The Average Joe

What with all the goings-on in the Middle East right now, you can imagine that it’s something of a topic for discussion in and around the lab – perhaps even more so given that one of our co-workers had returned home to Lebanese to visit family at the start of the month and, for while, it looked like he might be stuck there. Given the US administration on the whole situation, it was certainly a matter of interest for me to learn the perspectives of the average Americans about the whole affair – albeit a few well-educated ones in the circles I move in. The results were perhaps a lot more surprising that I imagined.

On the one hand, the average democrat was generally opposed to what was going on – not so much a pro-Hezballa, anti-Israel stance but more the view that Israel had over-reacted. They also somewhat disagreed with the administration view on things – that every country has the right to defend themselves – pointing to North Korea as the contradication. Surprisingly, a lot of the republican voters I’d spoken to had similar viewpoints. In general, it seems that a lot of the average people around here are as wary as what the administration is doing and saying as a lot of other countries seem to be. From the way Tony Blair stands in agreement with Mr. Bush, one suspects a similar thing may be the case in the UK. Maybe it’s time that the governments started listening to the majority of the people – that is meant to be their job, isn’t it??