Fun and Foolishness in a Dangerous Time
August 20, 2013 By Howard Rotberg
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American presidents have often enjoyed golf (a game I myself like, and would play if I only had the time), but President Obama seems to always be playing golf when national emergencies strike – during the run up to the capture of Osama bin Laden, during the first bout of violence in Egypt in July, and again in the middle of August as the military fight with Muslim Brotherhood protestors took a more deadly turn, and for three days a couple of weeks before the looming March 1st deadline with Congress to avert automatic massive spending cuts.
George Bush for the first part of his presidency did the same thing. Margaret Talev writes for Bloomberg that, after Palestinian terrorists staged attacks in Israel, including the suicide bombing of a bus in August 2002, Bush gave the U.S. reaction from a golf course near his familyÂ’s vacation compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
“I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers,” Bush said, adding, “Thank you. Now watch this drive.”
Bush, however, realized that his “fun” was looking increasingly “foolish”: In a 2008 interview with Politico, cited by Talev, Bush said he gave up golfing because it sent the “wrong signal” as the U.S. was engaged in a war. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said in the interview.
Obama also went golfing during the Gulf oil spill crisis. Of course, good mental health requires some downtime in such an important and stressful job. Obama however is reported to have gone golfing 6 or 7 times during the 58 days of the Gulf oil spill crisis.
Obama is supposed to have received daily briefings during his last week’s vacation, where he golfed nearly every day, and which culminated in a round with Seinfeld show co-creator Larry David. David, whose wildly popular show about “nothing” and the fun-filled lives of four underemployed narcissistic New York liberals, has now earned his way into the realm of presidential golf partners.
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However, I fear that we are making fun the ultimate measure of our lives. Moreover, if we appear in the West to be focused only on fun, those Islamists who enjoy jihad more than fun can easily surmise that they have a good chance of winning, and making a world-wide Caliphate when their opposition is too busy having fun to take up arms in defense of their own liberty.
The historical sense of “fun” as “foolishness” should be a warning to us all.
Fun and Foolishness in a Dangerous Time | FrontPage Magazine