Over at the “Spectator website”:http://www.spectator.co.uk/index.thtml , the following text is currently being displayed in their Spectator Live! section below a reproduction of one of the cartoons.
bq. European newspapers reprint Muhammad “bomb turban” cartoon, but as European populations die and Muslim populations grow, and as more and more European students are taught Foucault and “literary critical theory”, the balance of power shifts every day….
They’ll be attacking entartete Kunst for sapping the cultural vitality of the race next.
{ 35 comments }
Brendan 02.02.06 at 9:34 am
‘more and more European students are taught Foucault’.
Not that it matters but I don’t suppose they even pretend to provide some form of evidence for this extraordinary statement?
otto 02.02.06 at 9:36 am
“as European populations die and Muslim populations grow, and as more and more European students are taught Foucault and “literary critical theoryâ€
The funny thing about this sentence is that European politics has been and will be changed by changing demographic balances, so the first part of this sentence, while raising all the concerns pointed out in the previous post about comments on religious groups, is legitimate comment, while the pairing with the second part, which has no content that anyone would think of legally restricting, is utter buffoonery.
As for the Spectator blog more generally, it’s bizarre that a Tory magazine of establishment insiders and art snobs should have such a ranting homepage.
Bro. Bartleby 02.02.06 at 9:55 am
Even establishment insiders and art snobs can read the numbers, or I should say, the less than zero birth rate of the indigenous folks. How on earth does one sell a Francis Bacon to a Muslim??? I say buy Bridget Riley, sell … sell anything with people in the painting. Sell ’em to the Americans, they’ll buy anything.
Simstim 02.02.06 at 10:19 am
It also seems to imply that one cannot be both a Muslim AND a European. If it was something like “as the overall European population dies and the Muslim part of the population grows…” then it’d more defensible.
Matt 02.02.06 at 10:43 am
There’s a “less than zero” birth rate” for the “indigenous” population of Europe? What does that even mean? I suppose you mean “less than replacement” or something like that, but I suspect you’re just making stuff up.
Steve 02.02.06 at 11:26 am
Academics insisting that they are irrelevant: that’s an attitude I can endorse.
But the opposite; academics insisting that what they say is important (like, uhm, every other post on this site)-those are the one’s that bug me.
I’ve always felt that when society values the political opinions of academics as much as they value the political opinions of plumbers, society will have taken a great step forward. It’s nice to see that Chris agrees with me.
Steve
ajay 02.02.06 at 11:29 am
Bartleby’s right. After all, it’s a well-known principle of science that all trends can be extrapolated into the infinite future. So by 2080 Europe will indeed be a Muslim superstate.
That won’t be our only problem, either. I noticed the sea level on the English coast fall six feet in four hours yesterday. At that rate the North Sea will be dry by the end of the year. Disaster! (It’s got noticeably darker since lunchtime, too. Clearly the sun is going out.)
abb1 02.02.06 at 12:18 pm
I think it’s fairly typical for immigrants (including Muslims) to assimilate and reject their original culture, oftentimes more strongly than seems warranted. I’ve seen this many times. Those who emigrate are significantly different from those who stay. If they don’t assimilate, something’s probably wrong with the host culture; they have been rejected. But it’s not hopeless.
des von bladet 02.02.06 at 12:28 pm
Did Roger “Scroot Scroot†Scruton get a editing job at the Myopian? He’s never been quite the same since Foucault missed him with a paving stone in ’68.
perianwyr 02.02.06 at 12:37 pm
I’ve always felt that when society values the political opinions of academics as much as they value the political opinions of plumbers, society will have taken a great step forward.
More like a great leap forward, am I right?
M'lou 02.02.06 at 12:58 pm
Society does value the political opinions of academics and plumbers equally. It’s called voting.
Bro. Bartleby 02.02.06 at 1:03 pm
8.
Yes, you are right, something is probably wrong with the ‘host’ country. That is why in the U.S. one can (well, perhaps not in Waco) choose ‘not’ to assimilate, and still lead a happy life. Been to Lancaster country PA lately, the Plain folks choose not to assimilate, so too the Hasidic Jews of Brooklyn, or the various communes of the past and the present. Most Americans respect the right of these folks to not assimilate. But as for Europe, I’m afraid the track record is not very pretty, as many American will testify, they or their parents or their grandparents fled the old so that they could live in America and make personal choices about life matters.
Bro. Bartleby 02.02.06 at 1:12 pm
4.
Spain: UN WIRE (March 1, 2000): http://www.unfoundation.org
“UN figures indicate Spain’s birth rates are the lowest in the world, the Associated Press reports. Spanish women have an average of 1.07 children, but a 2.1 average is needed for a generation to replace itself, demographers say.
‘Basically, at this point, if it were not for immigrants, our population would drop,’ said Florentina Alvarez, Spanish National Statistics Institute demographer. The Spanish birth rate has been dropping since 1976, when it was 2.8 births per woman.
Backword Dave 02.02.06 at 1:17 pm
9. I can’t imagine Foucault getting his hands dirty heaving slabs of pavement around. I was going to say that he must have had good aim from San Francisco, but Wikipedia puts him in Tunis. Which sounds about right.
Bro Bartleby, I really don’t know about the “right not to assimilate.” Last year I typed out on my blog an extract from Saul Bellow’s To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account on meeting a Hassidic Jew from Brooklyn on a plane to Israel. Bellow is no anti-Semite.
Robin 02.02.06 at 1:20 pm
On the question of assimilation, what does assimilation mean when we’re talking of societies which have to unified conception of how one ought to live and generally act, save to respect the idea of maximal equal rights? In short, what is the monotonic, simple thing that people are supposed to be assimilating into?
Daniel 02.02.06 at 1:28 pm
I’ve always felt that when society values the political opinions of academics as much as they value the political opinions of plumbers, society will have taken a great step forward. It’s nice to see that Chris agrees with me.
And Pol Pot with both of you, although it is possible to take a good thing too far.
abb1 02.02.06 at 1:51 pm
Bro. Bartleby, fwiw I agree that the US culture works better as far as immigrantion is concerned, in most cases, but that is not the issue here. We can only contrast “European populations” with “Muslim populations” if you’re assuming that the “Muslim populations” have not been absorbed and assimilated by the Europeans, correct? ’cause if they have been, they’ve become a part of the “European populations” correct?
Ginger Yellow 02.02.06 at 1:52 pm
“As for the Spectator blog more generally, it’s bizarre that a Tory magazine of establishment insiders and art snobs should have such a ranting homepage.”
I take it you’ve never read Taki’s column.
Daniel 02.02.06 at 1:53 pm
(btw I am pretty sure that Chris does not in fact agree with “Steve” above, but am pretending otherwise for the sake of that joke)
Gene O'Grady 02.02.06 at 2:04 pm
For what it’s worth I saw the release of the OJ verdict on TV in my bosses office sitting between a female attorney and a plumber (you might call me an academic of sorts), and there was no detectable difference in the reactions the three of us had.
Bro. Bartleby 02.02.06 at 2:23 pm
17.
Recent example, all the anguish and hand wringing in France because the Muslims are not assimilating, while in the U.S. it is just a fact of life and so be it, unless you’re a neo-nazi, in which case, they too wish not to assimilate, and for the rest of us, cheers to that. Okay, time for getting down and dirty, as we say in the monestary. Europe in like the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, America is like your neighborhood dog pound … simply put, we Americans are mutts, and have long ago given up the idea of being ‘pure breds’ … alas, hidden under the veneer of assimilation in Europe, is the want to remain pure breds. So the hidden horror that the Muslims (non assimilators, as in my daughter will not marry your son, end of issue!) will soon be the majority, and will surely vote themselves into office. And then the pugs and terriers and chihuahuas will find themselves in a world of their own making. And the mutts of America? We can feel smug, that is, as long as the Hasidic Jews don’t become the majority … at which time we at the monestary will be wearing yarmulkes.
Carlos 02.02.06 at 2:44 pm
It should be remembered that the USA (and probably most of the other countries in the Americas) is an exception in regard to the assimilation issue. Most countries in the world are relatively homogeneous ethnically, at least in comparison with countries from the American continent, which were populated by large and relatively recent waves of inmigrants. My guess is that an inmigrant would have just as much problems assimilating into China or Iran as into Europe.
Matt 02.02.06 at 2:54 pm
Bartly- how does a “1.07 birth rate” translate in to a “less than zero” birth rate? That’s what was so funny to me. (You seem to have birth rate mixed up with population growth rate, though that’s not negative in Spain, either.) And of course, the answer to the birth rate question is, “so what?” Spain get a bit darker. Who but a darkie-hater cares?
Bro. Bartleby 02.02.06 at 3:09 pm
23.
If you were a Spanish grandma, you’d understand what ‘less than zero’ means when a family gathering can be counted on one hand.
And yes, from an American perspective, who cares if the Spanish become mutts like us. Either America is an example for the future, or, the future will be filled with ‘darkie-haters’ and ‘whitie-haters’ and ‘yellow-haters’ and ‘brown-haters’ and just good old fashioned haters. But, I believe, America provides the ‘potential’ for a future that looks more like ‘so what’ and then perhaps we can all join in that declaration quest of happiness.
Colin Danby 02.02.06 at 3:40 pm
As you suggest, Brendan, the people who make this sort of statement regard it as so self-evidently true that furnishing evidence would only diminish it. More to the point they have no clue about how to think about historical cause and effect, how to move from hypothesis to defensible conclusion. I’m reminded of our recent discussion of causes for the collapse of the Roman Empire.
I run into variants of the entartete Kunst argument all the time on the blogosphere, with certain names and alleged doctrines serving as lightning-rods. The funny thing is that Foucault also plays the bogeyman for certain varieties of leftish complaint, because people think he has undermined our faith in the state or in the underpinnings of identity politics. Makes me want to teach him more often.
yabonn 02.02.06 at 4:11 pm
59 Google hits for “Spanish Grandmas”.
Not bad.
luci 02.02.06 at 4:19 pm
when society values the political opinions of academics as much as they value the political opinions of plumbers, society will have taken a great step forward.
(Leaving aside the peculiarity of mocking academics on an academic blog) anti-elitist banter is always fun. I’d agree that the political opinions of informed hoi polloi should be taken at about the same value as the ivory tower twits.
But…..how many, say, plumbers believed that Saddam Hussein or Iraq attacked the US on 9/11? How does that compare to the proportion of academics who’d get that fact wrong?
Does it matter in a democracy?
(OTOH, I’d guess a slightly larger percentage of “liberal” academic types implored us to take “seriously” the threat from Iraq than regular-joes believed the WMD nonsense).
John Quiggin 02.02.06 at 5:23 pm
Steve, I’m surprised you used plumbers rather than soldiers as an example. You did enlist at 18, didn’t you?
Maynard Handley 02.02.06 at 5:48 pm
I imagine they’d prefer to live in the US where the president is able to make statements like “We plan to reduce our dependence on middle eastern oil by 75%”, when he plans to do no such thing, but the statement is true because it is “expressing a higher truth”.
Does is get more Foucaltian than that?
Jamie 02.02.06 at 9:22 pm
Luci, I think that should be “hoi informed polloi”.
Maynard H., our president is truthy. If he’s thereby Foucaudian, so much the better!
Z 02.03.06 at 3:17 am
Just to cast a funny sociological/demographical fact in. Contra Bro.Bartelby, the US has actually a much lower rate of inter-racial marriage than most european states, especially France. The contrast is particularly stark if one compares marriage between blacks and whites in the US and between muslims and christians in France. So the hidden horror that the Muslims (non assimilators, as in my daughter will not marry your son, end of issue!) etc. should really read “the hidden horror that the american whites (non assimilators, as in my son will not marry your daughter, end of issue!) etc.”.
Besides, while it is true that Americans like to think about themselves as “from the melting-pot” while French perhaps like to invoke “nos ancetres les gaulois”, in the 1870-1920 period, there was actually more immigration in France (relative to population of course) than in the US. This is not true anymore, but Americans feeling they live in an exceptionnaly diverse country and French feeling they lives in an exceptionnaly homogeneous country are badly mistaken.
Bro. Bartleby 02.03.06 at 9:48 am
Z point is, or I should make clear, ‘the’ point is that it all doesn’t matter in America, one can be ‘all of the above’ OR ‘none of the above’ and one is still called, identified as, is an American. Whereas in Europe, what is a German? a Frenchman? a Dane? Well, I suppose it depends on your roots (autochthonous), but in plain language in Europe ethnicity is as important to some ‘pure bred’ folks as it is with the indigenous folks of America. For them, blood and genes count. When your self identify is part and parcel with your blood and genes, then you have a tough time identifying with all the mutts and mongrels that call themselves Americans, those who identify with an ‘idea’ and not physical characteristics. But alas, we still cling to our romance with the pure-bred Irish Setters and the Toy Poodles.
novakant 02.04.06 at 8:48 am
so it doesn’t matter if you’re the only black family in a rural town in Iowa and it doesn’t matter if you’re if you’re a hassidic jew in the bible belt, coz, hey, we’re all americans after all?
sounds great in theory and hollywood scripts, but, alas, it’s simply not true
Bro. Bartleby 02.04.06 at 10:39 am
It means … when yelling at the television camera from the Superdome mess in New Orleans, the Black lady said, “We’re Americans! This isn’t right!”
And true. She is an American. It wasn’t right.
What I am discussing is self identity, and when one identifies oneself with an ‘idea’ (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights) and not genes and blood, then the ‘potential’ exists for change for the better. When self identity is genes and blood, then the future is forever divided.
abb1 02.04.06 at 4:11 pm
Yeah, but this is unfair to France, Germany, Italy, etc. – they are also ‘ideas’ to some extent, while America, of course, has its own share of ‘genes and blood’ problem. Shouldn’t idealize or caricature too much.
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