[lit-ideas] Re: Link to "Mohammed" cartoons
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 07:51:01 -0500
It seems like there's a certain amount of negative karma in the world, a
negative equilibrium that has to be maintained. We do our share, then someone
else picks it up, hands it back to us and round it goes. It's acceptable for
the Europeans to band together, but not Arabs. Maybe that's what humans do,
band together, in a perpetual dance of squashing and out-squashing each other.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 2/9/2006 2:22:13 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Link to "Mohammed" cartoons
Mara Liasson from PBS & Fox News commented that the U.S. has taken a
?diplomatic? stance regarding these cartoons. The official position from the
White House is that the U.S. condemns the cartoons but condemns the violence as
well. She said the Europeans are engaged in something closer to a ?Clash of
Civilization? because they are not so inclined to condemn the cartoons. That
is a strange twist because the U.S. had hitherto seemed more pugnacious against
Islamic extremism, but at the moment it is a voice of moderation. The
Europeans who had hitherto been preaching moderation have become pugnacious.
I am reminded of some of the arguments of Samuel P. Huntington in Clash of
Civilizations. No matter how the U.S. and European nations argue and bicker,
when it comes to serious clashes with other ?civilizations,? the West shall
band together. At this point it doesn?t seem as though we (the U.S. & Europe)
have a common position. We seem to have walked past each other on this one.
Lawrence
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