With each outrage perpetrated by Muslims since 911 to the present—including Madrid, London, Moscow, Bali, and now Mumbai, as well as countless other examples of Islamic pathology, such as murderous cartoon riots, teddy bear riots, Miss Universe riots, murders of Christians over a Papal lecture, etc. ad nauseam—the PC MC paradigm in the West gets stronger, not weaker. Westerners have become more solicitous, more deferential, more respectful of Muslims, not less.
This paradoxical phenomenon is patently perverse and irrational. But it is not illogical. It follows the internal logic of the PC MC paradigm.
That internal logic may come to relief through the following adumbration of ingredients of the paradigm.
Ingredients:
1. An overt and conscious fear that the West (or subsets of the West) will go from the thought crime of "bigotry" inexorably down the “slippery slope” to genocide against a predominately non-white non-Western people.
a. Short of actual genocide: a fear that the West (or subsets of the West) will become overtly and institutionally “racist” against Muslims through a variety of policies, including unethically prejudicial and "disrespectful" mistreatment of Muslims still strictly within the law, as well as illegally prejudicial mistreatment of Muslims enabled by governmental obfuscation and undemocratic power blocs (e.g., the Patriot Act)—including such things as unethical or unlawful detainment of Muslims for questioning; up from there, the unethical or unlawful surveillance and harassment of Muslims; all the way up to rounding up Muslims, interning Muslims, deportation of Muslims, and/or the countenancing of a climate of “hate crimes” against Muslims on a widespread scale.
2. An unconscious, or semi-conscious, fear of Muslims and of Islamic violence—a fear that remains unconscious, or semi-conscious, due to willful suppression, denial and pathological obfuscation, and more or less following the perversely paradoxical logic of Auster's Law of Majority/Minority Relations.
3. The twin axioms that are at the heart of PC MC:
a. A self-criticism of the West that is so extreme it reaches irrational, and often morbid proportions.
b. An approbation of non-Western cultures that is so extreme it reaches irrational, and often grotesque proportions.
4. A reminder: Muslims have become the “Poster Children” of the Third World—and by extension of the non-West, and of the “Other” par excellence. In the twisted lexicon of PC MC, the “Other”, of course, is an “imperialist” and “racist” fabrication by the West. However it is, at the same time, a really different culture to be “respected”. Thus, in the PC MC view, it is not “Otherness” per se that is the problem, it is the posture we adopt in response to that “Otherness”: If we remain “respectful” of that “Other” and admire its “alternative” ways while at the same time remembering to mock and denigrate our own benighted, provincial ways, then all is copacetic. But as soon as we begin showing the slightest hint of “judging” that “Other” and give off the slightest whiff of affecting any sense of superiority over the “Other”, then the wrath of PC MC falls upon us and we are demonized as “racist”, “imperialist” and “fascist”. The massively documented fact that the Islamic Other routinely practices and preaches supremacism, intolerance, hate, bigotry, homophobia, misogyny, and many other anti-liberal sins, is simply denied by the PC MC mind—and if one calls attention to this massive data, the PC MC mind immediately shoots the messenger and accuses him of “hatred” motivated by “racism”, “imperialism” and “fascism”.
Instructions:
Put six heaping cupfulls of #1 in a bowl.
Look the other way while sifting in generously copious amounts of #2, and be sure to stir together so that #2 can no longer be seen in the mix. If needed, add sugar and spice to help camouflage #2 in the mix.
Transfer to a larger container and pour in 10 gallons of #3a and #3b in equal amounts.
Let sit for a few decades at room temperature.
Pre-heat oven to 911 degrees.
Using an electric cream-whipper, dissolve huge inert chunks of #4 into the batter, then drain into a blender and mix for 30 seconds on the "jihad" setting.
Apportion generous amounts into muffin pans, bake in oven for as long as it takes to forget.
Let cool for a few minutes.
Feeds the whole family, neighborhood, society, West.
Serve with Kool-Aid.
With each outrage perpetrated by Muslims since 911 to the present [...] the PC MC paradigm in the West gets stronger, not weaker. Westerners have become more solicitous, more deferential, more respectful of Muslims, not less.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think of Lawrence Auster's "First Law of Majority-Minority Relations in Liberal Society".
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. Yes, Auster's formulation --
the more difficult or dangerous a minority or non-Western group actually is, the more favorably it is treated. This increasingly undeserved favorable treatment of an increasingly troublesome or misbehaving minority or non-Western group can take numerous forms, including celebrating the group, giving the group greater rights and privileges, covering up the group's crimes and dysfunctions, attacking the group's critics as racists, and blaming the group's bad behavior on white racism
-- is the mechanism I was writing about in my essay. All Auster has to do now is recognize my point #4 in its full implications and impact. In a nutshell, it is this: Muslims are the new black. Muslims are the privileged Minority du jour. To some significant extent, this is probably due to the simple fact that they are by far astronomically more prone to violence than any other minority now or throughout all history.
Addendum to my essay:
ReplyDeleteJust one example out of likely thousands one could adduce from virtually anywhere throughout the West in the aftermath of Mumbai that exemplifies the pathological reflex response according to the recipe as outlined in my PC MC "cookbook", consider these PC MC responses at the American university, the University of Washington, as reported by their student newspaper:
The ISA [Indian Student Association] decided to hold the candlelight vigil to mourn the lives lost in the attacks spanning three days of violence.
“We wanted to convey a message of peace, especially to the campus, and to show that we are against terrorism,” said Rakendu Shukla, president of the ISA. “This is the time to unite, essentially, and it is not the time to look at race or religion or anything like that. We need to come together as one against terrorism.”
The vigil consisted of a nondenominational prayer, as well as a number of short speeches, including a speech from David Longnecker, a representative of the humanitarian organization Art of Living Foundation.
Longnecker stressed the importance of outreach and dialogue in preventing events like the Mumbai attacks.
“I think it’s important that we reach out to everyone and let them feel that we all belong together,” Longnecker said.
“As long as there is this separation of religion or country, we will continue to lose our big identity that we all belong to the human race. If we get to know people as individuals, then things like this won’t happen because we will see the humanness in each other, instead of an enemy or a foe.”
Another speaker was Elie Estrin, rabbi at the UW Chabad House. Estrin condemned those responsible for the Mumbai attacks and implored the crowd to respond to them with acts of kindness.
“I think the most important thing is in two parts, two parts of a whole,” Estrin said. “The first part is that first of all, we have to recognize that there is such a thing as evil, and wantonly killing people and just shooting and hurting people just for the sake of political or religious reasons is absolutely immoral and ungodly.”
http://dailyuw.com/2008/12/4/vigil-held-mumbai-victims/
Come to think of it, there are a number of problems with Auster's formulation -- problems which could be rectified by other writings of his elsewhere which I have not read yet:
ReplyDelete1. It broadly treats non-Western cultures as equally detrimental, and thus ignores gradations in degree.
2. As part of #1, it fails to note Islam as the worst and most dangerous non-Western culture.
3. It delimits the problem to "Liberals", when the problematic mechanism it describes pertains to the vast majority of people throughout the West on all parts of the political and social spectrums -- Left, Right and Center.
a. In its broad sweep, we will also find important convolutions -- such as, for example, many people on the Right who go against the grain of this PC MC mechanism with regard to blacks, but when it comes to Muslims, suddenly fall in step with the PC MC paradigm. Indeed, in his articulation of this "Law", Auster himself by apparently equalizing all non-Western cultures as equally detrimental, insufficiently defines Islam as the worst, and not only slightly worse, but by far the worst. I believe Auster has evolved over time to where he increasingly sees that Islam is a special case among non-Western cultures, though sometimes one sees glimpses of his previous view remaining as a subtext. For one thing, he does seem to spend at least an equal amount of time on blacks as he does Muslims, if not more so.