Monday, May 22, 2006

The hollow men


We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
[..]
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.


Within a few months we've see the western elite at once censor facts about Islam while sanctioning an industry of the most destructive fictions about Christianity. They forbid laughter at Islamic culture; they encourage mockery of their own. A measure of their impious, unserious, cowardly culture is the defense they mount once any criticism comes -- that blasphemy aimed at Christianity is just good fodder for entertainment and grist for navel-gazing criticism.

The elite would never use skepticism and relativism as a defense for subjecting Islam to half-baked, provocative, and obscene speculation. But that's what they immediately use to silence and confuse Christians who object to such speculation about Christianity, and it works to a great extent since even Christians in a secularized culture come to accept everything as "debatable," a chance for "dialogue," and a test of whether they can humor criticism without looking unfashionable and foolish.

3 comments:

The Darkroom said...

Certainly those most offended by the "blasphemy", rather than ignoring the whole damn thing, have done all they could to ensure the commercial successs of the film. I say it's high time for a Serrano documentary in your local cinemaplex.

Tecumseh said...

Yeah, sure -- also, ignore the attacks on NY, Bali, Madrid, London, etc, right? Self-flagellate, while at it? Go on bended knee? Put sackloth and ashes, with a rope around the neck, in the glorious tradition of the bourgeois from Calais?

The Darkroom said...

i don't see the connection here...