October 16, 2004
Winston Review, No. 15
"Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn;
Of polish'd ivory this, that of transparent horn:
True visions thro' transparent horn arise;
Thro' polish'd ivory pass deluding lies."
-- Virgil, The Aeneid, Book VI, 19 BC
The BBC is to air a documentary series whose subject is described by the Guardian as "the making of the terror myth." The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear sounds to be yet another apologist's paroxysm of creepy, infantile equivocation masquerading as reportage. To compare Sayyid Qutb to Leo Strauss is beneath contempt let alone comment. To describe terror as a myth is to deny the massacres at Bali and at Beslan and at Darfur and in so many places I cannot name because the torture and death was insufficiently catastrophic to merit our attention. What we know is enough. I despair of anyone who could have lived through that day in September and refuse to accept responsibility for what must be done. We cannot change the fate of every falling body whose story ended in loss and fear and confusion as to just what was going on. Even the least of us without the skill to take up arms owe them the debt of truth: there was murder and the minds that conceived this ruin would murder the rest of us. All too many would call this a "myth" and I have lost all capacity for surprise that it should be so. We have heard this story before and we will hear this story again and every time we do we must remember the truth the Guardian and the BBC and their fellow travellers would have us forget.
We must remember. Information Clearing House hosts video footage from the lobby of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. We hear the screams of "people on fire... burning" and hear the sound of bodies hitting the awning overhead.
This truth is no fantasy but a nightmare. Yet despite its horror it troubles me less to address this reality than to credit the fantasy world the Guardian and the BBC and their proxy documentarians would lead us back to. The Winston Review is a Flea-feature intended to offer spirited, uplifting alternatives to the defeatists and apologists of the mainstream media. This week's Review is a stern reminder. We must pass through the Gate of Horn. There is another Troy for them to burn.
This week in the Red Box:
Mistaken Identities and Mistaken Notions: Being American in T.O. asks: Which is the better representation of a person's views: the one they say to your face, or the one they say behind your back?
John Quincy Adams Knew Jihad: Andrew Boston claims President Adams "possessed a remarkably clear, uncompromised understanding of the permanent Islamic institutions of jihad war and dhimmitude." This one left we wondering at the status of anti-Christ in Islamic theology... (via lgf).
Ronald Cartland: Mike Campbell teaches me the name of the Commander of 209 Battery at the defence of Cassel.
Why This Lifelong Jewish Liberal is Voting Republican: The Command Post publishes an essay citing the sage Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
Politics In Modern America: Dean's World writer, Zsallia Marieko is irritated: "You live not in a virtual utopia, but in a very real and tangible utopia, yet you still find reason to complain." While I disagree with Marieko's opinion that the United States does not face the greatest disaster since WWII the rest is worth considering.
An Interview With Dr. Barnett: Flit(tm) interviews the author of The Pentagon's New Map (via Winds of Change).
Remarks by Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Rudy Giuliani says "the idea that you can have an acceptable level of terrorism is frightening" (via andunie.net).
The Therapeutic Choice: Victor Davis Hanson offers advice those who subscribe to a "therapeutic" view of the GWOT: read the fatwas (via lgf).
Homage to Afghanistan: ideofact points out that for CBS "the war on terror was already on the verge of failure a mere two days after it started."
The Case for Fearmongering: Charles Krauthammer argues that "never in American history has fear been a more appropriate feeling."
The Quality of Mersey: Mark Steyn had a column pulled from the Telegraph. This is it (via Argghhh!!!).
Voting for Bush, Rooting for Kerry (Comment): a comment to a post at Winds of Change hopes for a clear victor in the forthcoming Presidential election lest the left turn to violence and the professoriate attempt to provide legitimacy to that violence. It is a legitimate concern but not so unprecedented as the writer appears to believe. Senator Kerry is, after all, a man of the generation that produced the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground. This generation has yet to manage a matching stupidity.
Yet.
Your courage. Your cheerfulness. Your resolution.
Will bring us Victory.
You have completely missed the point of the documentary. The series looks at how fear has been used to accentuate the danger of terrorism in modern society. The narrator doesnt reject the notion of terror but simply makes the point that we, the people, are kept in line by our leaders through the fear of attacks that will never occur.
It really shows how pitiful your argument is that you have to draw up images of 9/11 to reinforce your point. Of course that was a devastating event but we cant all live under the shadow of 9/11 for the rest of our lives.
Posted by: JOHN LE TALLEC at October 21, 2004 09:23 AMMr. Le Tallec, my only reservation at posting about the documentary is that I have had to rely on two second-hand accounts of its content. From your reply it sounds as though I understood it completely.
Your use of the word "but" in the last sentence of your comment illustrates my point better than anything I could have said.
Posted by: Flea at October 21, 2004 09:34 AM