Quote of the day: On ‘blowback’

A quote from Arundhati Roy, the Indian novelist and activist, in the March issue of The Progressive that I thought was worth passing along. She was talking about the unintended consequences — often called “blowback” — of unholy alliances of convenience. In particular, she was referring to American encouragement for the Afghan Mujadeen in the 1980s:

Once you’ve released these Frankenstein monsters into the world, you can’t whistle and hope they will come back like trained mastiffs and say, “Yes, sir, did you call?”

They do come back, however, but rarely bearing gifts.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet