Posted on 04/27/2010 10:06:10 AM PDT by rmlew
Nothing is more Western than hatred of the West.” So writes the French novelist and essayist Pascal Bruckner in his book La tyrannie de la pénitence (2006), capably translated into English by Steven Rendall and recently published by Princeton University Press as The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism. “All of modern thought,” he adds, “can be reduced to mechanical denunciations of the West, emphasizing the latter’s hypocrisy, violence, and abomination.”
He exaggerates, but not by much.
He shows how Europeans see themselves as “the sick man of the planet” whose pestilence causes every problem in the non-Western world (what he calls the South). When the white man set foot in Asia, Africa, or America, death, chaos, and destruction followed. Europeans feel themselves born with stigmata: “The white man has sown grief and ruin wherever he has gone.” His pale skin signals his moral defectiveness.
These provocative statements undergird Bruckner’s brilliant polemic arguing that European remorse for the sins of imperialism, fascism, and racism has gripped the continent to the point of stifling its creativity, destroying its self-confidence, and depleting its optimism.
Bruckner himself concedes Europe’s blemishes but he also praises it for self-criticism: “There is no doubt that Europe has given birth to monsters, but at the same time it has given birth to theories that make it possible to understand and destroy these monsters.” The continent, he maintains, cannot be just a curse, for its sublime achievements complement its worst atrocities. This he calls “proof of grandeur.”
Paradoxically, it is Europe’s very readiness to acknowledge its faults that prompts self-hatred, for societies that do not engage in such introspection do not lacerate themselves. Europe’s strength is thus its weakness. Although the continent has “more or less vanquished its monsters,” such as slavery, colonialism, and fascism, it chooses to dwell on the worst of its record. Thus his book’s title, The Tyranny of Guilt. The past, with its violence and aggression, is frozen in time, a burden Europeans expect never to throw off.
The South, in contrast, is deemed perpetually innocent. Even as colonialism fades into the past, Europeans righteously blame themselves for the plight of once-colonized peoples. Eternal innocence means infantilizing non-Westerners; Europeans flatter themselves as the only adults — itself a form of racism. It also offers a way to preempt criticism.
This explains why Europeans ask what they “can do for the South rather than asking what the South can do for itself.” It also explains why, after the Madrid bombings of 2004, a million Spaniards marched against not the Islamist perpetrators but their own prime minister. And, worse: why they saw Spanish civilians “torn apart by steel and fire” as the guilty party.
As shown by the Madrid bombing and countless other acts of violence, Muslims tend to have the most hostile attitudes toward the West, and Palestinians rank as the most hostile of Muslims. That Palestinians face off against Jews, the extreme victims of Western murderousness, makes them a perversely ideal vehicle for rebutting Western guilt. Making matters worse, even as Europeans disarm themselves, Israelis take up the sword and wield it unashamedly.
Europe exonerates itself of crimes against Jews by extolling Palestinians as victims, no matter how viciously they act, and by portraying Israelis as latter-day Nazis, no matter how necessary their self-defense. Thus has the Palestinian question “quietly relegitimated hatred of the Jews.” Europeans focus on Israel with such an intensity that one could think the fate of the planet will be determined “in a tiny stretch of land between Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and Gaza.”
And America? Just as “Europe relieves itself of the crime of the Shoah by blaming Israel, [so] it relieves itself of the sin of colonialism by blaming the United States.” Excommunicating its American child permits Europe to preen. For his part, Bruckner rejects this easy out and himself admires American confidence and pride of country. “Whereas America asserts itself, Europe questions itself.” He also notes that, in times of need, the wretched of the earth invariably turn to the United States, not the European Union. To him, the United States is “the last great nation in the West.”
He hopes that Europe and America will cooperate again, for when they do, they “achieve marvelous results.” But his own evidence points to the unlikelihood of that prospect.
— Daniel Pipes is Director of the Middle East Forum and Taube Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. © 2010 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
If he thinks there was no “death, chaos, and destruction” before the white people got there (anywhere!) then he is ignorant or blatantly dishonest.
“The white man has sown grief and ruin wherever he has gone.” His pale skin signals his moral defectiveness.
It also signals penicillin, dentistry, central heat, symphonic music, the Mona Lisa, refrigeration, the internal combustion engine, and the sort of printing and distribution facilities which make this lazy, ignorant French asshat able to get rich and live a safe and well-nourished life by peddling his bullsh*t all over the planet.
The US is importing Muslims just as fast as 78% of American (liberal) Jews support these actions and Hussein.
Anyone that still considers 50 year old Soviet Propaganda to be “modern thought” is part of the problem.
But you are correct that the leftist Hofjuden are importing their death.
The French essayist is pointing out how self-hatred is destroying Europe not trying to accuse “whitey” of destroying everything.
I disagree with him for slightly different reasons,you still have a very insular and “white” class at the top made up of people connected to the ruling parties.
That political class,much like the top schools is really not interested in seeing anyone or anything as equal.
Again the essayist was trying to highlight how the white man’s loathing and guilt is detrimental to the West and how the West should reassert itself on a Global scale.
I will point out that his own country France hasn’t exactly backed away from Africa,Cambodia and still owns a stretch of land in South America.Not to mention how they view Muslims is at times necessary and at times “snobbish”.
I am sure that 10 or 20 years ago those arguments would make sense.
I like Asian culture myself because of the respect for discipline and the fact that there is a lot of beautiful terms in these languages.That doesn’t mean I hate European culture,I just can’t seem to stomach what passes for European culture these days.
It is pompous,stupid and shallow.There was that show with models walking around the catwalks,covered with black stuff that was supposed to be a metaphor for feces covering one’s skin and kin.
Jesus God almighty save me from this lunacy,save me from this goddamn poison and this goddamn decadence.
It just makes you want to walk the hell away.Maybe I could get around to doing something nice in Europe.
Although, Daniel is a true scholar and able to deconstruct arguments or dissect psychological causes; when it comes to the Euro-trash and Euro-bitches and there self made problems, these whiners should be told to go Frack-themselves for being politically corrupt regarding any complaints about America or the West.
The problem with socialism is socialism; as soon as it runs out of other people’s money, socialists blame everyone else.
Further, these POSs seem to have too much time on their hands for too much drama in their lives; for they are not able to manage their own business without support from a Dutch uncle. Especially, after two World Wars and their long term defenses; during the next big one, America should just press the Red Button as a reset for Europe to rid the world of the defective!
You got that right!
This fool speaks for a small minority of degenerates, no more than that.
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