Catching up on the magazines that got crammed into the mailbox while I was away...
There's an interesting article in a (relatively recent) New Republic by Martin Peretz on Islamo-fascist rhetoric and parallels from the Spanish Civil War, particularly the twin nihilistic slogans Viva la muerte ("long live death") and Abajo la inteligencia ("down with intelligence,") the rallying cries of one of Franco's generals, Millan Astray.
one day... the Festival of the Race--a Fascist contrivance--was being celebrated at the University of Salamanca... in the presence of the bishop, the civil governor, Senora Franco, and Millan Astray. In the chair as rector of the university was one of the not inconsiderable number of intellectuals who, appalled by the Communist takeover of the Republic and by Republican atrocities, had gone over to the rebels. He was the great classicist and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, known to us primarily as the author of The Tragic Sense of Life, the leading spirit of Spain's Generation of '98, an ornament of civilization itself. But Millan Astray shouted the usual demented words nonetheless."Just now," Unamuno intoned, "I have heard a necrophilious and senseless cry: `Long live death.' And I, who have spent my life shaping paradoxes ... I must tell you that this outlandish paradox is repellent." He went on a bit about the Fascist indulgence of mutilation and destruction, and then Millan Astray once again shouted, "Down with intelligence!" And Unamuno left the ceremonial hall. On the morrow he was placed under house arrest. And within a few months he was dead.
Too few--far too few--voices from the religious, political, and intellectual citadels of the Islamic world have raised such a blunt and eloquent protest today. Only days before we all saw bin Laden laughing at death, Prince Nayef--the Interior Minister of Saudi Arabia, the country whose idle rich financed September 11, and around which Colin Powell has fabricated a sham coalition--explained that "no one has found any proof" that 15 Saudis participated in the attacks. The media tell us over and over that these murderers are marginal, just Osama bin Laden and a few scattered look-alikes. But our serenity says more about America's tendency to project its liberal assumptions onto other societies than about any deep understanding of the forces at play in the Muslim world. A closer, harder look would show that the Millan Astrays are not marginal at all. "Down with intelligence" and "Long live death," I fear, are rousing the masses once more.
Also in that issue, is this editorial, which contains the following "quotable quote:"
even the secretary of state did not fall for Arafat's ploy. "It's been clear from the beginning that we have had many words pass back and forth," Colin Powell said, "and now we... have to see action." Has Yasir Arafat lost the support of the Department of State? Few stranger things could have happened, if indeed this has happened; but this is a season of strange things."Posted by Dr. Frank at January 11, 2002 12:12 AM | TrackBack