Friedman seems to me to be like one of those Sonderkommandos who worked in the concentration camps for their Nazi captors. Of course, the comparison falls short on any number of grounds, such as the Sonderkommandos had little, if any choice in the matter if they wished to stay alive and, of course, the lives of all the prisoners in the camps cannot be compared to the life of Friedman in terms of comfort, safety and luxuriousness, but the mental/psychological aspect of the comparison is, I believe, apt. Friedman provides "helpful" opinions for those who would, under other circumstances, be all too happy to dispose of him. Perhaps he thinks that, like the man in Churchill's alligator allegory, by doing so he will be eaten last. Or perhaps he is still burdened by adolescent rebellion against his Jewish upbringing. It is clear, regardless of the root cause of his animosity toward his ethnic and religious coevals, he has certainly prospered as a result. Perhaps he wishes to have been born into one of the gentile families who pay his way in the media and academia and the fact that he was not, and knows that he can never attain that status is the driver of his public self loathing. Kind of like a pathologically dark version of Klugman in "Goodbye, Columbus." Who knows? Of course, it cannot be ignored that he is also one of the most profoundly stupid and universally wrong opinion spewers currently extant in the journalisming racket. But, as he well knows, as long as he continues to spew opinions that please his paymasters, he will continue to prosper in safety and comfort. At least until the alligators get around to him.
Friedman seems to me to be like one of those Sonderkommandos who worked in the concentration camps for their Nazi captors. Of course, the comparison falls short on any number of grounds, such as the Sonderkommandos had little, if any choice in the matter if they wished to stay alive and, of course, the lives of all the prisoners in the camps cannot be compared to the life of Friedman in terms of comfort, safety and luxuriousness, but the mental/psychological aspect of the comparison is, I believe, apt. Friedman provides "helpful" opinions for those who would, under other circumstances, be all too happy to dispose of him. Perhaps he thinks that, like the man in Churchill's alligator allegory, by doing so he will be eaten last. Or perhaps he is still burdened by adolescent rebellion against his Jewish upbringing. It is clear, regardless of the root cause of his animosity toward his ethnic and religious coevals, he has certainly prospered as a result. Perhaps he wishes to have been born into one of the gentile families who pay his way in the media and academia and the fact that he was not, and knows that he can never attain that status is the driver of his public self loathing. Kind of like a pathologically dark version of Klugman in "Goodbye, Columbus." Who knows? Of course, it cannot be ignored that he is also one of the most profoundly stupid and universally wrong opinion spewers currently extant in the journalisming racket. But, as he well knows, as long as he continues to spew opinions that please his paymasters, he will continue to prosper in safety and comfort. At least until the alligators get around to him.