printI’d like to preface what Bill Anderson writes by saying that my column, Rah-Rah for Rioters, is more than sardonic about the French Welfare State, and about state intervention, in general. Witness the comments about affirmative action. Or those about the state, not German civil society, being responsible for liquidating Jews. Can one be more direct than that? However, the thrust of my writing is not deterministic. Sure welfare destroys. But people’s actions, good or bad, are not reducible to a single cause. Some libertarians take the position that it’s all the state’s fault. More accurately: it’s all the American State’s fault. What an utterly unserious stance. Entitlements are available to all who choose them as a way of life. Ditto violence. People have a good degree of free will. They can choose to reject both. One embodies Left-Liberalism if one has succumbed to seeing human motivation as unidirectional and lacking volition. Cleese’s delicious (and brilliant) “What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us” is a spoof just up my alley. Yeah the Romans were the bad guys, but hell, the Jews could be a handful. Then again not everyone shares my sense of the absurd.
From: WILLIAM ANDERSON
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 3:38 AM
Subject: Rah-Rah for Rioters
Very, very good.
People need to understand—and I think you do—that the French “system” of suffocating bureaucracy and antipathy to private enterprise definitely destroys a real future, not only for the Muslims, but also for everyone else. I had a conversation with a Canadian in Vancouver a couple summers ago and his point was that what was left for people like him were government jobs, something he realized in and of themselves were dead end.
Now, this hardly counts as “oppression” CNN style, but the insistence that people on the left make that “economic security,” as peddled by the Europeans, is a REALLY GREAT THING do not realize the longer term implications of destroying private initiative.
That, however, was not your point. Your larger issue was that the so-called CNN reasons for rioting were, to put it mildly, something that emanates from the rear end of a bull, and with that, I heartily concur.
—Bill
Jay D. Homnick writes this on The Reform Club’s blog. His guiding lights are the prophets of the Hebrew Testament. They are mine too (It wasn’t always uncool to look up to a prophet, you know.):
“CALL ME ISHMAEL (WHILE I BURN YOUR CAR)
Is Ilana Mercer an absolute genius or what? What does it say about the conservative movement in America to have this level of passion and talent?
Her article today eclipsed my understanding of the media France coverage, left me feeling like a rank amateur in understanding the depth of the kulturkampf. I had contented myself with the lazy observation that the media was disposed to “excuse” criminality when it wore a liberal-political fig leaf.
Ilana digs much deeper. She explains that the miscreancy is itself cited as “proof of virtue”.
Her brilliant insight hit me like an epiphany. I felt like I could actually hear Isaiah (5:20):
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who assert that darkness is light and light is darkness; who assert that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.” (My translation.)
POSTED by Jay D. Homnick at 10:17 AM
From: Lawren
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005
Subject: Rah-Rah for Rioters
Thank you for your article on the unbelievable coverage of the French riots. One CNN pundit, with mike clutched to her bosom called the rioters “lads.” I immediately sent my monthly email to CNN that they again confirmed they are on the side of chaos and anarchy. Unbelievable.
Thank you again for giving a voice to the unheard.
—Lawren