[lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
- From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:44:23 +0100
I always find Lawrence's responses interesting and indicative. The latter
mostly. If he comes across a centrist or rightwing analysis he considers it,
dedicates a few hundred words of rhetoric and gives his considered opinion. If
it's in anyway from the left we just hear him laughing. At best he scoffs. He's
heard it before.
Here's Lawrence's argument. Muslim terrorists are motivated by ideology. That's
it. There's no chance, no chance at all that they've moved from one stance to
another via a process that involves their experience with or perception of
western civilisation or the US in particular. It's all about ideology and the
whole edifice seems to rest on it. It's why Lawrence is insistent that the US
is safer now that it was (for argument's sake) on 10th September 2001, safer
because since that time a good few thousands ideologues have been killed and
since, as we must surely know, that process won't have motivated any more
people into becoming terrorists, then there must be less now than there was
then. Simple!
It's why it's all (or mostly) the fault of this guy called Qutb. It's his fault
because it's all about ideology and nothing to do with experience and
perception.
Now if that's the case, why is it that Muslims are prone to get angry when, for
example, The Pope get stupid and includes a quote that would have been better
left out? Why do they get angry when Israel bombs the shit out of Lebanon? Why
do they get angry when the US invades Iraq? Why do they get angry about what
the west does when it's got nothing to do with experience and perception and
everything to do with ideology? Is there any chance, any remote chance that
this anger will make young Muslims sit up and listen to the rhetoric spouted by
their local Imam? Is there any chance that there are now more muslim
fundamentalists, more of which would be willing to use violence, than there
were before 9/11.
Of course not. Stupid idea. Because if there were, the Bush administration
wouldn't have the licence to march around the globe as they like.
'Intellectuals' wouldn't have the licence to imagine scanrios where they 'push
the fundamentalists deeper into Africa'. Never mind about those Africans of
course, doesn't really matter about them, so long as the Americans are safe.
Secretaries of State can talk about 'the birth pangs of a new Middle East',
while innocents get blown up. And of course, Bush and Rumsfeld can talk about
'The Long War', can talk about how every American family is threatened (even
Matt Lauer's), can talk about being safer (but don't forget you're not that
safe and that's really important because there's a guy in a cave somewhere...).
Lawrence, just so you know, you're not wearing any clothes!
Simon
PS I posted a link to the Judt article on 13th September
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 12:28 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
Well, Simon, I read per your request this article by the young Indian
novelist Pankaj Mishra, but I suspect I wasn't as impressed as you were. The
thrust of his article is to blame the West for causing the Islamic militantism
that is plaguing it at present. He invokes that Leftist Holy of Holies, the
Vietnam war, in the way the Leftist love, i.e., that this is the ultimate
definition of Western war. So here the U.S. is doing it again. When will it
ever learn? He is scathing against Amis supposed ignorance about the true
nature of the Muslims who are engaged in Militantism, but perhaps because of
his journeying back and forth between London and India he hasn't had time to
delve into their ideological beliefs. They don't seem to be self-motivated.
They have no volition of their own. They are merely reacting, Vietnam-wise,
against the corrupt, greedy, imperial, evil USA and its poodle, Britain.
Pretty silly Simon -- in keeping with what James Bowman would call the
"Infantile Left." [IMHO]
Lawrence
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Simon Ward
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 2:57 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Amis Antithesis
Following Amis' essay (link provided in a previous post), this week Pankaj
Mishra provides a counterthrust. And I can confidently say that this won't
appeal much to Lawrence and Eric, but that doesn't mean to say they shouldn't
read it.
Extract:
"It is as if the rage, fear and contempt that have overwhelmed many people in
the non-Western world have also overwhelmed some of the brightest people in the
West, distorting their vision to the point where some extraordinarily crude
fantasies - insulting Islam into a Reformation, boosting an American Empire,
bombing entire societies into democracy - appear to them as practical solutions
to the problems of living in an overcrowded world with people who are not and,
perhaps, do not wish to be like them."
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,1874132,00.html#article_continue
Simon
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