October 04, 2001
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:counter-tribalism
John O'Sullivan has written a terrific piece on "counter-tribalism." This is his term for the tendency to denigrate one's own country/group in an attempt to appear sophisticated (a la Sontag, Moore). Another article I've read recently (can't remember which) points out, in similar fashion, that if we can ascribe blame to ourselves (for 9/11, other things) it gives us a false sense of control. Whereas if we acknowledge the existence of pure evil and the terrorists' basic hatred of who we are and how we live, then 9/11 is harder to prevent.
The "blame America" reaction is a weak one. I'm all for critical self-examination, but the idea that we brought this on ourselves is....offensive, inappropriate and unrealistic. This truly represents an attack on our way of life. And, yes, that makes it much harder to control and prevent. We can't just pull out of Israel, stop using oil or retreat into our shell. Thanks again to instapundit for pointing this column out.
While on the subject, read Salman Rushdie's thoughts:
Let's be clear about why this bien-pensant anti-American onslaught is such appalling rubbish. Terrorism is the murder of the innocent; this time, it was mass murder. To excuse such an atrocity by blaming U.S. government policies is to deny the basic idea of all morality: that individuals are responsible for their actions. Furthermore, terrorism is not the pursuit of legitimate complaints by illegitimate means. The terrorist wraps himself in the world's grievances to cloak his true motives. Whatever the killers were trying to achieve, it seems improbable that building a better world was part of it.
The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skirts, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. These are tyrants, not Muslims....
The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love.
Yup. And he has brought these ideas here.
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at October 4, 2001 06:33 PM | Technorati inbound links