[lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:03:56 +0100
Lawrence,
I read Hitch's piece when it was first published. I know the context.
Your reply is not a response. "Leftists" do not hate democracy
unless "leftist" is defined as "someone on the Left who hates
democracy". (Yes, I am aware that there are those on the
left who "hate democracy" in that they are personally or
politically authoritarian. Some of those people believe
in democracy [qua political institution or qua the people's
voice] and will fight to install or preserve it, yet, it might
not be safe in their hands.)
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:52 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
"Don't. Be. Silly." An article by Christopher Hitchens, Sept 4, 2002 who had
a debate with Martin Amis in the Guardian Unlimited, mostly about what sort of
Leftists the two of them were in the past. At the end he writes, "This whole
exchange between us comes at an unsettling time for me, because I think that a
huge section of the 'left' has fatally condemned itself by flirting with, or
actually succumbing to, a creepy concept of 'moral equivalence' between the
United States and its (actually our) enemies -- whether Christian Orthodox
thugs in the Balkans or Islamic fascists in Afghanistan or national socialists
in Mesopotamia. Talk about wincing -- I can scarcely bear to read the drivel
and bad faith that is now emitted by some of my former comrades. . . ."
Hitchens article was written in 2002. Moral equivalence is but one mode of
the Leftist attack against Liberal Democracy. Finding the U.S. the root cause
for all the ills in the Middle East is another. Embracing conspiracy theories
which put Israel or the U.S. as the perpetrators and not merely the cause of
various Islamist terrorist attacks is a third. For example, who carried out
the 9/11 attack? Was it Al Quaeda? Are you sure? Maybe it was the CIA or the
Mossad. Those who are inclined to blame the U.S. and Israel for Middle-Eastern
evils will not dismiss such conspiracy theories out of hand.
Lawrence
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Judith Evans
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:28 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
LH>Leftists too hate democracy
don't be silly
Judy Evans, Cardiff
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