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Wednesday, February 08, 2006
The Cartoon Intifada And The European Ego This is particularly true for acts in poor taste which are covered most assertively by the most essential freedoms of free states. Now (to pick away further at the wall of opprobrium), since the topic has become global news we can mount a detailed cross-examination of the "retract/apology" crowd. What is it that makes the Danish cartoons "offensive?" (This is to be distinguished, of course, from the "extras" thrown in so glibly from unpublished hate letters.) An American observer -- in the State Department, for example -- might put his finger on, say, the depiction of Muhammed with a giant bomb growing out of his head where his turban should be. The offense would be stereotypical -- Islam, as President Bush keeps repeating, is not a religion of hate, much less of explosives. But the US reasserts the right to publish the offensive, and the bogey of the stereotypical does not get at the root of this offense. For the Muslims who have frothed into action across the length of the entire Old World, the mere printing of Muhammed is offensive. Now, I as well as other readers of Rieff's latest book understand the danger grasped by the Second Commandment, but facts are facts here and it could be reasonably supposed that any news daily in Copenhagen which ran a drawing of a fellow in traditional Arab dress and labeled this drawing "Muhammed" would, by the enfrothed standard, have placed themselves in hot water. This is clearly at sixes and sevens with the freedom of the press at its most rudimentary. As such it is equally clear that press freedom itself is offensive to fundamentalist Islam, because it tolerates the intolerable. It should be noted that, unfortunately, this intolerance applies not just to those who are willing to go out and kill to enforce it. (But, before I get accused of one thing or another, any serious Christian or Jew insisting upon the 10 Commandments as public policy would have to fall into the same camp: no graven idols, including American Idols.) So what the Danish cartoons have flushed out is a genuine culture clash -- the sort that Europe is, to varying degrees of surprise, smack in the middle of. And however the United States government feels publicly about this latest of flare-ups, more of us merely than the sociologists of international relations can thrill to the idea that Europe still has its pride, its amour-propre. This does not translate to militant nationalism but rather cultural confidence. The 20th century saw not an excess of amour-propre but a misapplication of it. If Europe is from Venus whereas muscular America is from Mars, then Europe may still maintain that most glittering of hard prides, the feminine. Insistence upon one's own ways need not always be done while armed to the teeth. Self-defense, in the military sense, is necessary but not sufficient to a culture's determination to carry on with itself head held high. And the sweeping Continental feeling that Europe can and should stand up to the snarling blackmail of thousands of ingrates is utterly important to the ability of Europe to recapture a jealousy for its own existence. Americans have their own caricature of the European: effete, lazy, socialist lite, lounging in a welfare state for failed artists. Perhaps it is difficult for Americans to grasp, but I think that even a Europe twice as "soft" and "decadent" as America can adopt the following forceful attitude: we have built ourselves a very comfortable society that is full of pleasure for us, and even if it is the only thing we will fight for we will fight to keep it. Again, this fight is only very partially, and hopefully rarely, a military one. The European ego is of far more use to the transatlantic alliance as a tough and preening thing than as a smiling weakling. Europeans: if you like your society so much -- as you should -- bear more children into it. If you can expand your highly cultured set of interlocking laws and norms out into the Balkans and beyond, you can expand your peaceful and noble noneconomic legacies as well. Do not live in fear of being incinerated by the offended. We Americans need you for any number of reasons, and you will find that the more you stand up for yourselves, the more we will want you besides. *Or, Googlers of the planet Earth, Mohammed, Muhammad, or Mahomet. Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by James G. Poulos at 4:14 PM |
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