Condescension
Alice points to the immaturity of an Iranian paper having a holocaust cartoon contest.
This type of condescension (imagining fascists as little children in need of a time out) encapsulates how the West dealt poorly with Islamic Fascism prior to 9/11. We treated it as something to be mocked or ignored. Some still think of it this way. And while condescension might prove to be a clever way to take down an enemy during a book club discussion over Dave Eggers, it has little effect on the Mullah's and Ayatollah's, and radical clerics preaching hatred across the world.
It is a mistake to think we can shame these folks into better behavior, or give them constructive criticism, or that condsecending will have any effect. I imagine a legion of coffeshop urbanites in the streets of Ramallah snidely mocking a mob with guns and knifes, "This is just sooooo trite."
3 comments:
Jedidiah Purdy? Is that you?
I think the mistake is that my blog post is being used as a synecodoche for how the "West" has interacted with Islamic Fascism on the global political scale.
If the Mullah or George W. is making decisions based on my blog... well, hell, I guess I'm flattered. But seeing as I'm as still a multicellular microrganism in the world of blogs (BLOGS, for crissake), I'm entitled to make as many snide comments as I choose.
Read em and weep, g black.
your view is indicative of a dangerously flippant attitude towards islamic fundamentalism shared by many in the West, particularly in Europe and the American left prior to and after 9/11. it is this same attitude that thinks it reasonable to deal to deal with Hamas and those who vehemently opposed the Iraq war.
and yes, you are entitled to make as many snide comments as you want, but don't expect them to help you when traveling in morocco and arab youths are throwing rocks at you.
Ah yes, sticks and stones.
I'll be sure to keep that in mind, next time I'm traveling in Morocco.
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