Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Indecent Left: A blast of the trumpet and some freestylin'

Dispiriting to read the apologists for Mary Beard on her blog. Her article was offensive because she had the arrogance to trot out a blasé personal theory putting 9/11 in a ‘context’ just three days after the atrocity - the vanity bred by a lifetime in the unreal world of academia meant that she thought she was qualified and worth listening to, when at that stage all that was required of anyone was acknowledgement that it was an atrocity. That she repeats her lame theory today is less morally offensive from that point of view but, given what we now know about Al Qaeda, is more intellectually insulting.

Despite the tireless haranguing from the likes of Nick Cohen, the arse of the Left has never been able to grasp that Al Qaeda is a death cult which hates everything it sees as blocking the worldwide imposition of an arcane interpretation of Islam. Appeasement, trying to understand their demands, the finer points of diplomacy, cheap-shot Nobel Peace prizes for Obama for not being Bush – these are all irrelevant to suicide bombers. Al Qaeda would just as happily see Mary Beard and her family dead as a Bush-voter and his family. Indeed, what could be more provocative to Al Qaeda than a bolshy female academic permitted by the liberal society to boast of her affairs with married men, and then mouth off about any topic she likes? Everything that permits Mary Beard to be Mary Beard is the enemy of Al Qaeda. This isn’t just the feeling that, however tactfully you dress it up, she has it coming...

The explanation for this blind spot is that the Indecent Left has never forgiven America for proving them wrong about communism. They have seen American capitalism as their number one enemy for so long that they can’t come to grips with the idea that they and America could share a mutual foe. For them it has always been a zero sum game – what’s bad for America is good for the world; they can't stomach the idea that jihad is bad for everyone, putting them in this case on the same side as, for example, Sarah Palin.

What is the excuse for this kind of thinking these days? Goodness knows we live in a fallen, flawed world in which nothing is black and white and the US and Britain have their fair share of mistakes and moral failures to reckon with, but when it comes down to it, since the early 20th Century there’s been a line with the Anglosphere on one side and the disastrous, murderous ideas engendered in Europe on the other, ie. the Nazis and the Commies (and not much better are the corrupted Old Europeans, collaborators and appeasers, dishing out prizes to Harold Pinter, drafting statements of condolence to the Haiti victims while America sorts out the rescue operation, inventing relative poverty, dithering over resolutions they’re unwilling to enforce, growing fat welfare states because the US gave them half a century of free defence against the Soviets et cetera et cetera); anyway, the point is that even in this fuzzy world there is a line, and if you consistently find yourself on the wrong side of that line, as a reflex, like a tic, over and over, drinking Coke and wearing jeans while you casually denounce the Hegemony of the Great Satan, then surely the time really has come to pull your head out of your backside and grow up. But what can you do? Why are there so many Mary Beards? The world is on its head and nothing makes sense and who of us so complexly entangled in our common human blah blah blah can plumb the innermost recesses of another’s and so forth and so on?

14 comments:

  1. Hear, hear.

    But what can you expect from a group that so heavily privileges intentions over outcomes?

    Intentions are so effortless and you get to show what a wonderful, altruistic and empathetic person you are, as you stand in solidarity with the downtrodden of the world. And you don't even have to do anything. In fact God help us if you do, because the outcomes aren't pretty.

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  2. I think it was David Cohen who put it something like this:

    Helping the poor is good. In debates I argue that the Government should help the poor. Therefore, I am a good person.

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  3. awesome stuff - this would be my ideal opinion piece in the Torygraph, rather than the usual waffle.

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  4. Well put Brit, the enchanting prof deserves every word.
    An uncharitable person may remark that who, in the name of humanity, was visually challenged enough to give her one? they probably, upon realising the enormity of their mistake, flung themselves off Beachy Head, or made an urgent appointment at Moorfields. However, the last thing that she requires at the moment is lack of charity, she needs every drop she can get.

    Mary, Mary quite the dearie, how's your love life now.
    With hair so lank and features dank, no Pugh will you ensnare.
    Mary, Mary puffed and bleary the best is past you now, the towers down brought you a crown, the queen of Laden town.

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  5. Well said. I've tried to help you out by revealing the 'root causes' of the phenomenon.

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  6. Out goes the crunchie conservative and in comes a hard cold mars bar direct from the bottom of the freezer.

    Moral relativism was and is a guiding principle of the left, (with exceptions of course)

    Marxism is moral relativism in its purest political and economic form.
    This is why I cant buy the "neocon is like Marxism" line.

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  7. Anonymous1:02 pm

    the Indecent Left has never forgiven America for proving them wrong about communism.

    That's true, but is it not equally true the Left has never forgiven America for proving them wrong about America? They've been waiting for them to be "overtaken" by so many candidates (Soviets, EU, Japan, now China)and collapse into a nightmate of fascism, they're all beginning to sound like frustrated millenialists.

    The leftist narrative is deeply corrupt morally, but it's staying power in the face of historical reality is astounding.

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  8. Very nice.

    In addition to what you all have said, I think that a part of the explanation for the indecent* left's position has to do with fear of the loss of control. It would be nice to think that there is some action we can take unilaterally that will stop al Qaeda: elect Obama, promote green energy, protest against the war, criticize Israel, praise the Shi'a as inherent democrats (oops, sorry, wondered off there), etc.

    Just one more example of why Terminator is the seminal movie of our time: That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

    * Indecent, of course, but Christopher Hitchens joy at being able to use the US Armed Forces to go to war with a religion, any religion, sometimes also wanders over that line.

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  9. Brilliantly put. And I agree... so at least you can't be accused of misogynism.

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  10. Anonymous2:22 pm

    Here is a super post by the excellent David Thompson on a linked article that must be the last word in leftist smug self-regard. I can sometimes understand why the left takes the idealistic positions they do, but the axiomatic assumption that it is all objectively grounded and born out by history, and therefore should be obvious to anyone who completed grade ten, is really chilling if you dwell on it for too long.

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  11. Willard3:09 pm

    Some people just think it's cool to hang out with the bad kids...

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  12. I've remembered that David's formula actually went something more like this:

    Helping the poor is good. I help the poor by arguing that the Government should tax people like me and give the money to the poor. I am a good person.

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  13. Ah, sorry Robert, going to have to enforce the Profanity Policy there.

    Robert Iddiols wrote:

    Nice little jibe at the great ****, George Galloway. I like it.

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  14. Hear bally hear!

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