Posted on 06/23/2002 3:20:44 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
It was an unfortunate, and undeserved, fate. Bruckner's book is a vigorous indictment of "Third Worldism"-the odious species of romance that glorifies everything foreign, exotic, and primitive while simultaneously railing against civilization, science, and modernity. (That other social philosopher, W. S. Gilbert, was right to save a place on his famous list for "the idiot who praises with enthusiastic tone/ All centuries but this and every country but his own.")
The very power of Bruckner's indictment helps to explain its neglect. The message he brought was distinctly unwelcome music to the ears of politically correct intellectuals, whose smugness and sense of moral superiority, then as now, was inextricably bound up with the mendacities of Third Worldism and kindred specimens of emotional blackmail. (Just listen to Susan Sontag on Kosovo or Michael Ignatieff on Rwanda.) "Solidarity with oppressed peoples," Bruckner wrote, is above all a gigantic weapon aimed at the West. The logic of aggression is at work in Third World solidarity, and this has made it a continuation of the Cold War by other means. Being non-European is enough to put one on the side of right. Being European or being supported by a European power is enough to make one suspect. The bloody messes in banana republics, and butchery of political opposition and the dictatorial lunacy by their petty chieftains are all brushed aside. Such trifles will not restrain the progress of these peoples toward socialism. What seems criminal in Cuba, Angola, and Guinea has the real purpose of washing away the far greater crime of colonialism.
Clearly, Bruckner's message is as pertinent today as it was in the 1980s-more so, perhaps, since the attitudes it chronicles, if often less histrionic, are today more thoroughly institutionalized, more thoroughly absorbed into established opinion.
It is worth pointing out that, unlike many Third Worldists, Bruckner had firsthand knowledge of the problems about which he wrote. Having worked as a member of the International Action Against Hunger, he animated compassion with deeds. If this tempered his romanticism, it also sharpened his vision. Bruckner did not march arm-in-arm with Jean-Paul Sartre. He was not a beneficiary of UNESCO's extortionist escapades. He did not rail against Western oppression. He did not curse the evils of colonialism. On the contrary, he understood that the West's real crime was not pursuing but rather abandoning its responsibilities as a colonial power.
Part of what makes The Tears of the White Man such an important book is Bruckner's sensitivity to the aerodynamics of liberal guilt. He understands what launches it, what keeps it aloft, and how we might lure it safely back to earth. He understands that the entire phenomenon of Third Worldism is fueled by the moral ecstasy of overbred guilt. Bruckner is an articulate anatomist of such guilt and its attendant deceptions and mystifications. "An overblown conscience," he points out, "is an empty conscience." Compassion ceases if there is nothing but compassion, and revulsion turns to insensitivity. Our "soft pity," as Stefan Zweig calls it, is stimulated, because guilt is a convenient substitute for action where action is impossible. Without the power to do anything, sensitivity becomes our main aim, the aim is not so much to do anything, as to be judged. Salvation lies in the verdict that declares us to be wrong.
The universalization-which is to say the utter trivialization-of compassion is one side of Third Worldism. Another side is the inversion of traditional moral and intellectual values. Europe once sought to bring enlightenment-literacy, civil society, modern technology-to benighted parts of the world. It did so in the name of progress and civilization. The ethic of Third Worldism dictates that yesterday's enlightenment be rebaptized as today's imperialistic oppression. For the committed Third Worldist, Bruckner points out, salvation consists not only in a futile exchange of influences, but in the recognition of the superiority of foreign thought, in the study of their doctrines, and in conversion to their dogma. We must take on our former slaves as our models. . . . It is the duty and in the interest of the West to be made prisoner by its own barbarians.
Whatever the current object of adulation- the wisdom of the East, tribal Africa, Aboriginal Australia, pre-Columbian America -the message is the same: the absolute superiority of Otherness. The Third Worldist looks to the orient, to the tribal, to the primitive not for what they really are but for their evocative distance from the reality of modern European society and values.
It is all part of what Bruckner calls "the enchanting music of departure." Its siren call is seductive but also supremely mendacious. Indeed, the messy reality of the primitive world-its squalor and poverty, its penchant for cannibalism, slavery, gratuitous cruelty, and superstition-are carefully edited out of the picture. In their place we find a species of Rousseauvian sentimentality. Rousseau is the patron saint of Third Worldism. "Ignoring the real human race entirely," Rousseau wrote in a passage Bruckner quotes from the Confessions, "I imagined perfect beings, with heavenly virtue and beauty, so sure in their friendship, so tender and faithful, that I could never find anyone like them in the real world." The beings with whom Rousseau populated his fantasy life are exported to exotic lands by the Third Worldist. As Rousseau discovered, the unreality of the scenario, far from being an impediment to moral smugness, was an invaluable asset. Reality, after all, has a way of impinging upon fantasy, clipping its wings, limiting its exuberance. So much the worse, then, for reality. As Bruckner notes, in this romance adepts "were not looking for a real world but the negation of their own. . . . An eternal vision is projected on these nations that has nothing to do with their real history." [End Excerpt]
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Zimbabwe denies land grab by ruling elite - Colonel Muammar Gadaffi taking his cut*** HARARE, Zimbabwe - Allegations that top politicians and ruling party elite took confiscated white-owned land intended for the landless and impoverished were "patently stupid and indecent," a government spokesman said Thursday. However, ruling party officials were not excluded from a program to allocate seized land to some 54,000 new black commercial farmers, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said in a statement. A report compiled by farmers that was distributed Thursday said hundreds of senior officials, ruling party supporters, military, police and intelligence officers, and even journalists in the state media were allocated plots ranging in size from a few acres (hectares) to farms of thousands of acres (hectares).***
Mugabe dishes out goodies to cronies*** "The United Nations says this is our longest dry spell in 20 years, and yet all our dams are almost 80 percent full. Our dams are so full because the water has not been used to irrigate crops. There are no crops in the ground because government supporters stopped farmers from growing food because they wanted the land for their masters - and now 6 million people face starvation. What a sickening irony." Buckle said that last week, Zimbabwean Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said that any white farmer who did not put a crop of wheat into the ground would have his farm listed for seizure. ***
"I'm not sure where the minister has been these last two years, because he has already listed 95 percent of Zimbabwe's farms for government takeover," Buckle explained. "There are now only 308 farms in the entire country not listed for state seizure. Neither Dr. Made nor any of his officials are prepared to offer any written guarantees to a farmer that he will be able to grow, reap and sell his wheat before the government moves in and takes the farm over. The 6 million starving Zimbabweans have Dr. Made and his government to thank for their plight. We have become like Somalia and Ethiopia and are holding out our begging bowls to the world. A world that would rather feed us than help us to get a democratic government who care for their people."
Mugabe's hungry and unpaid stormtroopers threaten violent revolt***"We've turned ourselves into killers and thugs - and for what?" asked David, 35. "We have no money, no jobs and no future. All we have are hungry stomachs and bad dreams about what we've done." He described the missions of murder, abduction and arson on which he sent young men and women earlier this year to help keep Mugabe in power. "We did everything they wanted," he said. "We won the election for them, but they have treated us no better than donkeys. They have used us and thrown us away." .... "I don't want to do those things any more," said Sam. "My parents are so unhappy." David added: "We're in a jail of our own - never free to leave and always being punished for what we do. We'll never have our lives back until Mugabe is gone." ***
Zimbabwe should not be an exception***In the face of a stubborn and credible opposition Mugabe cannot successfully employ the same tactics he has used in the past to destroy opposition parties. This one is synonymous with the people of Zimbabwe and is therefore indestructible. Fifteen years ago, when Mugabe was still considered a hero, he could have counted on many countries to voluntarily rally to his cause. Now he is reduced to blackmailing some African states into endorsing his neurotic leadership.
They do this to cover up their own shame and embarrassment because when your fellow black brother or sister behaves as abominably as Mugabe has done, the immediate reaction is to cover up in the face of fierce external condemnation. There is this strange perception in Africa that as soon as non-black people condemn a black leader's behaviour, there should be a show of solidarity by other blacks. How about universal principles that bind together our collective humanity regardless of colour? When a black leader bankrupts his country by pursuing foolish policies he/she must be condemned.***
Africa disgusts me.
And i just seen another commercial on tv as well Feed little hadji just for the price of a cup of coffee a day and he will have shoes and school and plenty to eat and the sun will shine and all his hair will grow back Jeeze give me a break if all the donations that people make to africa and other countrys actually made it there they would all be driving mercedes and drinking budweiser by now !
I don't mind giving where there is a need. But for GODs sake, take responsibility man. Forever Africa has been a basket case. Agriculturally, economically, morrally etc.
These people there are just pathetic. And like North Korea, people like me everywhere are tired of throwing good monies after bad. For what purpose? Aid will be wasted or stolen by those in power which means those with the most guns. The aid doesn't get to the people that need it most.
Here in America we have people going hungry. Take a trip through Appalachia or through the back woods of Alabama. The hell with Africa, take care of America and Americans first.
Bump!
And now they wonder why they're starving.
Gee, I can't imagine. (/extreme sarcasm)
The "Dark Continent" has nobody but themselves to blame...their corruption, slave trade and inability to self govern are the major tools of famine...
GRRRRRollin' FOR BUSH and the USA!!!
In the case of Africa - which houses some of the most fertile farming ground in the world - it was caused by Mugabe's call to drive WHITE farmers off their lands. These same WHITE farmers were driven from their land and killed, their farms ravaged, fields and equipment burned & destroyed.
They did it to themselves.
Mugabe has no problem calling his opposition racially motivated. It shuts people up and plays to the brain-dead LIBERALS! That label stings and he uses it to cover his real agenda, a communist Africa. He clouds the facts using racial hot buttons to his advantage. Even the theft of farms from whites isn't a racist endeavor, it's being done to take private land and put it into the hands of the government. Stealing private property has hurt the black Zimbabweans as much, if not more than the whites. These Third World dictators only want power obtained through oppression.
Management of food supplies is mismanagement. If people are allowd to grow and keep food they will go where they can grow food and survive. If the United Nations or any other so called organization tries to manage food supplies there is always disaster.
Bump!
They can't manage squat! They're politically motivated and use their position and ideology as wantonly as Mugabe uses food, to promote their agenda.
Instead, God gave her children. Win some; lose some!
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