The Third World War

It is obvious that what used to be called “the restraints of civilization” have been loosening during the past couple of years. Actually, this is a speedup in a process that started around the turn of the speedup, too, is significant. Lewis Lapham and David Miller, in the New York Herald Tribune, wrote the least bowdlerized account that I have read of the February 15 UN riot. From their text: “Dragged from the chamber by UN guards, the Negroes… shouted hysterically… screamed epithets… with signs denouncing Belgians as ‘pigs, cannibals and butchers.’… A woman beat a guard on the head with her shoe…. One of the most vicious women rioters in the UN corridor was pregnant. A witness said he saw her take off her glasses and grind them into a guard’s face…. The man identified as ‘King David’… wore a blue fez, carried a shepherd’s crook, and, in the midst of the furor, with closed eyes babbled an unintelligible chant.”

Burnham

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James Burnham

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It is obvious that what used to be called “the restraints of civilization” have been loosening during the past couple of years. Actually, this is a speedup in a process that started around the turn of the speedup, too, is significant. Lewis Lapham and David Miller, in the New York Herald Tribune, wrote the least bowdlerized account that I have read of the February 15 UN riot. From their text: “Dragged from the chamber by UN guards, the Negroes… shouted hysterically… screamed epithets… with signs denouncing Belgians as ‘pigs, cannibals and butchers.’… A woman beat a guard on the head with her shoe…. One of the most vicious women rioters in the UN corridor was pregnant. A witness said he saw her take off her glasses and grind them into a guard’s face…. The man identified as ‘King David’… wore a blue fez, carried a shepherd’s crook, and, in the midst of the furor, with closed eyes babbled an unintelligible chant.”

Burnham