This afternoon I was reading a quote from a woman who had left a comment on Tim Blair’s weblog. She wrote:
rld, I feel it’s my duty as a woman to wear clingier clothing, flirt more outrageously, have more orgasms, and get on top more often. In short, anything that’s taboo to the islamofascists.”
Boo-yah, sister! This struck me as a wonderful example of what computer hackers and science-fiction fans call a `ha ha only serious’, which is just the the opposite of a `ha ha only kidding’. It’s a wonderfully multi-leveled utterance.
Generally when people start out with “As an X, I feel it’s my duty” one expects the followthrough to be some ennobling exhortation to self-sacrifice and a stiff upper lip. The sheer cheekiness of following instead with “gonna get laid more” is wonderful — I can imagine the sister, with a gleam in her eye and a curl of her lip, daring anybody to call her on it, and daring anybody not to notice that she is one hot chick who knows exactly how to use what she’s got.
An idiot, or a conservative of the ramrod-up-the-ass school, would stop there, take her rhetorical flip-the-bird at islamofascists as more than an excuse for narcissism-tinged self-display or a thin bit of patter, and perhaps splutter with jowly indignation. Me, I got respect for this sister. I think she meant every word she said and was being wicked smart.
The true mindfucking beauty of this quote only becomes apparent when you hold both meanings (the sexual self-display and the the anti-islamofascist flip-the-bird) in your mind at once, and allow each to play off the other in a spirit of intentional irony. Our sister has uttered the perfect sexual battle cry for the islamofascists’ occidentalist nightmare — and I think she knows it.
Since 9/11 it has become easier to notice that Islamic fear and hatred of the West (and of America as its political and cultural hyperpower) is rooted in a hostility to all the freedoms and self-indulgences of urban western civilization — commerce, mixed populations, artistic freedom, sexual license, scientific pursuits, leisure, personal safety, wealth. Indeed, one of the circumstances that justifies the term “islamofascism” is that this catalog of resentments is exactly that of classical fascism. And the icon of subversive modernity, to all fascists everywhere, has been the Jew — rootless, cosmopolitan, urbane, commercial, and (in anti-Semitic propaganda) sexual seducer of the pure.
Two perceptive commentators (op. cit.) have written “Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Hitler, Japanese agrarian fascists, and of course Islamists all extolled the simple life of the pious peasant, pure at heart, uncorrupted by city pleasures, used to hard work and self-denial, tied to the soil, and obedient to authority. Behind the idyll of rural simplicity lies the desire to control masses of people, but also an old religious rage, which goes back at least as far as the ancient superpower Babylon.”
By saying “fuck me”, the sister is saying a big “fuck you” to all that. She is choosing to embody the whore of Babylon for reasons that mingle her own desire with deliberate defiance of the bearded patriarchs and their stormtroopers. She is acting out the culture war as sexual politics. She is not merely a hedonist or a rebel (though either would be bad enough) but an ultimately enraging combination of the two, conscious blasphemy written with the body under those clinging clothes.
In the fevered mind of any islamofascist, the sister is certainly urban and probably Jewish. In fact, we are all Jews now, every one of us in the West. This is what lies behind the standard-issue Arab-world mutterings about U.S. policy being controlled by Jews and Israelis, and the tremendous wave of pro-Jewish, pro-Israeli solidarity in the U.S. after 9/11. The alliance both we and the Islamists are sensing is more than geopolitical; it’s founded in everybody’s gut-level understanding that rage against the Jews and rage against modernity have become effectively synonymous.
Yes, we’re all Jews now, even blue-eyed Germano-Celtic goyim like me. We are going to be everything the islamofascists fear and hate, and we’re going to glory in it. We’re going to embody all the worst nightmares of those butt-ignorant ragheads in Al-Qaeda. We’re going to kill them, we’re going to subvert their children with MTV, and we’re going to teach their women to wear clingy clothing and say “fuck me” and “fuck you” to men whenever they damn well feel like it.
And, sister? Here’s my ha ha only serious, offered in the same spirit as yours. You are a warrior. I salute you. And if you want to commit exactly the kind of scandalous, adulterous, hedonistic, casual sex best calculated to drive fascists and patriarchs up a wall sometime, I’m your guy. You can be on top.
I see you’ve bought into the myth that Islam is targetting the West because they dissaprove of our morals. And that’s clearly the myth the inspiration for this blog bought into as well. How shallow. It’s really only a reflection of how superior you think you and your culture are. Sad comment on your worldview, but all too common. There are actually a whole range of factors that have Muslims upset with the West, and Muslim critics of the West are not all bearded, turbanned mullahs bent on female circumcision. Some of them are highly educated, and have a good handle on Western culture. Some suicide bombers in Israel have higher degrees. So, no, Western hedonism – which you apparently consider the apex of our culture – is not primarily what motivates Muslim hatred for America. It’s not what makes non-Muslim Arabs upset with us. No, the main factor in turning Muslim, and other Arabs’ hatred and anger toward us is our domination of Middle Eastern politics through the aegis of Israel. I admit: it’s hard to say whether Israel or America is really calling the shots in this. But what is clear is that the Arab world views Israel/America as an inseparable entity. Have you never heard Zionist/American/Britain used as an noun by Arabs? Pay attention: it is used that way. Why? What do Palestinians see when the superior Israeli army units overwhelm them? American artillery, American weaponry. Do you know what would happen to the Israeli economy if America were to stop sending economic aid? It would collapse immediately. Do you hear any Israelis speak, and note they have no accent? That is because they grew up in America – and maybe live here most of the time. Is it any wonder that Palestinians and Arabs who see these people in their midst and who are dominated by them – though so much less populous – conisder that it is really America who is responsible for dominating them? Wake up, man. Israel is the primary source of America’s unpopularity among Arabs, and it is the primary reason that terrorists are attacking us. Give your readers some substance on this issue, not the hedonistic drivel you’re trying to force on us here.
Yes, Israel is used in connection with the united states now. and as a Canadian free from american propogana I cannot condone everyhing the states does and in fact am activley againt much of it’s activites. However, Israel does not dominate Palestine. THe only reason it is even involved in those areas ( i cannot say country, for Palestine is not and has never been a country) is because of the terror that fundementalist inflict on area. As the only democracy in the middle east, it must defend itself to countries who openly say “they wish to drive Israel into the sea.” Palestine has reccently voted in Hamas, a blatantly terroist organization so I don’t really understand what they expect from Israel. Israel has no dominance over politics in the middle east. If Israel did have any power there, pherhaps the Middle east would be a pleasent place to visit. And for the question of the Jews “– rootless, cosmopolitan, urbane, commercial, and (in anti-Semitic propaganda) sexual seducer of the pure”- it is interesting how that definition can be applied to the whole of western society now. In the film “believer”, where a Jewish boy grows up to be a Neo-nazi, the same sentiments, (the whole world being Jewish) is also expressed. It is sad that the Jew is now recognized as seinfield. It would be wrong to limit Jews to this superficial definition . The Jew is also the biggest supporter of family and education. Don’t forget that the Jew and the Muslim are cousins. Abraham has 2 sons- Issac and Ishmael. Pherhaps this is all just one overblown , family feud.
Also, while rereadin the post by ‘none’, Americans need to wake up and realize that they have had VERY FEW terroist attacks. Yes 9/11 was horrible and disgusting. What was done on that day is mirrored by ameria to many other countries on A DAILY BASIS. Israel is not the cause of terror on America, America is the cause of terror on America. America stands for great values, but the Bush adminsitration is seriously screwing up. I am a supporter of Israel, because I belive in freedom, but even though Bush economically supports Israel, please get that cowboy out of the white house. I agree that arabs hate America partly because they identify it with Israel, which is sad because it just shows a kind of extention or transfer of hatred. The real question is WHY arabs hate Israel. My guess is because their textbooks tell them that if you have 5 jews and kill 2, 3 are left.
if u want to understand why arabs (and other nations -me Turk) hate israil
watch pictures of bodies thet israil airplanes killed.
freedom
who did invite these jews to middle east
if u like them so much why didnt u kept them with u in europe and canada
This is pure jewish racism at hand. Yes jews will try anything to save their anachronistic way of life. Jews are either extremely uptight about sex and gender, encouraging male-female seperation or “loose,” advocating sleaze, which still emphasizes gender apartheid. In fact the jewish religion died out because it’s all about apartheid, apartness from nature, from others, from women, from children, in some weird belief in being closer to an entity that might not even exist. Muslims obviously love sex even more than catholics…lots of big families, lots of wives, lots of orgasms. Only Betty Friedan and other jewish women can’t have orgasms because they have grown up under intense abuse from thier jewish elders, men and women.
hahaha muslims having lots of orgasms… and you think the jews are uptight about sex? The again, this might be true. Muslim men seem to have such a hard time not raping their women that they are forced to cover them up lest they be seduced by a tuft of hair.
The author makes a good point of Western culture subverting the muslim tradition with our values and freedom. I know many “good” muslims that drink alcohol, date, and live free from religious oppression. Ultimately, the parallel society will embrace western values and reject the traditionalists and racist imans.
Uh, just wanted to point out to anybody who didn’t notice, but Jews are FROM the middle east. And thumbing your nose at groups morals to symbolically get their goat does not automatically mean that you are assuming their dislike of you is based on your moral differences.
Though now that I look closer at some of these other comments I’m wondering why I bothered to say anything. I’m not in the mood to write a point by point refutation of what seems wrongheaded to me here. And I don’t have anything new to add to the commentary.
To esr:
Another nice entry. I’d add myself to the list of people throwing their sexuality in the faces of extremist Muslims but I’m too repressed by the traditions of my own conservative upbringing…
“Jesus said I am not here to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them” If you believe in that statement then you are a Jew. For Christ was speaking of Jewish law. And Christianity descended from this law.
“We are all Jews now” was a statement made a jew whose name escapes me, get get sympathy so we fight their culture war against Arabs, some of whom are Christians
Google it and I’m sure you’ll find the quote