From jfgannon@cloud9.net Thu Mar 8 08:17:08 2001 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW00.12) with ESMTP id IAA39892 for ; Thu, 8 Mar 2001 08:17:06 -0800 Received: from russian-caravan.cloud9.net (russian-caravan.cloud9.net [168.100.1.4]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id IAA15630 for ; Thu, 8 Mar 2001 08:08:08 -0800 Received: from jfgannon (203-180.dialup.cloud9.net [168.100.203.180]) by russian-caravan.cloud9.net (Postfix) with SMTP id D1E9C28CD0 for ; Thu, 8 Mar 2001 11:06:50 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <001d01c0a7ea$9458b040$b4cb64a8@jfgannon> From: "J.F. Gannon" To: References: Subject: Re: Taliban (noch einmal) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 11:12:31 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Interesting. One would only like to suggest that those with such views go off to convert those sincere people in Afghanistan so they could practice their zealotry on behalf of the true faith. Of course they might encounter some resistance. JFG ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Chase" To: Cc: Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 2:46 AM Subject: Re: Taliban (noch einmal) > At 2:23 AM +0100 on 08/03/01, J.F. Gannon wrote: > > > Don't take this as a critical comment but is there really any controversy > > about this in these parts? I mean will Ms. Gross manage to get someone to > > take a pro-Taliban (Taleban? I have seen it both ways.) position? > > M.C.: I have seen a fair amount of pro-Taliban comment on the Net. > Interestingly, most if not all has come from Christians on the ideological > right. The general drift of the arguments has been as follows: "You > namby-pamby liberals whine about the disappearance of *art* - as if that > was important! - but the Taliban are acting not just out of some effete > elitist aestheticism, but out of * religious belief*, and this makes their > actions laudable". > > Other right-wing justifications of the Tali's actions run along the > lines of "it's their country; they own everything within it; they can > therefore do what they like with it". > > Finally, and most interestingly, I have seen several examples of > the kind of Right-wing relativism we have occasionally witnessed on this > List. While the mere mention of the names of Foucault, Derrida or Geertz > are usually enough to make right-wingers retch, when it suits them they can > be as relativist as the hippest black-clad Gaulois-smoking denizen of the > Left Bank. "Who are we to judge the Taliban, it is asked; how dare we be > judgemental when we have no access to their Sitz im Leben, their > Welatanschauung, their Dasein....." etc., as if the Taliban were > representative of all of Islam instead of being a gang of ignorant thugs > armed to the teeth by the West.... > > It's not hard, I think, to recognize parallels to the arguments > used to justify extreme Libertarian positions in the U.S.; for that matter, > they're not without resemblance to arguments for isolationism, which date > back at least a century... > > Best, Mike. > > > > > > > Interesting idea! > > > > J.F. Gannon > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "John McMahon" > > To: > > Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 6:45 AM > > Subject: Taliban (noch einmal) > > > > > > > > > > > NPR's "Fresh Air" will feature a discussion of > > > > the controversy surrounding the Taliban's present > > > > policy wrt statutes, etc. > > > > > > Er, make that "statues" ... although "statutes" might > > > (and probably will) be examined as well. > > > > > > John McMahon > > > Le Moyne College > > > > > > Michael Chase > (goya@vjf.cnrs.fr) > French-English > Philosophical and scientific translations > 31 rue de Poissy > Paris 75005 > > .