Tipton
Like Theodore Dalrymple, I disapprove of the contempt for the West that is all-too-common among our intellectuals and cultural elite. I agree that it can do real damage, and can lead impressionable people astray. It is dishonorable and, almost as bad, it is overwhelmingly mistaken.
Yet it seems to me that his often-linked piece in the Spectator credits this pathology with rather too much power, and ultimately misses the real issue. Dalrymple's claim is that intellectual anti-Westernism, coupled with the dreary experience of the suburban cultural wasteland, inevitably leads to the sort of alienation that creates people like the Tipton al-Qaeda (two of the young Britons being held at Camp X-ray, both of whom grew up in Tipton in England's Black Country.) Having experienced nothing of Western civilization other than living in God-forsaken Tipton ("a pimple on the backside of modern British consumer society") and provided with a ready explanation for this dreariness by the casuistic mantras of the multi-culturalist elite, it's no great surprise that they are drawn to the anti-Western nihilism of Islamo-fascism. They have simply taken the self-hating intellectual at his word, turning his disingenuous anti-Western theory into murderous anti-Western practice:
Those who claim to hate and despise themselves for good and sufficient reasons will very soon enough be taken at their word by others, in the most literal sense, particularly by those who believe themselves to be in possession of an all-embracing creed. Far from promoting reconciliation and tolerance, therefore, multiculturalism breeds contempt, hatred and violence, especially in places like Tipton, which do not represent the pinnacle of Western achievement. Every multiculturalist is a recruiting officer for al-Qa’eda.
Dalrymple, however, betrays a considerable elitism of his own. What is it that is so dreadful about Tipton, what horrors render it so unlivable that murderous nihilism is the only predictable answer? Shell suits (those shiny athletic warm-up outfits), designer trainers (shoes), baseball caps, Radio 1, supermarkets, MacDonalds, mobile phones, all the hallmarks of consumer culture; an "uncouth and uncultured" society "in which people [do] not know how to dress with dignity or self-respect, to eat well, or even to enjoy themselves in a sociable fashion." "A way of life," he writes, "has emerged that is utterly charmless and that no sensible person would wish to emulate."
Now I've never been to Tipton (though I have been to Fresno-- does that count?) I'm sure it's no earthly paradise. But are we really to believe that terrorism arises out of the anguish owing to the lack of "the amenities of a proper city?" (In this regard, John Walker Lindh is perhaps an example to the contrary, having grown up in the land of the double decaf lowfat almond mocha.) I'm guessing that the disaffected youth of such places do not, as a rule, share Dalrymple's aesthetic repugnance for baseball caps, shell suits, trainers and fast food. For all I know, they might like "fitted kitchen cupboards" as well. Indeed, in this part of his argument, Dalrymple appears to have projected his own aesthetic obsessions onto this question, like, in a way, those who tried to explain the 9/11 attacks as a result of this or that long-decried US policy. In a weird way, he is also engaging in his own sort of anti-Westernism: but, like it or not (and I admit, I like it), Western culture now includes McDonalds and baseball caps. At any rate, whatever it is that causes a nice British boy to decide to become a terrorist trainee, it's surely not simply a matter of bad taste.
The other prong of Dalrymple's explanation (the "multiculturalism" one) is slightly sharper, but it seems to me that he is still "projecting" to an extent. It is doubtful that anti-Western academics wield that much determinative power outside their own incestuous circles. I'm no fan of "multiculturalism" (or at any rate of the usual sort which is employed as a crude instrument with which to bash America and the West.) I would like to see our intellectual and chattering classes cease to be dominated by ideological anti-Americanism, to extoll the virtues and achievements of Western civilization along with its critiques. The moral underpinnings of Western civilization ought to be recognized and taught; patriotism should not be reflexively denigrated. Do I believe that this would prevent people like John Walker Lindh or the Tipton lads from signing up for terrorist duty at the local al-Qaeda recruitment center? No. I don't think we can tag "multiculturalism" as the "root cause."
I don't know enough about British education to comment on the Tipton lads, but in the case of John Walker Lindh, it seems to me that the problem was not a dearth of information on the glories of Western civilization, but rather the simple inability to tell right from wrong. This lack is not simply the failing of the individual sociopath, but rather it was shared by all who ought to have known better, parents, teachers, social institutions; and also, shamefully, it was shared by his would-be apologists in the local media, including in major papers like the SF Chronicle. (They are the ones, perhaps, who might have benefited from a Classical education in the Liberal Arts--but that clock can't be turned back either.)
From what I've read of John Walker Lindh, I get the impression that he was a guy who just wanted to be told what to do; this is something that his family and cultural milieu decidedly did not provide, hence the attraction of Islamo-fascism. It is a curious social problem. The kind of massive pedagogical overhaul that would be required to address it specifically and with sufficient thoroughness to neutralize every budding totalitarian of this type is not even remotely possible, even if it should be desirable (which is in fact doubtful.) Fortunately, practically all kids who grow up in Mill Valley and the Black Country alike, despite whatever anti-Western ideology or unattractive clothing they encounter, manage to avoid becoming Islamo-fascist rookie terrorists. By all means, attempt to increase their numbers by providing them with a less equivocal moral compass. Throw in some edifying information about Western achievements, too; it can't hurt. But for those poor sods who steadfastly refuse to remain harmless, I'm afraid it's one case where education isn't the answer. The answer is apprehension and punishment.
As for the larger question of how ultimately to limit the power of anti-Western and anti-American ideological currents: win the war.
Posted by Dr. Frank at February 4, 2002 09:42 AM | TrackBack