The Ministry of Minor Perfidy

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Chance has no nuts

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A Sheep in Sheep's Clothing

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Windy City Mike
social democrat, ca. 1930 trade-unionist, and professor of alleged history

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Wednesday, April 30, 2003

France, the US, and appeasement

For several months, some of my compatriots have been kicking around a discussion on ethnic problems in France. Bad Thoughts, who has actually spent time in France, and is an actual historian of French history and therefore knows many things I don’t about the field, had some interesting insights. Follow the link and scroll down. He’s a thoughtful and unique thinker anyway.

Namely, he argues that France’s foreign policy toward the Middle East is shaped by how the government thinks the large Muslim population would react. Fair enough. He also provides evidence for a parallel argument, that US foreign policy toward Africa is shaped by how the government thinks the African-American population would act.

Excerpt:

More Perfidious Goodness...

There is an article that has been making the rounds for several months that attempts to explain the degeneration (yes, that is the appropriate word) of the French nation by pointing out its problems with North African immigrants. In a nutshell, it explains that these immigrants are a major source of social problems in France that the government has no ability to solve. Instead, the government concedes. Whole neighborhoods go without proper policing, and law and order are effectively nullified. This reality extends into foreign policy, where the Quai d’Orsay cannot make moves that would anger the Muslim population of France.

As I pointed out in my original response, this is hardly unique to France. The United States has been saddled with a racial problem that it has been unwilling to solve for several decades. There has been little help for the black America, whole sections of cities are under-policed as priorities are still shifting to protect property rather than to deal with crime, people are concentrating themselves in gated communities to keep out (racially-based) crime, and a major income gap is developing between whites and blacks.

This is an interesting point, but this section of the argument has a couple problems that don’t necessarily affect the rest. Mainly, I think comparing France to the US on this issue doesn’t quite work for three reasons.
First among these is although the US has had a racial problem for several centuries, I’m not sure that the policing problem is endemic—that is, that across the board the emphasis has shifted to policing the property of the rich at the expense of entire minority neighborhoods. It undeniably happens, in California most notably. But this trend is balanced by efforts in other major cities to return policing to the neighborhood level. This brings up another struggle between competing philosophies of social order, that I have no expertise in whatsoever, so I shall digress.

Second, the income gap that is developing so quickly in France has existed since the beginning in the USA. Obviously, I’m not saying this is a good thing! But, it hurts more acutely when the gap first opens than when it’s been there a while. Therefore my sense is that the rapidly growing inequality in France is more dangerous to public order than the entrenched inequality in the USA.

The third major difference between French racial troubles and US racial troubles is the question of dual allegiances. African-American families can generally trace their lineage in the US back for many generations. Now, the legacy of slavery and the reconstruction of a shared African past that has resulted in the African Consciousness movement does give the African American community as a whole an identity apart from others in the US. But despite that, most African-Americans were born here, are US citizens, and carry within them an ideal United States that, though it may be wildly different from the reality they see around them, is still a United States that includes them. They are Americans. Partly this is the result of time. But it is also the result of 150 years of concerted efforts to mend the abuses wrought by slavery.

France, on the other hand, has yet to adequately address the needs of their immigrant population. The current tensions (please correct me if I’m wrong) arose fairly recently when enclaves of Islamic immigrants collect in council estates, and remained there without jobs to apply for and without mechanisms for integrating into the larger fabric of French culture. As a result, these immigrant populations remain closely identified with their enclave rather than with France as a whole. They self-identify as Muslims and as Pakistanis (for example).

This situation is deepened by a high crime rate, organized youth gangs, massive unemployment, and the policing tactics in these areas used by the French authorities. Ultimately, rather than being/becoming French citizens with a sense of ownership in the place where they live, they identify themselves as strangers in a strange land. In this day and age, a population of highly dissatisfied and alienated young male Muslims with strong ties to the nations from which they came is a worrying proposition. It is not merely a domestic issue but a potentially international problem as well, and one that the French approach is not currently solving. Not that the USA could necessarily do any better, but France is having a bit of a rough go, there.

It does seem that France is reluctant to act in the Middle East due to these internal pressures. I’m not sure the same is true for the US and Africa—I’m going to have to look into this further.

I would argue that major US involvement in Africa is guided less by what various administrations think it will do for their political prospects among black voters, and more by when there’s huge political capital to be gained among all voters. That is, Bad Thoughts is arguing a positive correlation between pleasing black voters and not libervading African nations, and I am arguing a positive correlation between pleasing all voters and not libervading African nations. I can’t remember the last time I heard a policy speech about Africa. It’s not in too many peoples’ consciousnesses, and the first step toward building approval for a military action is to start cultivating outrage.

I notice that I’m wandering into all kinds of thickets I don’t have maps to, so I’m going to leave it for now and return to my usual bitching about free speech and privacy rights. And rock music. Rock music is good.

Too Goddamn Much Perfidy...

Posted by Ministry on 04/30/03 at 04:02 PM
War • Permalink

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

I thought I’d take

this comment thread (from my comment on Pilgrim’s Progress and Uncle Tom’s Cabin) and haul it onto the main page:

Two-Cents:
Why is that a bad thing? UTC was the best-selling novel in American history. Be careful. You might own the fields of politics, political philosophy, military history, space, technology, and modern jurisprudence, but if you’re talking about women in 19th century US culture, you’re in MY house.

Buckethead:

The weekly world news is the eighth largest circulating newspaper in the world.

Two-Cents:

What is your problem with Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Not to pull a moral-relativism move here, but it was hot shit back in the day. I’ve read it. I see the problems with it, seen from today’s perspective. But honestly, why is it a not-great book?

I mention its sales figures, not by way of measuring its worth as literature, but as a way of measuring its effect on the world, and its success in encapsulating the key debates of its time.

Remember what Lincoln said to Harriet Beecher Stowe when he met her: “So you’re the little lady who’s caused all these big problems.” More than being a literary triumph, UTC was an important cultural landmark. It better have been, because as a piece of writing it’s not so hot. Talk about turgid! Innocent blonde babies, a Christ like black protagonist, the evil slaveowners! Everyone’s a cartoon.

But, as I say, it was a cultural watershed. Stowe, who was obviously an abolitionist, took all the polemics of Garrison and his group and fit them into the acceptable framework of a suitably dewy romantic novel. It’s not the writing that made this book great-- it was that Stowe in one fell swoop collected and restated all the tenets of radical abolitionism, with the internal contradictions nicely papered over, in a way that was eminently palatable for nineteenth-century audiences.

Moral ‘suason wasn’t generally as effective as people think. But, this is one instance in which it was a thundering success. Regardless of its dated-ness and its shortcomings, it’s a “great novel,” even more so because it can teach an alert reader so much about the United States in the pre-Civil War era.

Buckethead:

But, as I say, it was a cultural watershed. Gibson, who was obviously a dystopian, took all the ideas of Bester, Brunner and their group and fit them into the acceptable framework of a suitably dewy sf novel. It’s not the writing that made this book great-- it was that Gibson in one fell swoop collected and restated all the tenets of radical futurists, with the internal contradictions nicely papered over, in a way that was eminently palatable for late twentieth-century audiences.

This relates to an earlier conversation, the difference between importance and greatness. Neuromancer was fun, but I don’t think it was a great novel. As the first cyberpunk novel, it is important, at least within the genre. UTC was important to America and the world, and it is a useful source for studying early nineteenth century America. But it isn’t a great novel. It’s an important novel. It’s a cultural watershed.
Most novels teach us a lot about the time that they were written - manners and mores, fears and hopes, misconceptions, the whole deal. But only a few are great.

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 08:04 PM
Entertainment • Permalink

Really?

Thousands of dollars? Were you attacked by the scientologists as well?

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 07:37 PM
Lead Pipe Cruelty • Permalink

Battlefield Earth isn’t fiction

And I’ve spent thousands of dollars finding that out.

Posted by Johno on 04/29/03 at 07:31 PM
Entertainment • Permalink

Oh, oh, oh, I forgot the greatest speculative fiction novel ever

The Communist Manifesto/Das Kapital duology

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 07:25 PM
Lead Pipe Cruelty • Permalink

No, really, the best sf novel ever (and movie) is

Battlefield Earth

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 07:24 PM
Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Top five Science Fiction Movies

Matrix
Bladerunner
Fifth Element
2001
Star Wars
Metropolis
Clockwork Orange
Terminator
Galaxy Quest
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (even though it rips off Run Silent, Run Deep)
Destination Moon
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Klaatu Barada Nikto! Gort!)
Casablanca

Casablanca belongs on any list of great movies, because it’s so damn cool.

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 07:23 PM
Entertainment • Permalink

If I really wanted to be mean,

I’d start comparing Neuromancer to Pilgrim’s Progress or Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 06:59 PM
Lead Pipe Cruelty • Permalink

HGTTG isn’t fiction

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 06:58 PM
Permalink

You’ve just pointed out

Another reason why Gibson is derivative. Sure, Neuromancer is a landmark book, and I very much enjoyed reading it. But Sterling and Williams are better writers. At least in their books that made the list. I’d rather read real Phillip K. Dick, or Raymond Chandler, than most Gibson. I think Shockwave Rider is better written than Neuromancer. Gibson has stylistic flair, but that’s all he has. Sterling neds to write more sf, ‘cause he has the mojo.

I am willing to include Snow Crash on the list for one reason, though - by perfecting, inflating, lampooning and puncturing the cyberpunk sub-subgenre with one masterful novel, we no longer have to read stylistically derivative, politically uninformed, dystopic, carbon copy fantasies. We can ignore them.

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 06:57 PM
Just So You Know • Permalink

Or maybe I am a Luddite

As a (low-ranking) member of the technocratic elite that rules the world, I write, among other things, software manuals, process documentation and other things that are never read by my company’s clients. I have to constantly fight the temptation to introduce small inconsistencies, errors and jokes into my work. The most that I allow myself is extremely subtle irony. Maybe that temptation is similar to the need textile workers once felt to throw shoes into the apparatus.

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 06:49 PM
Just So You Know • Permalink

Dawn of the Duct-Tape Warriors

Buckethead, fair enough. I haven’t read the Brin on your list, and I will admit that the ending of The Postman, which used a deux ex machina, was not quite up to the rest of the book.I read I, Robot when I was about twelve, and it is what first kindled my inner fire of geek. So, propers are due there.

As for abuse of cyberpunk concepts by Gibson and Sterling, you’re just baiting the Johnny-bear. Shockwave Rider was a very good book indeed, and advanced many of the same ideas earlier, but Neuromancer especially is the better book. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, to be sure, but the atmosphere, ideas, and details really killed me-- it’s like “The Long Goodbye” as re-written by Philip K. Dick. I will admit though that Shockwave Rider does have a better plot.

Regarding Fantasy novels: Dude, you are such a geek. Not that I’m any better. I really dug Katherine Kurtz’ first Saint Camber trilogy.

Posted by Johno on 04/29/03 at 06:48 PM
Entertainment • Permalink

I am not…

...Pretentious

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 06:41 PM
Perfidy Responds • Permalink

More Science Fiction, and some [gasp] fantasy

I would agree to items #a, III and four of Johnny’s list. I’ve already explained why Snow Crash didn’t make it to my list, and the same applies to Brin’s Postman. I thought I, Robot sucked, three stupid suggestions for automata notwithstanding. Never read Pynchon, so can’t say. However, his list reminded me of a couple other books:

Shockwave Rider, by John Brunner

Voice of the Whirlwind, by Walter Jon Williams

If I could establish a precedence in my list, Brunner’s book would be near the top. An ur-cyberpunk novel that prefigures most of the concepts later abused by Gibson and Sterling. Whirlwind is a better novel than Neuromancer.

On to fantasy - my top five fantasy novels/series:

Lord of the Rings, by some guy, think his name begins with “D”

Freedom and Necessity, by Emma Bull and Steven Brust

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Age of Unreason, by J. Gregory Keyes

The Earthsea Trilogy, by Ursula K. Le Guin (and I do mean trilogy)

I also enjoyed The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, by Stephen Donaldson; the Belgariad by David Eddings, Riftwar, by Raymond Feist; The Silmarillion, by Tolkien; and little else. American Gods would be on this list, were it not on the other one.

Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 06:38 PM
Entertainment • Permalink

Turgid And Pretentious Things… besides this weblog

Since you asked, the most turgid and pretentious turd in Anglophone literature, bar none, is Infinite Jest, by that charlatan David Foster Wallace.

[pre-emptive update]: Speaking of David Eggers, you should all read this McSweeny’s piece, which is a transcript of unused bonus audio commentary for the Fellowship Of The Ring DVD by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.

[further update] Lest I seem the philistine, I should point out that “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” is the only fiction book I have ever flung across a room in disgust. A library copy, too. Hey, at least I tried.

Posted by Johno on 04/29/03 at 06:35 PM
Perfidy Attacks • Permalink

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