I don’t recall the hesitation after the Bataclan Massacre, but I do remember the hand-wringing after Charlie Hebdo, and the attempts to say that their staff “deserved it” by misinterpreting their cartoons.
But that also raises a question about your article: The founders and editors of Charlie Hebdo *also* were considered children of the 1968 uprising, yet they were on the other end of the gun in 2015. Were there other ideas and influences with the students who participated in 1968, that did not rely on inverting “oppressor” and “oppressed”?
I’m sure you meant to imply that October 7th, 2023 was a turning point for the United States, with people like Gabriel Winant saying that the victims have been “pre-grieved”, not only minimizing them but also the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust (I’m not kidding; read what he wrote and said at the time. Even if it is time to find other things to say in the face of antisemitism, this is pure ghoulishness). It is depressing that this ideology has only grown stronger, but I am an optimist at heart, and simply saying, frequently, “this/you are crazy and you are abetting murder” will be enough. Eventually.
Yea, do the French did feel residual guilt re the holocaust they laid off on Germans so easily? But still, If fellow French deserved terrorist death for colonial depredations of a national past they did not inhabit, is it time close that project? As the old American country western song goes is it a "Turn out the lights the Party is over " moment? At a minimum, it is a "please beat us some more shtick. You accept martyrdom for past sins and deny legitimate agency to resist it..
iDK how far these ideas carry in France. They don't go deep in U.S. The 68s plus the young, post modernist, colonial regret intellectual class is far less influential. In addition, the U.S. was never a serious colonial power and its Military forces do not lack the strength or size to resist.
Many/most of us can see that we are increasingly in danger of Islamist terror. And yet we pretend it’s not a growing problem. We are frogs swimming in warming water.
I can't help but think of Girard here. Without a mechanism for controlling guilt, the natural tendency for society is to evolve grotesque and barbaric sacrifice rituals in a futile attempt to "balance the scales". The receding influence of Christianity is revealing exactly that.
I had no idea the fake intellectuals of higher indoctrination in France blamed the victims for this appalling massacre. That is a most disgusting response. Words fail me.
Your perspicasious intuitions regarding the moral bankruptcy of people with no skin in the game posing as moral judges of the dead is incisive and cuts to the heart of the matter..
Zineb, I'm wondering if you know Hussein Aboubakr Mansour and his work. He has been touching on some similar themes, particularly Third Worldism and decolonization, and he plumbs very deeply. His most recent piece is in moral sadism. I think you would enjoy each other's perspectives and ideas.
I agree wrt the toxic nature of Post colonialism as an obstacle in fighting off the jihadists gaining ground in North America and Western Europe to a dangerous extent (although I wonder why you didn't mention Frantz Fanon in this context).
But I think that France and the US faught absolutely senseless wars in Indochina (let alone NATO's 20 years lasting war in Afghanistan). And that the outrage of intellectuals wrt these wars was partly honest and heart felt. So accuse me of "bothsidism", but in this case it seems to be the only way to result in a balanced judgement.
Very interesting to hear about this reaction in France. My sense from the UK and Germany had been that the reaction to 9/11 & 7/7 (and perhaps even Charlie Hebdo) was as you described here. However, something changed with Islamic State, both due to its undeniable self-advertisement of cruelty and the fact it was fighting the Kurds. Thus, IS attacks triggered a much clearer condemnation on the left.
I don’t recall the hesitation after the Bataclan Massacre, but I do remember the hand-wringing after Charlie Hebdo, and the attempts to say that their staff “deserved it” by misinterpreting their cartoons.
But that also raises a question about your article: The founders and editors of Charlie Hebdo *also* were considered children of the 1968 uprising, yet they were on the other end of the gun in 2015. Were there other ideas and influences with the students who participated in 1968, that did not rely on inverting “oppressor” and “oppressed”?
I’m sure you meant to imply that October 7th, 2023 was a turning point for the United States, with people like Gabriel Winant saying that the victims have been “pre-grieved”, not only minimizing them but also the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust (I’m not kidding; read what he wrote and said at the time. Even if it is time to find other things to say in the face of antisemitism, this is pure ghoulishness). It is depressing that this ideology has only grown stronger, but I am an optimist at heart, and simply saying, frequently, “this/you are crazy and you are abetting murder” will be enough. Eventually.
I heard the same excuses from Europeans in particular and leftists in general after 9-11.
Yea, do the French did feel residual guilt re the holocaust they laid off on Germans so easily? But still, If fellow French deserved terrorist death for colonial depredations of a national past they did not inhabit, is it time close that project? As the old American country western song goes is it a "Turn out the lights the Party is over " moment? At a minimum, it is a "please beat us some more shtick. You accept martyrdom for past sins and deny legitimate agency to resist it..
iDK how far these ideas carry in France. They don't go deep in U.S. The 68s plus the young, post modernist, colonial regret intellectual class is far less influential. In addition, the U.S. was never a serious colonial power and its Military forces do not lack the strength or size to resist.
Many/most of us can see that we are increasingly in danger of Islamist terror. And yet we pretend it’s not a growing problem. We are frogs swimming in warming water.
I can't help but think of Girard here. Without a mechanism for controlling guilt, the natural tendency for society is to evolve grotesque and barbaric sacrifice rituals in a futile attempt to "balance the scales". The receding influence of Christianity is revealing exactly that.
Thank you Zineb for posting this. I've also written about the Bataclan massacre:
https://substack.com/@thelasthedonists/p-178743087
I had no idea the fake intellectuals of higher indoctrination in France blamed the victims for this appalling massacre. That is a most disgusting response. Words fail me.
Your perspicasious intuitions regarding the moral bankruptcy of people with no skin in the game posing as moral judges of the dead is incisive and cuts to the heart of the matter..
Zineb, I'm wondering if you know Hussein Aboubakr Mansour and his work. He has been touching on some similar themes, particularly Third Worldism and decolonization, and he plumbs very deeply. His most recent piece is in moral sadism. I think you would enjoy each other's perspectives and ideas.
Here is a link to his latest piece: https://open.substack.com/pub/critiqueanddigest/p/the-age-of-moral-sadism
I agree wrt the toxic nature of Post colonialism as an obstacle in fighting off the jihadists gaining ground in North America and Western Europe to a dangerous extent (although I wonder why you didn't mention Frantz Fanon in this context).
But I think that France and the US faught absolutely senseless wars in Indochina (let alone NATO's 20 years lasting war in Afghanistan). And that the outrage of intellectuals wrt these wars was partly honest and heart felt. So accuse me of "bothsidism", but in this case it seems to be the only way to result in a balanced judgement.
Very interesting to hear about this reaction in France. My sense from the UK and Germany had been that the reaction to 9/11 & 7/7 (and perhaps even Charlie Hebdo) was as you described here. However, something changed with Islamic State, both due to its undeniable self-advertisement of cruelty and the fact it was fighting the Kurds. Thus, IS attacks triggered a much clearer condemnation on the left.