In this post I faulted Lorin Maazel’s relativistic statement on North Korea but credited him for clarifying and revising it. What I should have done was give the full quotation, which is far more offensive in its entirety:
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw bricks, should they? Is our standing as a country — the United States — is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated? Have we set an example that should be emulated all over the world? If we can answer that question honestly, I think we can then stop being judgmental about the errors made by others.
In other words, the lesson to be learned from the human rights abuses carried out by the Bush administration is to be less vigilant in our attitude toward human rights abuses in general. Or as Maazel put it, “stop being judgmental.” This is foolish counsel indeed, and even in light of Maazel’s clarification, it leaves me rather suspicious of the Philharmonic’s Pyongyang venture.
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