Guest Post by Morbo
As the Carpetbagger noted on Wednesday, Dinesh D’Souza’s new book, The Enemy at Home, is out. In a NUTshell (pun intended), D’Souza in this book asserts that al-Qaeda hates America because liberals insist on exporting a crude and sexually charged popular culture to the world. Thus, you see, the 9/11 can really be blamed on liberals.
The book, according to a reviewer in The Washington Post, is a stinker that is completely disconnected from global realities. Warren Bass, an editor of the Post’s Book World, wrote:
For a Stanford fellow, D’Souza shows a surprising ignorance of the growing literature on jihadist ideology. One has to ask which is more likely: that such authors as Steve Coll, Lawrence Wright, Peter L. Bergen, Marc Sageman, Jessica Stern, Richard A. Posner and Bruce Hoffman could have scrutinized al-Qaeda ideology and somehow failed to notice that bin Laden’s main beef was with America’s corrupt cultural left, or that the grinding sound you hear off in the distance is D’Souza with an ax.
Bass asserts that the incendiary tome was written in a deliberately over-the-top style to generate controversy and sales. He asserts, “This sort of scam has worked before (think of Christopher Hitchens’s gleeful broadside against Mother Teresa or the calculated slurs of Ann Coulter), but rarely has the gap between the seriousness of the issues and the quality of the book yawned as wide. This time, let’s just not bother with the flap; this dim, dishonorable book isn’t worth it.”
There’s a lot to be said about a book this offensive, but I’ll limit myself to two thoughts:
1. Even if there were a kernel of truth in D’Souza’s claim that al-Qaeda is reacting to our popular culture, my response to bin Laden & Co. would be, “Get over it.” Are we supposed to change the books we read, the movies we watch and the clothes we wear because a bunch of religious fanatics don’t like them? So bin Laden gets offended when men and women in the West wear shorts? I say that’s all the more reason for busting out the shorts. Pardon my bluntness, but screw him.
But D’Souza can’t even get this right. The left did not bring about current pop culture. The policies of the right did that. The right’s precious free market subjects everything to the same blunt instrument of market forces. Thus, Shakespeare is on the same level as Stephen King in a battle royale for sales. Yes, low quality often triumphs over high quality, and crass beats class.
This is not the fault of liberals. Despite the wild-eyed conspiracy theories of people like D’Souza, Hollywood did not make “Hostel” or the “Saw” series because film producers seek to corrupt the nation. These movies were made in the hopes they would return a profit. Isn’t this what conservatives want? Is not their cry, “Let the market decide?”
2. I am going to refrain from allowing D’Souza to make me turn purple this time. As far as I’m concerned, his book should be promoted far and wide. Although I don’t want the book to sell well, I do hope D’Souza is given plenty of opportunities to push it. I hope he is on every talk show in the nation. His appalling argument is one of blaming the victim. D’Souza would tell a rape victim, “It’s your own fault. You should not have dressed so provocatively. You asked for it. You deserved it.” Let him defend that twaddle.
If this is the conservative response to 9/11 and Islamic terror, let them say it. Let them shout it out loud and clear. Let them take it to the American people. D’Souza’s argument is disgusting, and it will repulse most people. The more it is identified with conservatism the better.
And if sensible conservatives don’t want D’Souza’s “blame-the-victim” book to be associated with their movement, let’s hear them say so. Now.