THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE: Anti-Americanism
Scruton, Roger
THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE Anti-Americanism by Roger Scruton A NTI-AMERICANISM IS NOT CONFINED to places where the United States, for whatever reason, is exerting military force. Indeed, it...
...Stir up the hatred, and then duck out of the way...
...But who would do the job...
...SEPTEMBER 2007 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 41 THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE And that is the source of the grievance...
...An attack on the Iranian nuclear installations would fall under the heading of “anticipatory self-defense,” recognized and sanctioned by international law and by common sense...
...America’s presence in the world...
...The United States would be the obvious choice...
...But all such thoughts are absent from the writings of the anti-American gurus, and from the minds and emotions of their recruits...
...While it would be Regrettably, there is only one solution to the terrible dilemma confronting the world, the unacceptable danger of a nucleararmed Iran...
...determination of the Iranians is immutable...
...But the Allied powers, under the leadership of make that same mistake again...
...Civil Courage Prize The Trustees of The Train Foundation Congratulate The 2007 Civil Courage Prize Honoree The Rev...
...But the Iranians and other Muslims are crazies, as we understand the concept...
...The world must give Iran an ultimatum: Desist immediately from the development of nuclear weapons...
...And who can doubt that those religious fanatics would not hesitate to allow the destruction of much of their country and to sacrifice a third or even one-half of their population in order to eliminate the hated Jewish state...
...it can kill people and it controls the oil money...
...In fact, they face common Arab enemies and should be natural allies, as they indeed were under the Shah...
...They lead to patient observation of the world as it is, and—in due course—to the discovery that people usually make a mess of living together, and that things are, on the whole, better in America than in the places ROGER SCRUTON where the Stars and Stripes are burning...
...Any answer to that question must begin from a study of motives...
...Believing this the Greeks could enjoy guilt-free resentment...
...We have virtually no overhead...
...That verdict on indigenous anti-Americanism applies also to the global variety...
...The radical mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, whose worldview is a “rainbow coalition” of resentments, has welcomed with open arms both Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, and Sheikh Yousef Qaradawi, the radical Egyptian cleric who has vowed the destruction of Israel...
...million dead of the Nazi regime...
...They could send their great men into exile, or put them to death, believing that in doing so they merely carried out the judgment of the gods...
...Of course, diplomacy and persuasion, threats and promises, sticks and carrots – every possible means short of military action – should be used until it becomes clear even to the most obdurate that nothing can deviate Iran from its chosen path of becoming a nuclear power and to dominate the Middle East...
...When our country was entangled with the Soviet with both sides having sufficient nuclear and its people, things were kept in place by MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction...
...In all these ways we see the way in which, by transferring your grievance, you can avoid the cost of understanding it...
...We cannot afford to were in accord, Israel could do it, just as it did the job in 1981 in destroying Iraq’s nuclear potential once and for all...
...The flow of oil from the Middle East, the lifeblood of the industrialized world, would be totally under its control and so would be the economies of all nations of the world, very much including the United States...
...And that, it seems to me, is the nature of anti-Americanism in all its current forms: It is an existential antipathy, which cannot be met by any reform, since it is not a rational response to its target...
...The Greeks believed that by standing too vividly above the mediocre level permitted by the jealous gods, the big man provokes divine anger—such is the fault of hubris...
...Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared publicly – not once, but repeatedly – that Israel must be “wiped off the map...
...Thanks to American freedom, every kind of wrongdoing can easily be discovered in America, and as easily publicized...
...Indeed, it is nowhere more vehement than among the elites of the Western alliance...
...The freedom to be anti-American is enjoyed not only by loudmouths like Howard Zinn and 40 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 2007 Noam Chomsky, but also by the mute inglorious antibodies who occupy obscure positions throughout the educational system in their country...
...In 1981, then prime minister of Israel looming realization of those ambitions, decided that its nuclear reactor at Osiraq had to be destroyed...
...Resentments that grow in out-of-the-way places, among people who have had no contact with America, will therefore quickly transfer themselves to this new target, which is so large and so prominent that it cannot be missed...
...American politicians are troubled by this, and wonder how to change it...
...Finding no answer to that question—for there is none—politicians are tempted by isolationism...
...The first is that anti-Americanism is an incurable condition, since it arises from circumstances that its target can do nothing to change...
...However “evil” the leaders of the Soviet Union (the “Evil Empire”) may have been, there was one great consolation and take instructions directly from Allah, who tells them to kill the Jews and other infidels, whatever the cost...
...Fortress America, with an autarkic economy, tough immigration laws, and an impenetrable shield against missiles begins to look like the only long-term solution, when from every side comes the cry of “Death to America...
...They may even meet with a show of enthusiasm from young people who are going through some spell of repudiation towards parents, school, career, God, the world, and who are relieved to focus their emotions more comprehensively on the entire community to which they belong...
...a deadly danger to Israel, but to all of the Middle East and to Menachem Begin, being aware of Iraq’s nuclear ambitions and accomplished that in a daring and unprecedented raid...
...The experts disagree...
...The anti-Americanism of British socialists has everything to do with the refutation of their philosophy by the American example, and next to nothing to do with the evils of American capitalism...
...But that is not the point...
...When Iranian missiles are paraded through the streets of Tehran, the destination “to Jerusalem” is clearly stenciled on them...
...The grievance of the Islamists targets democratic governments, peaceful communities, passengers on trains and buses, villagers who have lived by the Shariah as well as the good monks who have looked after them (the story of Tibhirine in Algeria...
...Anti-Americanism goes one stage further...
...By focusing on America it is able to absorb all lesser resentments, and conscript them to its cause...
...It threatens the infidel with damnation while tearing itself asunder, as Sunni and Shi’ite dispute a right of succession that has no meaning whatsoever in the world in which we live...
...Roger Scruton, the writer and philosopher, is most recently the author of Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life (Continuum...
...It targets both the critics of Islam (Theo Van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali) and its friends (Naguib Mahfouz...
...True, there have been antiSemitic Jews—but they have been special cases, people who have sought to disguise their Jewishness by pretending to hate it, and maybe even coming to hate it in any case, as an obstacle to social advancement...
...nor does it need it...
...Any crime needed for the anti-American indictment can be quickly unearthed, and added to the evidence...
...They hit the nail on the head about as frequently as Chomsky does, and to similar effect...
...What is to be done...
...There is reason to believe that the people of Iran, especially the young people, oppose the oppressive and theocratic regime of their country and are hostile to the mullahs who control everything...
...It controls the instruments of coercion most desirable and in the interest of the world to be able to foment an overthrow of the Iranian regime, that is an unrealistic and unattainable prospect...
...THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE Anti-Americanism by Roger Scruton A NTI-AMERICANISM IS NOT CONFINED to places where the United States, for whatever reason, is exerting military force...
...Wherever antiAmericanism flourishes, you will find some transferable grievance that avoids self-knowledge by this easy as a target: it is manifestly “asking for it...
...The problem is that the American economy and globalization are all but synonymous, and disengagement would bring down any government that attempted it...
...six years...
...To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org You deserve a factual look at . . . The Deadly Threat of a Nuclear-Armed Iran What can the world, what can the USA, what can Israel do about it...
...they can travel all over the world on evangelical binges, and can enjoy celebrity status on campuses and caucuses across the Union...
...They enable us to pursue these goalsand to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines...
...T HIS DOES NOT MEAN that the Islamic radicals are never right in their accusations...
...Transferable grievances are normal among adolescents who, in their efforts to struggle free from family, church, and school, will resent indifferently whoever and whatever makes some claim on their obedience...
...Hence it is transferable...
...So what is the solution...
...But if the United States “An attack on the Iranian nuclear installations would fall under the heading of “anticipatory selfdefense,” recognized and sanctioned by international law and by common sense...
...Nobody really knows for sure how far Iran is from reaching its goal — six months...
...The anti-Americanism of the Eurocrats has the recognition that in no matter does America more everything to do with the failure of the European Union clearly reveal its superiority than in the ability to toler-to inspire the loyalty that manifestly unites the ate its critics...
...American people, and next to nothing to do with N ORMAL ANTIPATHIES ARE FOUNDEDin comparative judgments: you dislike that which has fallen short of some standard...
...It is an example of the attitude that Nietzsche called ressentiment: an aversion that stems from one’s own alienation, rather than another’s fault...
...Moreover, there is no guarantee that isolation would create security...
...Your taxdeductible contributions are welcome...
...The IAF (Israeli Air Force) nuclear capability was eliminated in one stroke, never to rise up again...
...Because they Israel has no problem with Iran...
...They are greeted for the most part with good-natured toleration...
...Israel’s retaliatory attack...
...AntiAmerican Americans, by contrast, are normal products of American society...
...The anti-Americanism of the Islamists has everything to do with the stability that Americans enjoy and which has disappeared from the Muslim world, and little to do with the evils of American jahiliyyah...
...Itspurpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developmentsin the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm theeducational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail...
...However, there is a significant difference, in that the leading anti-Americans are themselves Americans...
...That window may close very soon...
...As the world’s biggest economy, biggest military power, biggest source of energy and optimism, in worldly terms the biggest everything, America stands out as a target: it is manifestly “asking for it...
...Nominations for the 2008 Prize may be submitted by March 1 on the Application Form at www.civilcourageprize.org 42 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 2007 Ahmadinejad and the ayatollah who is the “supreme leader” have publicly mused that one or two nuclear bombs would obliterate Israel, but that, though it would cause devastating damage and millions of casualties, Iran would survive million inhabitants, so they are probably correct...
...They can rant against their country and its citizens without fear of reprisals...
...Almost all of our revenue pays for ourFacts and Logic About the Middle East P.O...
...he embraces the activists of gay liberation, as well as the mullahs who wish to execute them—all on the understanding that a shared antipathy to America is sufficient to create common cause...
...There still is a window of opportunity to do that...
...A trip around the ruined castles of Europe vividly reminds the modern tourist that nothing invites destruction like a fortress...
...Phillip Buck ============================================== For steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk in guiding refugees from North Korea during their escape to freedom...
...This kind of resentment is not a reasoned response but a projection...
...Iraq’s been for Israel’s decisive action, the Iraqi conquest of Kuwait and, and, for that matter, of Iran, could not have been prevented...
...A death wish for Israel...
...Who among us does not wish that some kind of lid could be put on the licentiousness of modern societies...
...Muslims want that liberty as much as we do, and to obtain it they migrate in their millions from the places where Islam is sovereign to the places where it is not—America being the longed-for final haven...
...Indigenous anti-Americanism does not have that excuse...
...you are drawn to the better by fear of the worse...
...It eschews comparisons, and feeds on a one-sided diet of antipathy...
...The solution to the deadly threat that Iran poses to the world is obvious...
...Iran is a huge country, with about 60 Union in the bitter 40-year long “cold war,” weapons to destroy the opponent’s country assurance: They were not crazy...
...Most of us recognize that there is an organic connection between freedom and its abuse, and that licentiousness is the price we pay for political liberty...
...American policy should be concerned not to defuse anti-Americanism by changing America’s stance in the world, but to encourage antiAmericans to transfer their resentments to each other...
...In contrast even to the intractable North Koreans, the by persuasion, by diplomacy, by sanctions or by threats...
...no territorial dispute...
...Box 590359 San Francisco, CA 94159...
...The position of European leftists is indeed now fraught with paradox, as they find themselves allied against the “American disease” with people who could at any moment take them too as a target...
...And provided you eschew all comparative judgment, you need never become aware of the fact that your resentment accuses not America but you...
...The second is that those who live by transferable resentments tend to die from them too...
...But the government has the tools of power firmly in its hands...
...They lead to route...
...What policies, what postures, what soothing words can be adopted, that will end the worldwide burning of the American flag...
...Two conclusions seem to follow from that analysis...
...As we know from the Nazi and Soviet experience, transferred resentments can change target at any time, and the best thing about them is their tendency to turn on each other...
...Now anti-American Americans, Zinn and Chomsky included, will protest that it is they who are the true American patriots, that they only side with those who are burning the Stars and Stripes because the misguided policies of the American leadership oblige them, in conscience, to do so...
...Hence the Islamists make radical demands, comparable to Howard Zinn’s demand that America adopt a socialist economy—demands that are impossible to meet, and that exist in order to affirm the identity of those who make them, rather than to invite a dialogue...
...FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization...
...it shouts with a loud self-righteous voice that Islam is a religion of peace (Tariq Ramadan), while daring you to suggest the opposite...
...Set the Chomskyans against the European elites and the Islamists against Chavez...
...They share no borders and have Iran’s death wish for Israel is based entirely on religious fanaticism...
...That effort, the destruction of Israel, seems to be the main goal of Iranian policy...
...Their purpose is to improve their country, to return it to its original vision or its implied ideals, and to rescue it from those who have perverted its calling...
...This message has been published and paid for by Gerardo Joffe, President 109 What are the facts...
...It cannot be changed Once Iran is in possession of nuclear weapons, it will not only be virtually all of Europe...
...And when they do so it is easy to agree with them...
...Indigenous anti-Americanism is not like As the world’s biggest economy, biggest military power, biggest source of energy and optimism, in worldly terms the biggest everything, America stands out that...
...Israel had done the world an enormous service...
...interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world...
...It is okay to go on enjoying the enormous privileges of young Americans and the even greater privileges of their gurus, if you can clothe your anti-Americanism in patriotic garments...
...But if Iran is not stopped now, it may well be too late not very long from now...
...This is a cunning response, since it permits their followers to avoid the charge of base ingratitude...
...After all, such thoughts foster doubt and hesitation...
...It would be credible if it were to be accompanied by comparative judgments—by some attempt to set the defects of America alongside the virtues of other nation-states, some attempt to say that this in my country is bad, this somewhat better, and that these are the ways in which we might improve things, following this or that example from elsewhere...
...The transferable grievances that have targeted America are now coming together, in incongruous alliances that would be comic were they not so manifestly destructive...
...The terror, the destruction and the 60 World War II could have been prevented at several times during Britain’s prime minister Neville Chamberlain, opted for appeasement and for “peace in our time...
...But what does this new patriotism amount to...
...if you do not, we shall destroy the facilities that produce them...
...Anti-Americanism has something in common with anti-Semitism, and in the Middle East the two antipathies are fused...
...Had it not without question, also of Saudi Arabia and its enormous oil fields, Saddam Hussein would have been the ruler of the world...
...Radical Islam is cut off from the modern world...
...Who among us is entirely pleased with McWorld...
...It interprets the revelation and the law as eternally fixed and unadaptable, and the sight of people successfully living according to other codes and with other aspirations is both a cause of offense and an irresistible temptation...
Vol. 40 • September 2007 • No. 7
