Possibly the phenomenon of a cold shoulder
is not so indebted to disdain as has been
thought, at least among exhibitors in our
midst. Sometimes, a notable projection of
warmth can be deduced; but if this were a
property of disdain, we should have no use
for the word, disgust, which many moralists
count among the catalogue of sin. A morbid
curiosity, on the other hand, can manifest
warmth, almost as commonly as wrath. These
strenuous etymological exercises may strike
one as spectacularly incongruous when iden-
tifying our responses to political figures,
habitually indifferent to meaning in every
hazardous dimension and facet of its exis-
tence - but inevitably are thrust upon us,
of enduring them. Needless to say, a very
cold winter is expected for them now, in
the gruesome shadow of the most elevated
of them all. Prominence is one thing, they
seem to reason; scrutiny, entirely another.
It diminishes their capacity for happiness;
it hauls them, ineluctably, into the world.
To credit the American President, however,
as a disproportionate contributor to this
likelihood, would be only to capitulate to
his standard of reference - such as it is.
Ferdinando Scianna
Ivory Coast
1972
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