August 7, 2008

A bickering world

"Every day and age has its rules. Currently, good behavior dictates that we be politically correct, evade conflicts, espouse tolerance, and make no hasty judgments. To be judgmental is viewed as one of the most reprehensible human traits. People are likely to think today that an optimist is a good person, while a pessimist is the lowest of the low. Picking your nose in public is more forgivable then being pessimistic. [. . .] We live in a time that urges us to behave as if we are in paradise. Yet the world we live in is no paradise. This book breaks the rules of good behavior, because it bickers."
That's from a description of a new book of essays: Nobody's Home by Dubravka Ugresic, a Croatian writer
who left her homeland after being vilified for her uncompromising criticism of Croatian nationalism (see her book: The Culture of Lies),and now lives in Amsterdam.

Reviews of the book, soon to be released in a US edition, can be read here.

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