C. Doug wrote:
>
>No kidding. Thanks, Boddhi, for exhibiting precisely the kind of liberal
>racism that Zizek was talking about. It's nice to have a living proof text
>before one's eyes (even if I missed it the first time around) to show that
>Zizek wasn't just pulling stuff out of the air.
>
>Why, with such benighted opinions, do you call yourself The Enlightened
One?
>
- and it's pure liberal claptrap. Why must we on the left make all those we support out to be angels? I suspect it is either guilt or the fact that most liberals actually accept the notions of capitalist "meritocracy' more than they care to admit. I don't and I just don't think the Balkans are filled with angels. That doesn't make them unique, culturally or politically, as I mentioned, and it does nothing to excuse the West's action. My entire point was that the issues of Western politics toward the Balkans and internal Balkan politics are separate issues despite the fact that they may co-facilitate. Clearly, obviously, the historical record shows that the Balkan people have a history of violence and conflict based on ethnic prejudice. Condemning that implies nothing else but that it is wrong and these people have to shape up.
If a Croat hates a Serb because a German tells him to do it, he still bears the responsibility for that hatred. If the Russians encourage pan-Slavist expansionism, that doesn't make the Serb expansionist any less of a bigot. If an Albanian politician feels free to condemn Serbs as infidels because NATO is supporting their side (this time) that doesn't make it any less a religious slur. Again, why do you think outside agitators pick the people they do? Why did the U.S. pick the Catholic mandarins of Viet Nam to make trouble with the Buddhist majority? They did it because those mandarins had less respect for their countrymen and showed it by collaborating with the French. Why does the U.S. pick the white Spaniard elite over the Indio politicians in South America? - those people are bigots and we can rely on them to carry our ideas of hegemony forward. The West does not pick its proxies at random. It picks them based on a demonstrated capacity to eschew decency and make trouble.
To say that the Balkans are filled with thugs and political opportunists willing to incite ethnic prejudice is simply obvious, and not racist by any stretch of the imagination.
peace