Simon Jenkins: extremely useful and extremely idiotic
British journalist Simon Jenkins writes up a perfect storm of useful idiocy:
There is nothing anyone can do to prevent suicide bombers hitting civilian populations. The slaughter of Christians in Peshawar this weekend showed that wherever crowds gather they are vulnerable to any group with a brainwashed youth and a bomb. It might be sensible to discourage like-minded crowds from gathering in one place, be they co-religionists or party faithful or merely the wealthy.
The modern urban obsession with celebrity buildings and high-profile events offers too many publicity-rich targets. A World Trade Centre, a Mumbai hotel, a Boston marathon, a Nairobi shopping mall are all enticing to extremists. Defending them is near impossible. Better at least not to create them. A shopping mall not only wipes out shopping streets, it makes a perfect terrorist fortress, near impossible to assault…
By deploying violence against a succession of Muslim states, the world’s leading powers have made their business its business and invited retaliation. They have not crushed al-Qaida any more than they have suppressed extreme Islamism. They have refreshed rather than diminished that extremism, and made the world less safe as a result.
Where do they get these people? Well, in Jenkins’ case (that’s Sir Simon to you; Jenkins received a knighthood for his journalistic savvy in 2004): Oxford, The Economist, The Times, the Evening Standard, and the National Trust.
Impeccable credentials. Flaming idiot.
Something tells me that Sir Simon’s real objection to malls might be an esthetic one; only philistines go to malls, don’t you know? Although what the man’s got against the Boston Marathon I can’t quite imagine.
And churches? Sir Simon wrote a book entitled England’s Thousand Best Churches. It’s possible that he thinks churches should merely be toured and studied as architectural wonders (that seems to be the focus of his book) rather than actually, you know, worshiped in.
Because those Christians who were killed in Peshawar recently—the incident Jenkins specifically mentions—who had the gall to be “gathering in one place,” as he puts it, were actually assembled in a church with their “co-religionists.” Perhaps Jenkins is implying that churches in England are acceptable, but in Pakistan people should know better than to present an environment so target-rich in Christian blood.
[NOTE: By the way, although it’s quite irrelevant to this post, Jenkins was married to actress Gayle Hunnicutt (previous husband David Hemmings) for thirty years. They divorced in 2008.]
[NOTE II: Something about Jenkins had a familiar ring, and I began to wonder whether I’d written about him before. And sure enough, I have, here. Turns out this sort of swill is his meat and potatoes.
And please read this piece on the Peshawar bombing, which has somehow been overshadowed in the news by the Nairobi mall attack, but which has taken an even greater toll of human life.]
Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone that it’s open season on Christians (again or still?; I’m not sure which is right).
No one else is talking about this; why’d you have to go and blab?
“In Philadelphia and the eastern districts the Quakers could ply their trades, tend their shops, till their farms, and discourse at their ease on the wickedness of war.
The midland counties, too, were for the most part tolerably safe. They were occupied mainly by crude German peasants, who nearly equalled in number all the rest of the population, and who, gathered at the centre of the province, formed a mass politically indigestible. Translated from servitude to the most ample liberty, they hated the thought of military service, which reminded them of former oppression, cared little whether they lived under France or England, and, thinking themselves out of danger, had no mind to be taxed for the defence of others.
But while the great body of the Germans were sheltered from harm, those of them who lived farther westward were not so fortunate. Here, mixed with Scotch Irish Presbyterians and Celtic Irish Catholics, they formed a rough border population, the discordant elements of which could rarely unite for common action; yet, though confused and disjointed, they were a living rampart to the rest of the colony. Against them raged the furies of Indian war; and, maddened with distress and terror, they cried aloud for help.
Petition after petition came from the borders for arms and ammunition, and for a militia law to enable the people to organize and defend themselves. The Quakers resisted …
… accounts came that the settlements in the valley called the Great Cove had been completely destroyed. All this was laid before the Assembly. They declared the accounts exaggerated, but confessed that outrages had been committed; hinted that the fault was with the proprietaries; and asked the Governor to explain why the Delawares and Shawanoes had become unfriendly.
“If they have suffered wrongs,” said the Quakers, “we are resolved to do all in our power to redress them, rather than entail upon ourselves and our posterity the calamities of a cruel Indian war.”
The Indian records were searched, and several days spent in unsuccessful efforts to prove fraud in a late land-purchase …”
Francis Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe
I keep telling the folks at samizdata that England will continue downhill until Oxford is looted and burned. Henry VIII did for the monasteries, but they reincarnated as universities and need to be put down again.
The silence of this administration and other western nations in the face of the outright war on Christians in Muslim-dominated countries is appalling. Princeton’s brilliant Robert George, the new chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, recently wrote this letter to Obama:
http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/whats-new-at-uscirf/4105-press-release-uscirf-letter-to-president-obama-on-unprecedented-sectarian-attacks-committed-against-christians-in-egypt-september-16-2013.html
Incidents like the Peshawar bombing are happening in Egypt and all over the Middle East with frightening regularity. Heartbreaking.
Isn’t this just the same advice that HHS gives people to do when someone with a gun is attacking? Just hide, and if that doesn’t work, yell and throw stuff. Don’t attack but as a last resort. You only cause more of them. Definitely blaming the victim here.
I have heard this from many leftists: We should have done nothing to the Islamists after 9/11 since we were to blame. We were only creating more of them. The World Trade Centers were sticks poking in their eyes. Best to just ignore them and stay out of their business.
To paraphrase Lt Col, USA, Ralph Peters (retired) the only way threats from murderous extremists have ever been stopped is by killing them.
I suspect that if someone were to drop The Big One on Mecca at the height of the Haj, Mr. Jenkins would not blame those ‘co-religionists’ ‘gather[ed] in one place.’ Not if he knew what was good for him, anyway.
“It’s not safe for Christians in this country,” said Mano Rumalshah, the bishop emeritus of Peshawar, who was standing in the courtyard, comforting sobbing parishioners who clasped his white robes.
“Everyone is ignoring the growing danger to Christians in Muslim-majority countries. The European countries don’t give a damn about us.”
Of course, of course. But he didn’t mention BHusseinO and the American Left, who also don’t give a damn.
Jenkins is a frequent v´guest on the BEEB’s Hard Talk. Not only is he an idiot, but he is also one of the snottiest people on the air. I used the word snottiest, since I’m sure it would verify his opinion about the crudeness of Americans.
First off, if I remember correctly, the Irish Republican Army had no problem triggering bombs in those business sections of towns that Jenkins implies are invulnerable to attack.
Second, and I know I’m breaking Godwin’s Law here, does that mean that we incited and validated Naziism by entering the Second World War? So Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan would have toned it down had we just ignored them?
Flaming idiot, indeed!
Eeyore:
“I have heard this from many leftists: We should have done nothing to the Islamists after 9/11 since we were to blame. We were only creating more of them.”
In fact, we should have out-Reaganed Reagan’s Libya action by targeting a few known strategic Al Quaeda locations and turning them into permanent holes in the ground.
It’s one thing to interact with rational people by obeying the “golden rule,” but Islamist bullies are not rational people. As most of us here understand, the only way to make a bully stop pestering you is to decidedly and unmistakably defend one’s self with a strong offense. Then the cowardly bully looks for an easier target.
The only way to make a bully stop permanently is to permanently stop the bully.
I spent the weekend in Denver in the home of a 78 year old man who has been a Christian Missionary working with Christians in India and the Middle East for 30 years. I asked him why there is no interest in the US in Christians being persecuted and killed in various parts of the world.
His reply was that the educated media people view all religions as superstition with no meaning and Western people of Jewish and Christian background should know better.
Our intellectuals make allowances for backwards people of other cultures because they don’t know better than to believe and that is why they tend to be violent. It is kind of a looking down your nose thing since of the superior educated minds know that if we could just do away with religion than the world wold be at peace, or something.
Those of us ‘bitter clingers’ who are active worshipping Christians in this country and supporting Christian missions are viewed, as best as a nuisance and often as the source of discord. It is my impression that our Christian faith and desire to save souls and help people live better lives is seen as silly and rather stupid.
I tend to think God has a fascinating sense of humor and he has given us in this country a life that pretty good and we, as a culture, live with discontent. As my missionary friend said, our poor people in the US suffer from being over weight and that is not a problem with the poor in India and the Middle East.
Who would have thought 50 years ago that Christians would be rounded up and shot, burned and tortured around the world?
Yes, the absolute “audacity of hope” that people have to live in peace, worship unharmed, celebrate peacefully together; good grief, folks have such nerve, don’t they?
OldTexan wrote (@1:08 above)
As I have noted before, IMO the underlying motivation for all Progressive arguments, regardless of subject matter, is precisely this “. . . looking down your nose thing . . . of the superior educated minds . . . .”
Again IMO, the key to “winning” an argument with a Progressive is to disabuse them of this myth. You’ll know you’ve bested them when they either irrationally shut down or irrationally start calling you names.
The Peshawar bombing is apparently linked to 0bama’s drone war over the FATA. (Federally Abandoned Tribal Anarchy — Pakistan)
The fanatics issued a press blurb condemning the President, stating that the anti-Christian attack was a reprisal for their most recent loss of jihadis.
In other news, the fanatics in the FATA have stepped up their game by assassinating the top Pakistani general in Dir while he was on an inspection tour.
Off hand, it looks like the fanatics are coming to appreciate just how short jihadi life can be — particularly for mid-range leaders.
Unable to avert strikes, the survivors are lashing out in all directions.
=======
It’s taboo to discus, but the IQ of FATA residents are quite low. The entire zone is riven with poor prenatal nutrition — and cousin-marriage is common. Indeed, after all the generations before, everyone in a given village is certain to be a re-blend of the same DNA. These two factors drive intelligence way down, at least 1.5 standard deviations.
Independent leadership requires an IQ of at least 107. The percentage of the population at or above that threshold is predictive of GDP/ per capita. ( 85% correlation !)
With their skewed local (FATA) IQ pool, the fanatics have actually very few men bright enough to lead. (Rampant stupidity greatly explains Taliban ‘marksmanship.’)
Decent higher level leadership requires an IQ of 120. Such players are so rare in the FATA that, for the most part, they have to be ‘imported.’
And it’s obvious from the battle records that such ‘Internationals’ are the driving force springing out of the FATA.
Strangely, shutting off the supply of this talent has never really been prioritized.
It’s high time that travel bans be enacted across the Western world for military aged males and jihadi prostitutes.
(Tunisian babes have been flying in to Syria to entertain the troops — coming back swollen from the bedsheets.)
Cristina Odone at the Telegraph on why Christians in the West aren’t saying much about the attacks on Christians elsewhere:
Opprobium and loosening identity. Very effective indeed.
There was a reason why I told Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormon missionaries that no matter whether I believed in the same things as them, I respected their will and determination to actually work on behalf of their faith. Everyone else would be too depressed and lazy to walk around and talk with potentially very hostile strangers. It’s not a stress they want to go through.
The other reasons were that I knew what was going on with missionary work overseas, though I never mentioned it explicitly. I respected them for their courage under fire, for doing something that they think is worth dying for. Such determination, I have yet to find amongst our enemies, the Leftist alliance.
Hey, you know who doesn’t suffer a lot of suicide bombings? Hunters and gatherers.
Let’s try that for a while!
“Hunters and gatherers” – exactly. By Jenkins prescription, any gathering of people is BAD. Radical decentralization must be the only cure. I expect Sir Simon to relocate to a cave in the Hebrides immediately.
BTW, I think Jenkins is a bigwig with the National Trust. So that sounds like the notion of him feeling that malls and modern buildings are heathenish has some weight.
Not radical decentralization. Concentration camps. That’s what they like.
They think that Western engineering and technology means we are evil for stealing it from the natives and oppressing them. Thus he thinks they have a right to be uplifted to be our equals, as the universe should be equal like the Heat Death.
Any inequality is a sign of disproportionate force and oppression.
The thing, the Guardian is in itself a product of Western culture and freedom to speak. The fact that he isn’t impaled six ways to sunday, is what he is complaining about unknowingly.
}}} Impeccable credentials. Flaming idiot.
The Left does not miss for IQ points. What it lacks is points in an imagined “Wisdom Quotient”.
I assert to you that the missing ingredient in ALL PostModern Leftists is not intellect but common sense.
If someone succeeded in drafting a “Wisdom Test”, then the Left would consistently rank in the bottom 1/3rd of the resultant bell curve, and likely all in the bottom half.
They are all “Widiots”, unable to learn from EXPERIENCE.
This explains succinctly and clearly their endless and undying support for failed memes such as Keynesianism, Communism, Socialism, Collectivism, Green “Science and Technology”, and so forth.
It doesn’t matter how many times it fails, “It just wasn’t done right” — which is accurate, sort of, though common sense would lead a non-Widiot to grasp that “doing it right” means “not doing it at all”.
It doesn’t matter how many times you try and shove a skyscraper into a barrel, the only way to “do it right” is to not do it at all.
I am British and it has taken me years to work out exactly what Simon Jenkins is supposed to be for.
A crude parallel for Americans might be Gore Vidal – both widely ‘respected’, moderately intelligent, very full of themselves… and most of the time complete idiots.
There is no underpinning theme to what they write or say, apart from an unstated by fairly obvious snobbery towards absolutely everyone else. That means you and me. they reached their positions of ‘respect’ simply by their shameless sense of their own worth and the politeness of everyone else to a pair of condescending, overrated bores.