Postmodern Jihad: What Osama bin Laden learned from the Left.

The Weekly Standard ^ | 11/26/2001 | Waller R. Newell

[anniegetyourgun]

Wooo--eeee - Waller was on fire when he did this one! My computer was smokin' as I read it....

[Molly Pitcher]

WOWzers!! Much to digest here!

[The Grammarian]

I'm amazed that there's more of a connection between these Islamist terrorists and our good ol' leftist pals than I thought -- I thought that it was primarily the leftists' fault to begin with, but, wow!

This proves it, postmodernism is evil (as if we didn't know that already).

TG

[ramdalesh]

Great paper. I don't know anything about Hiedegger, and now finally have a resean to find out more.

Marx and Lenin both believed that the communist revolution must be international in order to survive. If Al Queda truly is the first international communist regime/revolution then Lenin and Marx would most likely predict World Socialism as a result of their uprising.

Go here On Suicide by Karl Marx, to further indulge the topic of European Leftism influencing Al Queda idealogy.

[Shermy]

Excellent. Great find.

He should consider adding Said-ian anti-Orientalism and its effects.

[Lexington Green]

Kill a commie for mommy... bad ideas are always an enemy

[Fiddlstix]

Good Post!
Thank You!

[RLK]

The aim of violent struggle is "giving all our people the opportunity to determine their fate." But that fate must follow the prescribed course: "We do not hide our commitment to the rule of Islam, . . . which alone guarantees justice and dignity for all and prevents any new imperialist attempt to infiltrate our country. . . .

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It's the same old shit. You gain the freedom to do anything somebody else wants you to do.

[XBob]

1- WOW - "Heavily influenced by Heidegger and Sartre, Foucault was typical of postmodernist socialists in having neither concrete political aims nor the slightest interest in tangible economic grievances as motives for revolution. To him, the appeal of revolution was aesthetic and voyeuristic: "a violence, an intensity, an utterly remarkable passion." For Foucault as for Fanon, Hezbollah, and the rest down to Osama, the purpose of violence is not to relieve poverty or adjust borders. Violence is an end in itself. Foucault exalts it as "the craving, the taste, the capacity, the possibility of an absolute sacrifice." In this, he is at one with Osama's followers, who claim to love death while the Americans "love Coca-Cola." "

[Republican_Strategist]

Resource: Clinton's Bin Laden GATE - Mother of all Scandals

[Hugh Akston]

ping a ding ding

[truth_seeker]

At the end of all of the "iltellectual" investigation, it is simple. The reasons for bin Laden's madness are Karl Marx and Mohammed, founder of Islam.

[stands2reason]

Great find, Poke. I was wondering why obl had the Marxist claptrap down pat. Now it's obvious why the university neomarxists are playing the part of "pacifists" again. They ARE on obl's side. They ARE seditious. They ARE traitors. Just like the "pacifists" during the Vietnam War. They only want one side "pacified." Our side.

[Number_Cruncher]

Now we see why the Left loves the Taliban. They are soulmates.

[annalex]

The Left is the Left is the Left. Whether they are traditionalist like the ayatollahs, or modernist like Mao or the French, is of secondary importance. They are united in the fundamental belief in the primacy of the collective over the individual, from which one gets the lust for violence and death worship.

[livius]

Excellent article. I have frequently thought in the last few weeks that it would not be surprising to see leftists begin to convert to Islam. It has everything they like: authoritarianism, irrationality, violence, and a heavily collectivist bent.

Interestingly enough, when the Spanish police broke up an al-Qaeda cell in Spain last week, the leader was found to be a Spaniard who had converted to Islam. His pre-Muslim background? Active in HB, the political wing of the Marxist Basque-separatist terrorist group ETA. That same day, I read about Hugo Chavez, the left wing dictator of Venezuela, praising bin Laden.

The doors between Marxism and Islam, in other words, open both ways, and I think the result is going to be an unbelievably dangerous and violent force. What makes it even worse is that several generations of American intellectuals, mentally deconstructed out of any ability to have a coherent thought, will be able to offer no leadership or resistence. (But then, I guess I really didn't expect much out of them anyway.)

Very thought provoking article, and a very good analysis.

[Cicero]

It's a mystery to me how postmodernist intellectuals in our universities can worship people like Nietzsche, Heiddeger, Foucault, and Paul De Man, not to speak of the recent vogue for the Marquis de Sade. Ideas have consequences.

[RLK]

"Heavily influenced by Heidegger and Sartre, Foucault was typical of postmodernist socialists in having neither concrete political aims nor the slightest interest in tangible economic grievances as motives for revolution. To him, the appeal of revolution was aesthetic and voyeuristic: "a violence, an intensity, an utterly remarkable passion."

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This is the essential of the problem. In the old days of the political left the movement was aimed at procuging some sort of touted economic improvement.

In the last 40 years revolution has become a diffuse emotional expression of and underlying diffuse emotional condition with no specific goals, no way of negotiating to achieve those goals, and no real concrete goals to satisfy. Therfore the revolution is endless.

The present leftist political condition is much like angry little kids playing cops and robbers using real weapons instead of toy guns. They are caught up in the emotional experience of the game. University faculties are composed of bored people in comfortable positions with comfortable lack of concrete responsibility, with comfortable salaries, seeking excitement, importance, and directin by making revolution. But it's not a real knock down drag out revolution they want. It's only a revolution where opther people are not allowed to shoot back.

[anniegetyourgun]

Yep....and Clinton was singing Binny's song not long ago...remember?