‘WORLD OPINION’ IS WORTHLESS
By: Dennis Prager, Special To The Evening Bulletin
Evening Bulletin, PA
Aug. 9, 2006
If you are ever morally confused about a major world issue, here is
a rule that is almost never violated: Whenever you hear that "world
opinion" holds a view, assume it is morally wrong.
And here is a related rule if your religious or national or ethnic
group ever suffers horrific persecution: "World opinion" will never
do a thing for you. Never.
"World opinion" has little or nothing to say about the world’s greatest
evils and regularly condemns those who fight evil.
The history of "world opinion" regarding the greatest mass murders
and cruelties on the planet is one of relentless apathy.
Ask the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks.
Or the 6 million Ukrainians slaughtered by Stalin.
Or the tens of millions of other Soviet citizens killed by Stalin’s
Soviet Union.
Or the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers
throughout Europe.
Or the 60 million Chinese butchered by Mao.
Or the 2 million Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot.
Or the millions killed and enslaved in Sudan.
Or the Tutsis murdered in Rwanda’s genocide.
Or the millions starved to death and enslaved in North Korea.
Or the million Tibetans killed by the Chinese.
Or the million-plus Afghans put to death by Brezhnev’s Soviet Union.
Ask any of these poor souls, or the hundreds of millions of others
slaughtered, tortured, raped and enslaved in the last 100 years, if
"world opinion" did anything for them.
On the other hand, we learn that "world opinion" is quite exercised
over Israel’s unintentional killing of a few hundred Lebanese civilians
behind whom hides Hezbollah – a terror group that intentionally
sends missiles at Israeli cities and whose announced goals are the
annihilation of Israel and the Islamicization of Lebanon. And, of
course, "world opinion" was just livid at American abuses of some
Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
In fact, "world opinion" is constantly upset with America and Israel,
two of the most decent countries on earth, yet silent about the
world’s cruelest countries.
Why is this?
Here are four reasons: First, television news.
It is difficult to overstate the damage done to the world by television
news. Even when not driven by political bias – an exceedingly rare
occurrence globally – television news presents a thoroughly distorted
picture of the world. Because it is almost entirely dependent upon
pictures, TV news is only capable of showing human suffering in, or
caused by, free countries. So even if the BBC or CNN were interested in
showing the suffering of millions of Sudanese blacks or North Koreans
– and they are not interested in so doing – they cannot do it because
reporters cannot visit Sudan or North Korea and video freely. Likewise,
China’s decimation and annexation of Tibet, one of the world’s oldest
ongoing civilizations, never made it to television.
Second, "world opinion" is shaped by the same lack of courage that
shapes most individual human beings’ behavior. This is another aspect
of the problem of the distorted way news is presented. It takes courage
to report the evil of evil regimes; it takes no courage to report on
the flaws of decent societies. Reporters who went into Afghanistan
without the Soviet Union’s permission were killed.
Reporters would risk their lives to get critical stories out of Tibet,
North Korea and other areas where vicious regimes rule. But to report
on America’s bad deeds in Iraq (not to mention at home) or Israel’s
is relatively effortless, and you surely won’t get killed.
Indeed, you may well win a Pulitzer Prize.
Third, "world opinion" bends toward power. To cite the Israel example,
"world opinion" far more fears alienating the largest producers of
oil and 1 billion Muslims than it fears alienating tiny Israel and the
world’s 13 million Jews. And not only because of oil and numbers. When
you offend Muslims, you risk getting a fatwa, having your editorial
offices burned down or receiving death threats.
Jews don’t burn down their critics’ offices, issue fatwas or send
death threats, let alone act on such threats.
Fourth, those who don’t fight evil condemn those who do. "World
opinion" doesn’t confront real evils, but it has a particular animus
toward those who do – most notably today America and Israel.
The moment one recognizes "world opinion" for what it is — a statement
of moral cowardice, one is longer enthralled by the term.
That "world opinion" at this moment allegedly loathes America and
Israel is a badge of honor to be worn proudly by those countries. It
is when "world opinion" and its news media start liking you that you
should wonder if you’ve lost your way.
Dennis Prager hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show based
in Los Angeles. He is the author of four books, most recently
"Happiness is a Serious Problem" (HarperCollins). His Web site is