Conan's been doing more travel segments, which are really fun and occasionally amazing! It seems like a great way for Americans to get exposed to the lifestyles and culture of different countries. Most of the time, our understandings of others are just one-dimensional caricatures, but we don't even realize.
Recently he went to Israel and Palestine, which has resulted in a mix of silly and serious clips. I really like this one in Bethlehem.
Makes you wanna think why we fight with people who we would have loved
So true.
Sometimes the interests of different groups of people really are at odds, but a lot of times geopolitical conflicts are fueled by old grudges and the vested interests of a small number of powerful actors. It's so sad that the respective publics of rival nations get caught up in the enmity. People trying to debate without a mutual understanding of the same words inevitably talk past each other, and they don't even know it. We are always in the Tower of Babel even when we are speaking the same language.
An expanded version of this post on Medium
https://medium.com/@mirthbottle/conan-in-israel-and-palestine-1c8d7a57127f
