Submit Response is a weblog by Jack Mottram, a Andrew O’Hagan On The RNC
Andrew O’Hagan has a cracking report from the Republican National Convention in the current issue of the London Review of Books.
I found the piece via Phil Gyford, who pulls out the following exchange:
‘The Muslims just hate us for our love of freedom,’ said a woman from Iowa wearing a cloth elephant on her head. ‘They don’t have any culture and they hate us for having a great one. And they hate the Bible.’
‘Really?’ I said. ‘The Iraqis had a culture for thousands of years before Jesus was born.’
‘What you saying?’
‘I’m saying Muslims were building temples when New York was a swamp.’
‘You support the Iraqis?’
‘No.’
‘You support the killing of innocent people going to work? People who have to jump out of windows?’
‘You aren’t listening to me.’
‘No, buddy. You ain’t listening. These people you support are trying to kill our children in their beds. Where you from anyway, the New York Times?’
Of course, this isn’t some American malaise. A friend told me recently about an overheard conversation about the Beslan seige, with one woman saying with utter certainty to another that the unfolding disaster was the fault of ‘terrorist Pakis’ and that the siege was taking place in Bristol.
Call me naive, but it never ceases to amaze me that people will make significant decisions on the basis of, well, bizarre nonsense - what the hell does that convention-goer mean by ‘no culture’? - and the untruths made true by simple, unrelenting repetition in certain quarters of the news media.
Worse still, as O’Hagan found, the thinking traditions of the Left are something of a straightjacket when the opposing side completely eschew argument and discussion, skirt over grey areas, and base their decisions on blind faith. Add to that the fact that the right has, in effect, total control of the popular media in the US and the UK, and the situation looks even more hopeless.
What to do? The ghost of my ten-year-old Revolutionary Communist self probably has a few unpalatable suggestions on how best to proceed, but today I’m afraid I can only quote my infamous uncle and suggest that, well, we’re all fucked.
On that cheery note, I’m off to Zagreb. See you in a week, assuming the sky doesn’t fall on our heads in the interim.
Andrew O’hagan is a bully. He once wrote an article in the daily telegrpah suggesting that all shy quiet men should kill themslves. O’Hagan is a spokesprosn for the type of snide bullying snobby NZI thugs who have bullied me all my life, and now pretends he is nice because he points out religious bigotry is wrong. well so what i know that 95% of people know that, The fact O’hagan knows that doesnt stop him being a thug in real life. Why shouldnt i be upset at thugs who want me to suffer.
Posted by Tobny McRush at 12am on 19.02.05