Subject:
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First entry in "predict the responses!"
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 22 May 2002 02:50:16 GMT
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Viewed:
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237 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> (and also maybe to defuse the flame war that might soon be erupting about
> returning stuff bought at another store)
>
> http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire050902.asp
>
> Who can most accurately predict how each of the usual suspects will react to
> that one? (no need to post, you can just keep score in your head).
Well, I want to start at the gate, to see who would predict my rather
predictable response. I see the core of Mr. Derbyshire's argument
right here:
"What a world! You can only read a certain amount of this
stuff before you start to avert your eyes. What on earth
can anyone hope to do about all this? All the simple expla-
nations for the horrors that stain a large part of our planet
have been used up. We now know that it's not the fault of
colonialism, or neo-colonialism, or capitalism, or socialism.
It's just the way these places are. They can't handle modernity,
for some cultural reason we don't understand and can't do
anything about."
This is absolute and complete BS; it's a perfectly colonial attitude,
in fact. The backwards condition of the states he mentions--and that
includes the condition of people like the Palestinians--has its roots
in colonialism; it's perpetuated and made worse by globalization and
global capitalism. Some have escaped the cycle, but those are most often
members of what is historically considered the Eurasian Ecumene, and
therefore already possessed of strong central governments and state
apparatuses.
(If you look at states with greater problems with "modernity" and the
artificiality of their boundaries, there's nearly a 1:1 correlation.
These states were forced into a situation we call dual hierarchy: the
indigenous power structure (chiefdoms, emirates, shiekhdoms) and the
"imposed," western-style power structure, dominated by the European-
educated élite. The latter, in their struggles against the former,
often seek to enrich themselves through corruption. That's an over-
simplified characterization, but the pattern is repeated over and over
throughout the formerly colonized world, save in those where local
power centers have been ruthlessly and remorselessly destroyed.)
What Derbyshire's statements say, in effect, is that we can't under-
stand them, their culture is fundamentally unmodern, and they're entire-
ly to blame for the fact that they weren't building skyscrapers in
1960 like South Korea. In order to maintain our standard of living in
the US and Europe, we require the exploitation of *someone*. That's
just how the system's always worked. The "tired old explanations"
of colonialism and capitalism haven't expired; they're just as salient
now as they were in 1950, and only the arrangement of the cogs in
between has changed.
As for the Palestinians, they're the victims of two problems: The
neo-colonial Israeli settler regime (which holds too much power in
the Israeli state to be effectively opposed by those Israelis who
*do* believe that the settlements need to end), and the Arab powers
for whom they are a proxy and a continued locus upon which to focus
popular discontent *away* from their own failings--and to keep the
Islamic radical-fringe occupied (hopefully). The former pairing--
Israeli-Palestinian--is incredibly similar to apartheid South Africa;
however, the second half of that calculus--the Arab states' vested
interest in maintaining Palestinian poverty for their own political
ends--has no analogue, and indeed is one of the things preventing
a 1994-style denouement from coming about. The Palestinian case
is in many ways unique; Derbyshire can really only link them in his
effort to discount misery en masse as entirely the fault of those
who are immiserated. That's very convenient for the beneficiaries
of said misery.
So Mr. Derbyshire is all wet. We *can* understand the roots of
cultural failings; the biggest one, of course, is the lack of access
to education that explains why the last areas of Africa to exit
colonial rule are also those with the worst incidences of HIV
infection. But there are many others, and Derbyshire represents
the new reaction against the realization of the 1960s that yes,
"those people" are capable of reason, do operate by logic (albeit
different logic from ours), and are capable of succeeding in the
Western sense. They've just started with so many disadvantages
in their own territories that rapacity both within and without continue
to destroy any progress that's made. He may feel remorseless about
the Palestinians as a "do nothing" people if he wishes, but his
attempt to justify it with the ultimately irrational statement
wayyyy up there ^^^ betrays his ultimate bias, which while not
"racist" in the strict sense *is* still bigoted, ignorant, and
misinformed.
Phew, sorry about the rant. I hope I made some of you winners! ;)
best
LFB
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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| (...) <snip> I have to say I started by reading the conclusion first. This line caught my eye: “Being Arabs, they are incapable of constructing a rational polity, so their future is probably hopeless whatever happens.” As I am not aware of any (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: First entry in "predict the responses!"
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| Go, Baby, Go!!! Talk about ethnocentric views -- could that author have had more ready judgments about other people and their way of life? And talk about your straw man arguments: Arafat at the head of a Palestinian state as the desired goal? (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Let's play "predict the responses"
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| (and also maybe to defuse the flame war that might soon be erupting about returning stuff bought at another store) (URL) can most accurately predict how each of the usual suspects will react to that one? (no need to post, you can just keep score in (...) (23 years ago, 22-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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