Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

On "The Innocence of Muslims":

Morning Edition, National Public Radio:

Fawaz Gerges is a Muslim scholar and professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. He says the film…"gathers up all the historical falsities spread about Mohammad for centuries and includes them in one film" — or, actually, a 14 minute trailer.

Gail Collins, New York Times:

The trailer looks as though it was made by a 13-year-old boy with access to a large supply of fake beards.

 Audio soundbite from the trailer: 

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I have not seen such a murderous thug as Muhammad. He kills men, captures women and children, robs the caravans, breaches agreements and treaties. He sells the children as slaves after he and his men have used them.

Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? José Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."