Borrow an Aboriginal ?
Published as Brain Food at
Enjoy !!!
Keith
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Borrow a Person' in a Swedish Library? Written by Warner Todd Huston Friday, August 19, 2005
We are so constantly inundated with examples illuminating how filled to overflowing with pop psyche nonsense and correspondingly little substance multiculturalism is that it seems almost superfluous to keep bringing the subject up anymore. And just when we thought the multicultural gurus couldn't get any more ridiculous, the Swedes come along and show us that they can one-up everyone in the center ring of the circus of "feels good"!
Dateline: Stockholm, Sweden (I always wanted to say that)
In Stockholm, like other big cities, you can go to the local library to find a book on plants, read the latest newspapers, borrow a nice CD to listen to, or find an entertaining DVD to watch. But in Stockholm you can do so much more than that at your local library. Yes, so much more. Now you can also "borrow" a person. That's right, folks, you can have your very own person for a wonderful, instructive, meaningful 45 minutes.
So, here's the deal: You can get your very own Muslim Imam, homoloveual, gypsy, or even a journalist all to yourself for a heart-to-heart chat so that this person can dispel all your "prejudices" and "preconceived notions." You can happily shed those ignorant notions that you've had the misfortune to have been saddled with all these many years, all in an effort to make society nicer.
Yes, you can "borrow" a person and see that you have been an idiot since birth and that homoloveuals and Muslims are "real people" too!
Amazing isn't it?
It's amazing that anyone believes it at all. I cringe at this hogwash.
Of course, it remains to be seen how someone who truly does hate homoloveuals or Muslims could find that a mere 45 minutes would serve to dispel such emotional, illogical notions. One wonders if a Jew-hater would suddenly see the light if he could only spend 45 minutes with a local rabbi. Or someone who hates Muslims could only spend a bit of "quality time" with one, oh how that woolen cloak would be ripped miraculously from his-her eyes. One also wonders why anyone would believe that bigots would even bother to avail themselves of this opportunity, or would they rather stay happily distanced from their objects of hatred, as is more likely?
It's also amazing that people don't see how this idea is really just a simple minded paean to multiculturalism meant only to make the library authorities "feel" good that they are being multicultural as opposed to actually offering a sensible solution to hate and prejudice in society.
After all, it isn't too hard to imagine that both the "borrower" and the "borrowed" would be on their best behavior and that not a single thing of substance would truly be learned by either party about the realities of the lives of either of them. Sociologists study other cultures for decades without ever fully grasping their subjects, but here are the Swedes to show us that we can truly come to appreciate another person's life in just 45 minutes! It's like they have created the McDonald's of sociology. I wonder if you can "borrow" that Muslim woman or that gypsy at the drive through window? (And I wonder if they keep asking you if you want a Jackie Collins book with that, or some other such author that would represent the "french fires" of literature?)
Further, the "borrowing" list of personages to encounter is somewhat limited. According to the report from USA Today (go here) by way of Agence France-Presse you can "borrow" a Muslim imam, A Muslim woman, a gypsy, a journalist, and a homoloveual. Where are the Nazis, bigots, or otherwise extreme people that one might "borrow" in order to "understand" them better? If we are to show society how to better understand people, shouldn't we experiment with all sorts of people, bad as well as good, so that we can have a fully fleshed-out curriculum of human types to examine? I suppose that wouldn't be PC enough of them, though.
Granted, a Nazi could probably see his way clear to seem like a quite a nice fellow for as short a time as 45 minutes. Even a mbutt liquidateer or love offender could be expected to really pour on the charm when the need presents itself it must be remembered. So to expect that this Muslim imam could be any different in that single respect is probably a bad buttumption to make. I mean, I am sure that a radical imam, for instance, can dispense with all the "Kill the infidel" talk to make his ideology seem harmless for a mere 45 minutes as he is given the opportunity to dispense his own personal propaganda. Don't you agree?
Seriously, what could one possibly learn about another's entire life's experience in just 45 minutes that might dispel deep-seated hatreds, bigotry and misconceptions? And just how can the "borrower" be sure he is seeing the "real" person in that same period of time and not some nicely scrubbed and handsomely dressed facsimile of a "type"? Also, isn't it a bit suspicious that these "borrowed" people are getting paid by the library to do this? Can't we expect that to influence how they interact with the library customers and how that might tend to present a slanted, self-serving image to people so that they won't lose this stipend? Haven't you gotten that hollow "May I help you," or that empty "Have a nice day" from a retail worker who blankly intones the store line because he or she wants to keep his job? Or do you REALLY believe that he or she cares about your day?
But, the biggest mistake of all with this program is in the offering of the journalist. I mean, who could ever believe that journalists are people too?
About the Writer: Warner Todd Huston is a free lance writer and graphic designer. His work ranges from historical essays to popular culture and has been published in several magazines and on several websites. He is the editor for Publius' Forum website at
