August 20, 2002 -- Robert Tumminello: Victory, then Discussion

On September 11, having rushed home from work after seeing news of the attacks break on the Web, I stood in the middle of our London living room, numbly staring at CNN's loop of the Towers crashing down with thousands trapped inside. "They're gone! Both towers are gone! Gone!" I yelled down the phone line to my wife at her office. I'll always remember her bewildered, English-accented reply, "What, what, do you mean they're gone?"

Just the day before, like most Americans, I would have been willing to calmly debate differences between West and East and Christians and Muslims. I would have also been pleased to discuss Middle East peace prospects, and what could be done to try to bring the opposing sides together.

Suddenly, there was no longer any room for doubt. We were absolutely in the fight now, too. My appetite for discussing differences and peace was gone.

Was it unreasonable of us to ask a few questions about the cultures and the values of the attackers, who represented millions of others now proclaiming themselves to be at war with us, and that more of the same deserved to be our lot?

Apparently, it was unreasonable. Even incidentally offering the slightest suggestion that the culture or values of the attackers might have had even the smallest bit to do with the attacks was immediately deemed to be inappropriate.

Why?

If you went through public school in the U.S. during the last three decades, you were taught according to the creed of newly empowered "cultural equality-ites." They were adamant that you understood the "inherent worth" of all other cultures, and of the need to respect all cultural differences.

You were told it was, among other things, racist, ethnocentric and xenophobic to judge the values of other peoples and other cultures. (That no one else was ever required to "respect" American culture was a given. America did not have a culture; it consisted of a "gorgeous mosaic" of racial-ethno-gender-class castes.) In history and/or social science courses in most mainstream colleges, you were, more often than not, lectured to by Marxists and postmodernists, who made it abundantly clear that they viewed "the world community" (whether democratic or not) as morally superior to almost anything American.

Our enemy clearly took some advantage of such muddled educational thinking. After all, our government officials had gone to school and college, and often also had taken "training" courses on "respect" and "tolerance" for those with "different values." They avoided asking why relatively large numbers of suspicious Middle Easterners sojourning in the U.S. would want to take flying lessons. Neither were they overtly troubled as to why foreigners (another word we were told never to use) like Mohamed Atta sauntered -- even illegally -- in and out of the U.S. as if they owned the place.

So despite the attacks and their aftermath -- celebrations in the "Muslim world," the slaying of Daniel Pearl, attacks on churches and Christian schools in Pakistan and more -- which might be said to call into question notions that "all cultures are equal," we remain beset by that same, tired agenda.

"What had America done to bring the attacks on?" "Were American policies too pro-Israeli?" "Was it because America had not done enough to relieve global poverty and suffering?" "Was it because American culture had become overwhelming, even imperialistic?" (The irony of asking that last question while also claiming that Americans lack an identifiable culture is lost "cultural equality-ites.")

In the end, such questions are not even useful as an intellectual exercise, for there can be no give and take with this enemy. The only way to "address grievances" the Islamist enemy has towards us is to give in -- and there is no way we are going to do that.

Ever unwilling to admit they have been terribly misguided, "cultural equality-ites" now claim they are facing censorship for raising "hard issues" and offering what they term "alternative" views.

Actually, what they think is censorship is just their wrongheaded views being challenged as never before.

We'll discuss peace in due course. But, while we're at that, let's resolve to never again allow any discussion of cultural differences to be dominated by "cultural equality-ites."

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Robert Tumminello
London, UK
RobertTumminello@aol.com

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