Becoming Like the Soviets

So now we torture. We imprison without charges, contact with the outside world, or trial. We can't manage a credible national voting system. Our president has aspirations to be General Secretary, and the self-certitude to be one.

But must we have ear-splitting music at restaurants, airports, Starbucks, convenience stores, and supermarkets?

You know what I'm talking about. I'm on the West Coast on the book tour, headed today from UCLA to Google, and I'm led to dark memories of those restaurants and cafes in Tashkent, Almaty, Baku, Moscow and Tbilisi, not to mention St. Petersburg and Yerevan, where it was impossible to hold a civilized conversation because of the pounding music.

And how we would tut-tut when Aeroflot so much as touched down in those same cities, and the entire plane of passengers damned the safety, and stood up with the plane still moving.

And how -- unlike us considerate westerners -- the Soviets forced the entire line of boarding passengers to wait while they painstakingly stored their sacks of onions in the overhead.

Historians say that national fiber is strengthened by adopting the best of all nations. But people, standing in the aisles on American and Southwest while the plane is moving is not progress.

Dick Cheney favors a Politburo. Fine. But can my wife and I please drink our brew in peace?


Photo by Darkpatator
Rights: Creative Commons