You know that book? The one titled “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”? I’m thinking of writing one on geo-political logic, called “The World is One Big School Playground.”
In WWII, the playground was Europe. Germany was the big bully kid – not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but big enough and mean enough to throw his weight around to get what he wanted. What he wanted was the lunch money – and everything else – from Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, et cetera. In his gang were Italy (not quite as smart or strong as Germany, but exhibiting the same tendencies towards bullying) and Russia (kid with a chip on his shoulder, with no parents to teach him right from wrong, who fell in with the bad crowd.) Let’s not forget Japan (brainy kid – a nerd – who’s too small to be a bully, but dreams of lording his intellect over the other kids – willing to go with the bullies so he can then become their leader after they’ve beaten the good guys). On the other side of the schoolyard, you had England (brainy kid who fights back when he gets cornered – a good guy to have on your side, as he’ll fight on the basis of principal), France (weak kid who surrenders quickly, but would LIKE to see the good guys win) and America (the school quarterback who believes in protecting the weak). The rest of the countries were like the little kids – serving as collateral damage for the fight (although you can make the argument that Switzerland was like the kid who tries to play both sides against the middle to make a buck off betting on the outcome of the fight).
Read something this morning in what passes for a newspaper these days. The writer opined that “nude is the new black.” For those of you (as I am) decidedly NOT a member of the fashion cognoscenti, allow me to decode that statement. What they meant to say was “a particular color – in this case ‘nude’ (whatever that is) – will be this year’s favorite color with fashion designers.” What they really mean is “the fashion industry wants you to throw out everything in your closet that they told you was ‘hip’ last year, and buy all new stuff in the new ‘hot’ color.”