Could it Stockholm syndrome?

Blinded By The Anti-American Obsession

Some French intellectuals and journalists like Bernard-Henri Lévy, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, Régis Debray and Dominique Souchier are clinging to straws while drowning. They will do anything to save themselves from oblivion, while they have nothing more to say than their usual discourse. And the best way to succeed is to bash America, to lecture it, or to steal from it by way of plagiarism.

Now they go so far as to blame the fate of the Christians in the Middle East on the Bush presidency. That is what French Communist intellectual Régis Debray did last Saturday in an interview by Dominique Souchier on Europe 1 radio. The truth is that the situation of the Christians in the Middle East has been deteriorating since the end of the 1980s, more precisely: since the Iranian Khomeiny revolution - which is currently repeating itself in Lebanon. This, as well as the fate of the Copts in Egypt or the disturbances in Pakistan (similar to the uproar in Algeria in the 1990s) have nothing to do with the Bush presidency nor with Israel, contrary to what Debray believes.

In the same interview, Debray claimed that the West had “destroyed Arabism”. In fact the whole region is suffering from Arabism, not to mention Northern Africa where the youth are getting restless. Three people dead in riots in Algeria, the fault of Bush? Or Israel? … France of course!

Debray, who has been invited countless times by Souchier, keeps ranting and repeating the same nonsense, in chorus with the former ministers of foreign affairs Hubert Védrine and Roland Dumas and with geostrategist Pascal Boniface.

Certainly, in the Anglo-Saxon world there are people who are saying the same thing - take Obama for example - while adding the social and economic situation as the principal factors. But there at least you can read some shocking facts on the situation in these countries, like Pakistan. Not in France, where the media are tightly sealed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is watching. An exception was the recent confirmation by president Sarkozy on religious cleansing - which was of course contradicted by Régis Debray and by the day-to-day political practice.

Two Frenchmen were kidnapped in Niger, and have been killed. Blamed on “terrorism”, of course. Not blamed on the incompatibility between Arabo-Islamist (and Maoist) regimes and democracy which is trampled, insulted and humiliated by the former admirers of red totalitarianism.

And with the same complacency, the same obsequious idea that the problem is the existence of the West, our useful idiots continue their undermining work as a perfect fifth column, of course while crying wolf against the “far right” as soon as the slightest criticism is uttered against them. It’s the proven tactic, and it works. In the mean time Atlantis (Europe) is sinking bit by bit, disappearing into the bottomless pit of history.

It is very difficult for me to understand, in a rational way, why anyone in the West might view Arab/Middle East countries with much sympathy. However, there are explanations.

The French writer, Guillaume Faye, argues that there exists a strain of "conservatism"* that is anti-Jewish "at any cost." Because of what they perceive as Jewish victimization of the non-Jewish majority, these folks instinctively gravitate to the Islamic (re: Palestinian) cause. It is the “enemy of my enemy” psychology.

[*I follow Paul Gottfried's example of putting this term in quotes inasmuch as its definition is often questionable, and is often not defined at all]

Next we point to those left-liberals who ostensibly support "equality," and therefore take all cultures to be equally worthy of respect and even emulation. They are "students of multiculturalism" believing all the time that they (meaning the entire West) can learn something from Islam. Of course, in their naïve view, what is learned is always positive. And, ironically, their multicultural embrace usually does not extend to their own Western culture, which is typically deprecated.

Then there are the politicians who are happy to encourage an on-going majority dispossession. Perhaps they understand demographic trends, and realize that their welfare state (the source of their power) cannot continue without an infusion of "new blood," as it were. This, because the indigenous population have refused to reproduce at replacement rates. And in their quest to retain power they need new taxpayers, wherever they can find them.

Finally, there is a group that views the West as reprobate, and something that ought to be ended. These are the anarchists, the Communists, the eco-totalitarians etc. For them it is a moral issue (with the possible exception of the anarchists who might deny a moral foundation for anything).

Within this collection (to include certain right-leaning liberal “conservatives”) there are very few who appear to understand that Islam is incommensurate with Western existence. That is why I question using notions of Enlightenment derived right as a means to stem the Islamicization of Europe. To argue that the key is “free speech” misses the point.

The only way Europe can reclaim what it once was is if the idea of rights are limited to citizens, and then only if citizenship is limited to an ethnic, cultural, and religiously homogenous peoples. Once the idea of “the universal rights of man” are conceded, the end begins. And just as certainly, nihilism will follow. A little over 100 years ago Nietzsche heard the knock of the “uncanny guest” at the door. Now, that guest has entered the house and made himself quite comfortable. Not content to be a guest, he is in the process of throwing the old owner out—amazingly with the owner's help and cooperation.