November 3, 2004
I WAS JUST TRYING TO BE HELPFUL
What Osama might have told America (Spengler, Asia Times, November 3rd, 2004)
"People of America, your leaders falsely tell you that jihadis love death rather than life. It is true that life to us means more than the material existence on this Earth, but also life everlasting - but did not your prophets tell you the same thing? If we hate life, why do we have more children than you? The population of the Arab world doubled during the 20 years between 1978 and 1998, and between 1998 and 2010 will have grown by yet another third. [6]"It is you, not us, who foster a culture of death. Where in the Muslim world can you find a form of music such as 'death metal', which revels in the putrefaction of human flesh? Groups with names like Cannibal Corpse have sold scores of millions of records. This, O Americans, is the blessing progress which you propose in your benevolence to bestow upon Muslim youth? It would be better to learn from us how to cut a flute from a reed. [7]
"One candidate tells you that he will enlist foreign allies in your crusade against us. These supposed allies are the ones who love death. In half a century the number of Europeans will fall by 50 million, because the Europeans no longer love life enough to bring new life into this world. Three hundred and twenty years ago a Muslim army stood before the gates of Vienna, and Europe barely escaped conversion to the true faith at swordpoint. During the next half-century Muslims will wander into Europe and replenish the half-empty towns with people, and the sound of children's voices once again will be heard - but in Arabic.
"Because they hate life, your supposed allies are cowards. Half a millennium ago the Spanish empire drove Islam from its territory; this year a few bombs at a railway station panicked the pathetic remnants of Spain into retreat from Iraq. You are fools to count on them. Even the Zionist Bernard Lewis admits that Islam will prevail in Europe before the end of this century.
"People of America, your soldiers are brave but your leaders are fools. You tremble at the loss of a thousand lives in Iraq. Perhaps with another thousand, and a thousand more, you will establish the peace of the cemetery in the cities of the Mesopotamian plain for another month or another year. We do not think in terms of next month, or next year. We look with hope and resolution toward the victory of our children's children, who will dominate Europe. Their children's children will dominate America.
"Abandon the false hope of freedom and submit to Allah. You cannot go back to the traditional life of your forefathers, because the monster of globalization has plowed it under. Not an American in 20 could find his way back to the village of his great-grandfather. You cannot go forward, because your souls are too weak to find a way through the pitfalls of the modern world. Like the Europeans, you too will become weary of life, weary of raising children, weary of your mastery - and the world will belong to us.
"Have a nice day."
After all the outrage and disclaimers, the question remains: How long can a superpower with nuclear hegemony and unquestionned military supremacy thrive when its people honour Paris Hilton as a cultural icon?
We will only lead the world as long as the processes that lead to the frivolity of "honoring Paris Hilton as a cultural icon." Those same processes that lead us to do "silly" things are the same processes that enable us to stumble onto and recognize solutions to problems and to expand our knowledge which in turn pushes the frontiers of our economic and military capability. As soon as we stifle that creativity we will also fall by the wayside.
I do agree with the problem that we don't have enough children, however, at least we are good at converting those born into other ideologies into ours, so we may be able to continue for centuries before it becomes a problem.
Posted by: Bret at November 3, 2004 7:35 PMNo one honors Paris Hilton. People gawk at Paris Hilton.
Posted by: Porkypine at November 3, 2004 7:42 PMI know it supposes to be sarcastic but I can't help it, so here it goes ...
1) Is free choice equivalent of weakness? And to replace free choice with suppression supposed to be improve mankind? History will refute that fact right in the face, slap, slap, slap, bitch. Bad choice is the problem. No choice is worse.
2) Paris Hilton is a merchandise to be sold on wavelength, same as Barbie the nut or Clooney the clueless. Good entertainment and no value. Like masturbation.
Posted by: Lan Nguyen at November 3, 2004 7:56 PMHmm, my guess is that Daniel Bell's "Cultural Contradiction of Capitalism" observation would be that we should have fallen about two decades ago.
It is odd. How does a culture that celebrates a Paris Hilton still capable of producing the massive wealth that it does? Doesn't the hedonism implicit in "Hiltonism" undermine Weber's Protestant work ethic that is needed for capitalism to succeed?
After reading Bell in college twenty years ago, I've never been able to explain why and where he's wrong.
SMG
Posted by: SteveMG at November 3, 2004 9:39 PM"...when its people honour Paris Hilton as a cultural icon"
Speak for yourself.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at November 3, 2004 9:55 PMSteve MG:
Isn't it akin to the ability to build a sophisticated automobile, while at the same time being unable to resist looking at a car wreck?
Paris Hilton is a great example of why we don't need an estate tax. The Hilton fortune will be gone in a generation, two generations tops.
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at November 3, 2004 10:12 PMThere are few things that tick me off more than when people interpret the prurient interests of a small substratum of society as being somehow dispositive of the opinions of all Americans.
Paris Hilton is a freak. She is no different from the Bearded Lady or the Dog-Faced Boy at Barnum & Baileys. She is a form of low entertainment just like that found in French villages where people would tie a cat to a stake and try to beat it to death with their heads or would thrill to the sounds of a lepetomaine, someone who entertained through the diversity of sounds he could make from his asshole.
Posted by: Bart at November 3, 2004 10:12 PMYou seem to be a man of the world, Bart. Tell me more about this, you say, "lepetomaine"?
Posted by: joe shropshire at November 3, 2004 10:23 PMIt's unlikely to make Word of the Day....
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at November 3, 2004 10:53 PMThe closet thing we can get to entertainment based upon the noises made out of one's derriere is perhaps Michael Moore.
Posted by: Bart at November 3, 2004 10:59 PMAaah, Michael Moore! Oui, now we understand.
Posted by: joe shropshire at November 3, 2004 11:32 PMStaying on the theme of Paris Hilton and lower-taste American pop culture, I thought you were referring to this lepetomaine.
Posted by: John at November 4, 2004 12:52 AMFreedom of choice, dudes. Freedom of choice.
(God given, by the way). "So choose life," as it is said (though this seems to be an unpopular choice in certain parts).
Warts 'n all.
(And as long as the Democrats---or any other political party or elite---absolutely insist that they absolutely know best what's in your interest, it's gonna be slim pickens for 'em. Absolutely.)
Posted by: Barry Meislin at November 4, 2004 2:03 AMIt does seem a long time ago that Audrey Hepburn was a cultural icon, doesn't it?
Of course, Audrey still is one. And Paris Hilton will be forgotten a few weeks from now.
Posted by: Randall Voth at November 4, 2004 4:30 AMThanks for the enlightment Bart.
Now I can't get the image of Paris Hilton as "lepetomaine" out of my mind.
Posted by: h-man at November 4, 2004 6:08 AMIt's "Le Petomain".
Posted by: Dutch at November 4, 2004 6:31 AMIn French, mais oui, but I anglicized it to its common form in the English language. The nasality didn't cross the Channel.
Posted by: Bart at November 4, 2004 9:27 AMThat's "Governor" Le Petomaine to you!
Posted by: Rick T. at November 4, 2004 10:10 AMI didn't get a harrumph outta that guy...
Posted by: Gov. William J. LePetomaine at November 4, 2004 11:29 AMOnly a country without any real problems (or that cannot identify any) can spend much time on a Hilton.
To the extent that Hilton occupies any important fraction of the time of serious people, that would indicate that we haven't got serious about the one threat that does face us.
In the 1920s, the US was occupied with Shipwreck Kelly, while the French were rioting in the streets over important issues like controlling Germany, putting religion in or keeping it out of schools, hating Jews etc.
It took the Depression to get Americans' attention, but once there, we took care of business. The French were so busy arguing important matters that they hardly noticed they had been conquered by the Germans.
(I had not encountered lepetomaine as a general word before. As far I as know, there was only one Le Petomaine, who, as a result of a medical accident, could take air into his stomach and expel it through his anus. He was the highest-paid music hall performer in Paris from around 1900 to after World War I.)
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 4, 2004 4:13 PMHarry,
'Pet' is the French word for 'fart.'
'Lepetomaine' was undoubtedly a stage name. I refer you to A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman about 14th century France for a reference to lepetomaines as popular entertainment. Darnton's 'The Great Cat Massacre' also references this.
Posted by: Bart at November 4, 2004 10:14 PMI'll credit this blog when I win big on Jeopardy.
Posted by: Eugene S. at November 5, 2004 12:40 AMI've read both but didn't recall petomainia in either.
A friend had an illustrated biography of 'the' Le Petomaine. It certainly changed my opinion of Emerson and James.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 5, 2004 4:19 PM