AFP/Glenn Campbell; caption
Among the many pathologies of the American Right is that they've never forgiven New York City -- liberal New York City -- for being the victim of the nation's worst terrorist attack, on 9/11. This resentment surfaces in various ways, but one common vehicle for it is a comparison with London when a terrorism attack occurs in the latter city. Examples are found of a supposed sang-froid in London and implicitly or explicitly set against more hysterical or trivial behaviour in New York.
They were doing it during the 7-7 and 21-7 events two years ago and now they're at it again 1. Witness this idiotic post on Wired's techbiz blog. A Tale of Two Cities. Photos of the iPhone opening-day frenzy in New York juxtaposed against London photos of coverage of the Piccadilly plot. Silly consumerist New Yorkers versus Blitz-hardened Londoners. Geddit? And if there's any doubt about what the Wired post intends, it gets the tell-tale link from Glenn Reynolds.
So how stupid is this? iPhones went on sale in other cities besides New York. At some point they'll go on sale in London and the scene will be exactly the same -- even if there could on the same day be a terrorist attack in some other city in the world. In addition, the Piccadilly bombs didn't actually explode. No one got killed. And people in London are carrying on, like, doing stuff, even as the coverage of the bomb plot unfolds. See the Wimbledon revellers above. But perhaps Wired and Glenn Reynolds think that the champagne drinkers are just another example of tough Londoners. Or visiting New Yorkers? When the only angle is political, the possibilities are endless.
UPDATE: By the way, here's someone else engaged in idle pursuits while the UK deals with terrorism.
1. We need a link for the 2005 claim, but if memory serves us right, Andrew Sullivan was playing that game. (read & scroll)
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