allegations, are not genetically anti-Semitic."
Here we see a new escalation in the level of irrationality with Mr. Safer now divulging to us
the existence of the allegation that Ukrainians are genetically anti-Semitic. For an
anti-Semitism which Mr. Safer failed to document, he now suggests a cause from the fairyland of
pseudoscience, and suggests furthermore that the Church and Government of Ukraine have dignified
this charge by denying it. That Ukrainians are pronouncedly anti-Semitic, Mr. Safer takes as a
given requiring no corroborative evidence, and so he shifts attention to speculating as to how
they could have gotten that way.
Perhaps Morley Safer will appreciate how bizarre and inflammatory his statement is when its
direction is reversed: "The World Jewish Congress has tried to ease the growth of
anti-Semitism, suggesting that Jews, despite the allegations, are not genetically predisposed to
usury." Now if Mr. Safer had heard that on Ukrainian television, he could have brought it back
as very good evidence not only of Ukrainian anti-Semitism, but of Ukrainian irrationality as
well - but he didn't hear any such thing during his visit to Ukraine, and he brought back
nothing. To encounter that degree of hatred and that level of irrationality, you have to leave
Ukraine for the United States and tune in to 60 Minutes.
(12) Church of Ukraine. But even while rebutting Mr. Safer's main point, I have been carelessly
adopting his slovenly terminology. "Church of Ukraine"? What "Church of Ukraine"? There is no
"Church of Ukraine" any more than there is a "Church of Canada" or a "Church of the United
States." Ukraine has more than one variety of Orthodox church, more than one variety of
Catholic church, more than one variety of Protestant church; and Ukraine has as well a full
slate of non-Christian religions. It even has agnostics and atheists just like a real
country.
Thus it is not only in his big lies, but also in his small misstatements that Mr. Safer reveals
to us that his perception of Ukraine is uninformed, indeed wholly stereotypical. To him,
perhaps all Ukrainians conform to some archetypal image - wielding a saber, hard-drinking,
pogrom-prone, and Christian (to the question "What kind of Christian?" we almost expect Mr.
Safer to ask "You mean Ukraine has more than one kind?"). And so when Mr. Safer speaks, he does
not report what he has recently observed in Ukraine, but rather reads off from his internal
image. He goes to Ukraine not to study it, not to report on its reality, but merely to provide
a backdrop for the proclamation of his own preconceptions, of his own prejudices so deeply
rooted that confirmation scarcely seems necessary, of his own stereotypes so apparently
unchallengeable that the anticipation that they might be in error does not enter consciousness.
(13) Peasants with nuclear weapons. Mr. Safer states: "Uneducated peasants, deeply
superstitious, in possession of this bizarre anomaly: nuclear weapons capable of mass
destruction thousands of miles away!"
This is one piece of information that I did find both newsworthy and disquieting. Although it
requires us to lay aside data indicating that American education is inferior to Ukrainian, we
cannot but be persuaded that the farmers shown in the broadcast were indeed both uneducated and
deeply superstitious - one look at their weatherbeaten faces and deep wrinkles and I was
convinced.
The information is so alarming and the threat to world stability so great that I expect Mr.
Safer must have immediately telegraphed President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine to inform him that
the uneducated and deeply superstitious peasants had seized control of Ukraine's nuclear
weapons, and to urge him to recapture the weapons and place them back under the control of the
educated and less-deeply-superstitious peasants.
Who can argue with Mr. Safer's syllogism here? - Old and wrinkled people are uneducated and
deeply superstitious. Here is an old and wrinkled person who may or may not be Ukrainian.
Therefore, it is dangerous for Ukraine to have nuclear weapons. Out of respect for Mr. Safer's