Thanks, Frank.
All these blinding, easy binaries have to be resisted.
Best
Alison
>It might be worth considering that multinational capitalism, though
>considerably, is not exclusively American; it involves Shell and Sony as
>well as IBM, Lloyds as well as Aetna, the Bourse as well as Wall Street.
>
>It might be worth considering that the Arab countries are governed by
>variously corrupt oligarchs who are more concerned with their own wealth
>than the welfare of their people, and who in time-honored fashion feed
>the latter on nationalism and scapegoats.
>
>It might be worth considering that amidst the images of violent
>stupidity that Western popular culture offers the Third World are images
>of free individuals, independent women, and self-creating youth, which
>are intolerable to authoritarian fanatics.
>
>It might be worth considering that for Osama bin Laden and his ilk
>Israel and the Palestinians are merely a pretext. They see themselves
>as involved in a war of civilizations, sworn to purge the Dar al-Islam
>from corrupt Western influences and to return it to purity - which bin
>Laden has explicitly equated with the code of the Taliban.
>
>Let me make it clear that I condemn all bigotry and scapegoating - most
>immediately, that of Arab-Americans. That I oppose Sharon's
>provocations, and Israeli settlers seizing Palestinian land. But I also
>oppose maniacs blowing up themselves and 20 or 40 or 50 - or 5000 -
>innocent people. America could take a stronger position against the
>settlements. But if there were genuine goodwill and desire for peace on
>the part of Arab governments, instead of the convenient scapegoating I
>mentioned, they would long since have worked out a peace that would have
>satisfied and benefited all parties.
>
>Let me add two things. One: I regard all fundamentalism - whether that
>of bin Laden, the ayatollahs, Orthodox xenophobes, or Jerry Falwell and
>Pat Robertson - as a sickness. Two: I oppose George W. Bush and all
>his beliefs and policies. Yet I have to agree with him that the events
>of Tuesday are an attack on civilization itself.
Alison Croggon
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