Silly Little Country

Nick Cohen on Pascal Bruckner's New Book

Well worth a read:

This remains a formidable book, which ends with a repetition of lessons we ought to have learned long ago. You cannot respect other cultures until you first respect your own. Democratic societies can commit huge follies and crimes, but they are best able to remedy mistakes because they have a built-in capacity to reform. The Enlightenment values that underpin them are not Western values but universal values, and the more widely they are spread and the more vigorously they are defended, the safer panicky, guilt-ridden Europeans will be.

The Sixties have much to answer for and the fact that many of the people from that period have not grown out of their Sixties infantilism is a very sorry fact and gives jihadists in particular, but also the ridiculous surviving lefties who do not feel refuted by the collapse of communism, an edge into some degree of influence. It is not a pretty sight. Bruckner also understands the narcissism behind the Sixties self-infatuation and its damage.
Another book for my Library hold list, when I finish the rather too large pile currently checked out.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 1:39 PM