty Lady about Obama's interview with Mr. O'Reilly was how they ended it, joking amicably about basketball. Those of you familiar with Mr. O'Reilly's personal style and political views are well aware that this conclusion was not a given. Even on his best behavior, Bill cannot help behaving in a rude, dismissive, peremptory and aggressive fashion. Bless his little heart.

But if you dared to watch the tape, you saw that Mr. Obama neither allowed himself to be bullied and stampeded, nor to lose his temper. He answered every question with a clarity and precision which indicated his comfort and depth of knowledge; he deftly acknowledged their common perspectives (there were several!) while assertively pinpointing and defending points of disagreement. In short, he imposed a civilized debate upon a borderline uncivilized man, and did so without incurring visible resentment.

As the world grows smaller, due to complicated things like technology and economics, it grows more and more difficult to wrap oneself in a cocoon of like-minded, loyal cronies. One must Interact. One must Interact with borderline uncivilized persons who, moreover, have access to things like armies, artillery, and nuclear weapons. In such circumstances, temperament becomes a life-or-death matter. Do we want a leader who has shown a preternatural ability to befriend the opposition without compromising his principles? Or do we want a belligerent liar and a paranoid drama queen?