Last week, there was a big event at my school with all department Chairs present in our long, heavy robes and velvet hats. A very nice and well-meaning American photographer wanted us all to hug. It so happened that I stood next to a very religious professor of Physics who is Muslim. The idea of hugging a strange woman during Ramadan was clearly unappealing. I also needed no hugs because it was hot like the dickens, and I’m not a tactile person, to put it mildly.
As a result, the Muslim prof, whose English isn’t that great, was backing up into a corner with a desperate, “No, no hugs!” The photographer was chiding, “You should hug her, it’s disrespectful not to!”, I was bleating that I’m perfectly fine without hugs, and a handsy professor of performing arts was butting in with an eager, “I’ll hug her! I’m here to hug!”
This is a great metaphor for the typical American well-meaning need to butt in with its two-state solutions, peace talks, Budapest Memorandums, and other dum-dums that nobody else needs but everybody has to put up with and live with the consequences.
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