Monday, November 07, 2005
Seeds of Trouble
TH has posted on the French riots and I would not seek to add or disagree. They cover the issues. Other than I would observe that over time, Sarkozy's cultural heritage as a Jew may come into play in a controversial way and it is interesting that, just as writers have avoided highlighting the cultural provenance of the rioters, so have they generally avoided pointing out that Sarkozy is Jewish. I suppose that will be left to his political rivals to do.
I would also observe that nobody is yet writing much about that inevitable reaction that will arise -- count on it -- from the traditional Christian Right in France and Europe generally. It is a mere handful of years since a rather grotesque religious war broke out in Europe's backyard whereby Croation Catholics, Orthodox Serbs and Bosnian Muslims tried to exterminate one another - with the Serbs enjoying a rather pronounced advantage and therefore more effectiveness until the US (not Europe) put a stop to it. We today have a German Pope. He is a doctrinal conservative.
In my view, the London bombings, the Madrid bombings, the murder of Theo Van Gogh and now the French riots are all hastening the day that the European right will react. And bacause that reaction is likely to happen only after a lengthy period of appeasement, it may in fact result in an overreaction. This will not be pretty.
I would also observe that nobody is yet writing much about that inevitable reaction that will arise -- count on it -- from the traditional Christian Right in France and Europe generally. It is a mere handful of years since a rather grotesque religious war broke out in Europe's backyard whereby Croation Catholics, Orthodox Serbs and Bosnian Muslims tried to exterminate one another - with the Serbs enjoying a rather pronounced advantage and therefore more effectiveness until the US (not Europe) put a stop to it. We today have a German Pope. He is a doctrinal conservative.
In my view, the London bombings, the Madrid bombings, the murder of Theo Van Gogh and now the French riots are all hastening the day that the European right will react. And bacause that reaction is likely to happen only after a lengthy period of appeasement, it may in fact result in an overreaction. This will not be pretty.
1 Comments:
By 
TigerHawk, at
Mon Nov 07, 07:44:00 PM:
OK. That was pretty funny. Snarky, but funny.
