Two dinners

[erudito]

At short notice, went to the IPA’s 2006 H V McKay lecture. Was given a free place at the Melbourne Liberal Club table. Had pleasant time chatting to Andrew K. The other Melbourne Liberal Club folk at the table were the sort of testosterone-ridden boors who, as a group, must be walking recruiters to left-of-centre politics. Andrew informed me

Comments

Bigots and Bigotry

[anonymous]

Am very struck with this dichotomy. Waleed Aly made a fair point recently how the West is in a state of moral panic about jihadis (yes, Waleed, and as long as you are prepared to admit that the threat is real we will be OK with this), but went on to point out that Muslim female clothing has been a point of obsession for Westerners for differing reasons. (Yes, they are subhuman, but also erotically fascinating etc) For those of us who actually KNOW any Muslim women, both mystic appeal and threat evaporate.

But how much MORE true this is of the gangsta-jihadis! The seven defendants in London's big trial at the moment all agreed that a nightclub would be a good thing to blow up because Western women are all slags and hence guilty as charged. What these guys do not admit in public is that they are obsessed with and fascinated by Western women, even though they are by definition subhuman and evil. And their war on Western women is driven by the fact that OK, if they are sexually available, why aren't they available to me???? (Answer: because you are a repulsive hoon with all the sex appeal of a motorway cafe). Hard to escape the conclusion that their problem is Orientalism manque. Should we call this Occidentalism? Edward Said's dwindling band of adherents please note..... Dafydd

Re: Bigots and Bigotry

[erudito]

Hard to escape the conclusion that their problem is Orientalism manque. Should we call this Occidentalism?
The short answer is yes, see here and here