Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Flemming Rose On Europe's Problems

Flemming Rose, the Danish publisher, talks about Europe’s relativist multi-cultural self-loathing. As a young man, Rose shared the leftist self-hatred of Europe’s liberal order but a few months in Russia cured him of his delusional romanticism. He now addresses Europe’s cultural malaise and looks to this side of the Atlantic for inspiration.

13 Comments:

Blogger Mr. Ducky said...

The Democratic Leadership Council strikes again.

It's odd that these guys are still going on about the cartoons. The muslim reaction in Europe was not disimilar to the reaction of many Catholics to The DaVinci Code junk.

Christians in Pakistan demonstrated and the DaVinci Code film was banned. Similar to the reaction to the cartoons.

How long do you think you can beat this horse, Jason?

Get some new material man. The cartoon issue went nowhere and your harping makes you look foolish.

5/31/06, 4:32 PM  
Blogger Jason Pappas said...

Where did I mention cartoons? Rose goes beyond the cartoons to look at Europe's failing culture.

5/31/06, 4:44 PM  
Blogger Always On Watch said...

From Rose's article:

An unholy three-cornered alliance between Middle East dictators, radical imams who live in Europe, and Europe's traditional left wing is enabling a politics of victimology....The role of victim is very convenient because it frees the self-declared victim from any responsibility, while providing a posture of moral superiority.

And victimology is not confined to Europe. Did you hear that Canadian bookstores refused to carry the June issue of Harper's Magazine for fear of offending Muslims?

6/1/06, 7:37 AM  
Blogger Cubed © said...

"The role of victim is very convenient because it frees the self-declared victim from any responsibility, while providing a posture of moral superiority."

I haven't read the article yet, but I will, ASAP!

The "victimology" statement is such an astute observation. All failed societies, from the postmodernist crowd of all sorts to Islam use it as an excuse.

Anything is preferable than looking the facts straight in the eye.

6/1/06, 12:28 PM  
Blogger Mr. Ducky said...

AOW, Canada pulled the Harper's issue?

Wrong as usual. A record and book chain did not stock the issue which is odd because the same chain had stocked a magazine previously that contained the cartoons.

Well, be assured it had nothing to do with the Canadian government and Harper's is readily available in Canada.

6/1/06, 12:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's odd that these guys are still going on about the cartoons. The muslim reaction in Europe was not disimilar to the reaction of many Catholics to The DaVinci Code junk.

What? Surely you can't be serious. I do not recall the burning and looting of shops and embassies by Christians. I don't remember seeing cars overturned and burned in the streets. I can't recall a single call from a Catholic priest (or any other Christian leader for that matter) calling for Ron Howard's death. I certainly don't think anybody associated with "The DaVinci" code has had to go into hiding for fear of their lives. To say reaction to the two was not dissimilar is blind or willfull ignorance. To compare them makes for a lovely study of contrasts though so thanks for bringing it up.

6/1/06, 1:22 PM  
Blogger Mr. Ducky said...

mgsoden, I said IN EUROPE. There was no violent protest over the cartoons in Europe. It was in fact not dissimilar to the Vatican's pronouncement on the DaVinci crap. Got it?

The cartoon falp is over. The usual suspects in Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia got some paid demonstrators out and whipped up the masses for a while.

Very similar to what the Senate is going to be doing this month with gay marriage and the flag burning amendment to get the reactionary thumpers in line.

There were no violent demonstrations in Europe over the cartoons and there was damn little anywhere else.

6/1/06, 1:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK, you can put all the caveats you want on your statements however, to compare the "outrage" demonstrated by Christians in the world with the OUTRAGE demonstrated by Muslims is laughable. If you want to make an apples-to-apples comparison let's look at the population centers of the aggrieved parties. The Middle East - mainly Muslim. WILD protests, looting, buildings burned and people killed. Compare this with Christian population centers - the US, parts of Europe, some of Africa and the protests that took place. Hardly on par. The point is, your geographic limiters aside, Christians who could be greatly aggrieved by a film that basically says "Your religion is a lie based on false premises" reacted with far more restraint than did Muslims.

The fact that "The DaVinci Code" made it onscreen yet many Western magazines, newspapers and TV news programs refused to reprint or show the cartoons that caused so much pain, insult and psychic injury for fear of offending Muslims makes my point. If the shoe were on the other foot, oh, wait it was and Theo VanGogh was killed as a result...

As to your clumsy comparison between the Senate and "(t)he usual suspects in Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia," tell me, do you think anybody will be killed on CapHill as a result of the Senate proceedings? I'm pretty confident the "reactionary thumpers" won't be handing down any fatwas.

6/1/06, 2:30 PM  
Blogger beakerkin said...

Wrong again Duncy the problem with Europe is they did not move to deal with the criminal vestiges of Communism in Europe. The criminals changed their labels and are still working to destroy their host countries.

Communists are like cancer in that you need to destroy the host to survive. Revolutionary defeatism has been the motto of the day since Lennin who colaberated with the WWI Germans to ensure the defeat of his own country.

The best policy is for a rational look at Communism. Communists have by the nature of their history have established probable cause for surveilance. Communist who violate US law like the CPT and ISM members should be sent to GITMO or permanently stripped of Citizenship and sent to North Korea
or Cuba with no possibility of a pardon.

6/1/06, 9:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Europe is going down the toilet. Sovereign states are afraid to fly their own flags because it might offend Muslims: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3258613,00.html

6/4/06, 6:51 PM  
Blogger Always On Watch said...

ROP,
I saw that story. More Islamification!

6/5/06, 12:56 PM  
Blogger Mr. Ducky said...

This place is boring. Sorry Jason, you are no longer on the Duck's list. Your traffic will unquestionably decline.

6/6/06, 4:24 PM  
Blogger Gormless Norman said...

Sorry I came late to this discussion. Ducky, the significance of the Mo' cartoon episode is not the degree of violence it sparked in the Muslim world. We already knew the Muslim world is irrational and violent and will use any pretext whatsoever as an excuse to maim and kill and burn.

No, the episode is important because of what it says about us. And what it says is this: we have arrived at a point where we value the accomodation of Islam more than we do our own Free Speech -- one of the central principles of our civilization for the past few centuries. No small thing, I think. This episode is symbolic, yes. But in history, significant trends are often represented in miniature, in a small symbolic thing like a cartoon or a book. The Dreyfuss affair concerned one man, one criminal conviction. But it spoke to a major trend in European society. Our media now obeys the Shari'a prohibition against pictures of Mohammed. That is a big deal.

Now get out of here, go pine after Molly Ringwald.

The foregoing insult is a reference to Pretty in Pink, which featured a dorky character named Ducky, played by Jon Cryer, who suffered unrequited love for Molly Ringwald's character. Yes, it is an incredibly lame insult. But this does not undermine the validity of the point I made before that, about the Mo' cartoons and everything.

alalalalalalalalalalalalalala!

7/3/06, 7:39 PM  

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