Towels revisited

Posted by Chris

Norm Geras has responded, in a fashion, to my cogent arguments in favour of large towels (1, 2). As I say, I think I've made my position clear enough. But of course that won't stop me from going on about it.

Let me begin by pointing out two things about the way the entire towel issue has been covered in the media and the blogosphere. I can't be the only one who has noticed that the New York Times has not published a single editorial on the towel controversy, despite the fact that Norm and I have been debating it for two entire days now. That speaks for itself, I think. And wouldn't you know it, the Sulzberger family is heavily invested in small towels. How much do you want to bet that influences their coverage of the issue?

Second, many blogs which have been perfectly happy to go on and on over the last three years about dish cloths, tea towels, bed sheets and even area rugs have been completely silent on the issue of towels. I think we can infer from their silence what their position really is, and frankly it makes me sick.

Finally, despite the fact that I have great long-term hopes for the U.N., I concede that the U.N. has moved too slowly on towels. A motion to increase towel size has been bogged down in the Security Council for several years now, since it is dominated by countries which trade primarily in small towels. And so far the General Assembly has limited itself to 60 or 70 resolutions condemning any towels associated with Israel.

UPDATE: *Sigh* Of course it ruins the joke, but a little clarification might be in order here. If you want it, it's below the fold.

I've had someone ask me about that last paragraph. And then it occured to me that this post might be read as a comment on Norm's blog rather than a spoof of blogging and myself which uses a mock argument with Norm to get started. That gives it a kind of nasty edge which I didn't intend. So just to be clear, the final paragraph was supposed to be making fun of my own position, which involves trying to cultivate a sort of sunny, long-term optimism about a body which, if it were asked to debate X tomorrow, might not get past resolutions condemning Israeli Xs. I have plenty of criticisms of Israeli policies, but I'm also not so keen on blatant double-standards. I'll spell that out in more detail some time. But that'll do for now.

Posted by Chris at June 24, 2004 01:05 PM