Occidentalism

Via Photon Courier, a link to an article aboutOccidentalism: the West in the eyes of its enemies by Avishai Margalit and Ian Buruma.

Photon Courier also has some interesting observations on how many wordsmith-type [real and wannabe] intellectuals confuse verbal acuity with intelligence, and on the oh-so-European worship of stability ueber Alles:

Given what was happening to the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein, I submit that this is obscene. "Stability" is not a god that should be worshipped in all circumstances. Germany in 1940 was probably more "stable" than Germany in 1946. And it is certain that Paris under German occupation was far more "stable" than Paris in the immediate aftermath of the Liberation.