Oriana Fallaci R.I.P. - bummer.
Oriana Fallaci died today, to nobody's surprise. She was 77 and had been battling cancer for 15 years.
Battling is indeed the word to describe the way she approached her cancer, and life in general. Seventy-seven years is a pretty good run, and 15 years with cancer is an extraordinary survival time.
No need to go over the controversies that remarkable lady was forever in the middle of, that's been done and doubtless will be done at length in the media. I just wanted to note that I'm seriously bummed.
Rabbi Hillel said, "Where there are no men - be thou a man."
This frail woman eaten up by cancer carried the manhood of the West on her shoulders. Other men and women, learned, thoughtful and brave, have made the intellectual case for the West against its enemies and warned of the dangers we face from them. Oriana Fallaci however, expressed the sheer goddam OUTRAGE we need, are entitled, and can't seem to bring ourselves to feel.
Within the past year, guests in western countries, taken in and largely supported by the generosity of this extraordinary civilization of ours, have demanded apologies - and worse, for comparatively mild lampooning of their religion. (Very mild, compared to the lampooning of Christianity we routinely tolerate among ourselves.) Even if you don't care to take the death threats seriously, the mere fact that they come to our lands and demand a priviledged status we do not allow our own is outrageous.
Even as we speak, those savages from Hamas and their ilk are demanding an apology from the Pope for simply stating well-established historical truth.
What reaction do they get? In my classes and among my correspondents I hear temporizing and things like, "Well I don't think it was really necessary/ productive/ really nice etc... The Danes held firm, as anyone who knows the history of their conduct in World War II might have guessed. In Norway, an editor who reprinted the cartoons cracked, groveled and begged for forgiveness.
Damn it, why aren't we more pissed off? Where is the manhood of the West, the cojones, "The Rage and the Pride"?
I just hope it wasn't buried with her.
Battling is indeed the word to describe the way she approached her cancer, and life in general. Seventy-seven years is a pretty good run, and 15 years with cancer is an extraordinary survival time.
No need to go over the controversies that remarkable lady was forever in the middle of, that's been done and doubtless will be done at length in the media. I just wanted to note that I'm seriously bummed.
Rabbi Hillel said, "Where there are no men - be thou a man."
This frail woman eaten up by cancer carried the manhood of the West on her shoulders. Other men and women, learned, thoughtful and brave, have made the intellectual case for the West against its enemies and warned of the dangers we face from them. Oriana Fallaci however, expressed the sheer goddam OUTRAGE we need, are entitled, and can't seem to bring ourselves to feel.
Within the past year, guests in western countries, taken in and largely supported by the generosity of this extraordinary civilization of ours, have demanded apologies - and worse, for comparatively mild lampooning of their religion. (Very mild, compared to the lampooning of Christianity we routinely tolerate among ourselves.) Even if you don't care to take the death threats seriously, the mere fact that they come to our lands and demand a priviledged status we do not allow our own is outrageous.
Even as we speak, those savages from Hamas and their ilk are demanding an apology from the Pope for simply stating well-established historical truth.
What reaction do they get? In my classes and among my correspondents I hear temporizing and things like, "Well I don't think it was really necessary/ productive/ really nice etc... The Danes held firm, as anyone who knows the history of their conduct in World War II might have guessed. In Norway, an editor who reprinted the cartoons cracked, groveled and begged for forgiveness.
Damn it, why aren't we more pissed off? Where is the manhood of the West, the cojones, "The Rage and the Pride"?
I just hope it wasn't buried with her.
posted by Steve @ 4:38 PM
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