Scatter Brained

C H A P T E R   7

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172
S C A T T E R B R A I N E D
12,000 babies worldwide. Luckily, none of those took place in 
the United States, all thanks to the vigilance of Dr. Frances 
Kelsey of the FDA who single-handedly kept the stuff  off  U.S. 
shelves. But thalidomide is proving to be an idea that once 
again seems at least partly good: In 1998, the FDA approved 
the drug to treat leprosy, and it’s currently being studied as a 
treatment for prostate cancer.
YUGOSLAVIA
What happens when you put people who haven’t gotten along 
for centuries, people who started World War I, people who 
can’t even agree on an 
alphabet,
 and tell them they all live in 
one country? Well, the disgrace to automotive engineering 
that was the Yugo, for starters. Th
  e Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, 
and a dozen smaller ethnic groups were thrown together af-
ter World War I and in 1929 came to be known as the King-
dom of Yugoslavia. Th
  e kingdom spluttered along, Yugo-like, 
until World War II, when Hitler decided Yugoslavia belonged 
to him on account of how it contained about eight ethnic Ger-
mans. In 1946, the country ended up on the wrong side of the 
Iron Curtain and started going by the name of Socialist Fed-
eral Republic of Yugoslavia. It was ruled by dictator Josip 
Broz Tito until his death in 1980, after which regional repre-
sentatives ruled the country. Although it never had more 
than 21 million people, Yugoslavia’s language, religious, and 
cultural diff erences—not to mention a jerk named Miloševic—
made it impossible for them to get along. After the decade of 
fi ghting  that  followed  the  Soviet  Bloc’s  breakup,  what  was 
Yugoslavia is now fi ve separate, tiny, and comparably peace-
ful nations (plus semiautonomous Kosovo). Th
  at seems like a 
good idea at 
this
 time; let’s just hope it lasts.

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173
COMMUNISM
It really did sound like a nice idea. Workers of the world unite! 
No more violent nationalism! No shameful poverty. No racial 
or class distinctions. Well, right on. Unfortunately, of course, 
it didn’t work at all, either in totalitarian regimes or ’60s coun-
terculture. Just as Orwell said, absolute power corrupts abso-
lutely—whether it’s a Wyoming commune or a Communist 
empire. If you don’t believe us, just ask a certain former school-
teacher. . . .