mardi 21 juin 2011

Neo-flagellants

There is more masochism in the Christian and post-Christian Western culture than in any other culture. In the past, the flagellants whipped themselves for their sins, nowadays the leftist liberals are doing more or less the same. We must think that we are the worst sinners in the world, being guilty of colonialism, sexism, imperialism, racism, slavery, Communism, Fascism, etc. We have sinned, we have done so much harm to Africans, Asians, native Americans, Muslims... Somehow the Africans, Asians, American Indians and Muslims are not plagued by such remorses. I haven't read of any attempt by some Muslim movement to repent, to ask for forgiveness from black Africans or Europeans for their colonialism, piracy and slave trade. The western do-gooders are even trying to reshape their sexist and imperialist language, to ban all words smelling of sexism, colonialism and imperialism. The Islamic theologians or activists have not asked for forgiveness from Jews and Christians persecuted and massacred. There are no such flagellants in China either. In other cultures, people either think that their culture, resp. religion is the best one or at least not worse than the others. Only the Westerners seem sometimes to think that theirs is the worst, the most unjust in the world, and they whip themselves and repent in public. They don't ask whether some other cultures and nations have not done even more terrible things. And sometimes they organize mass meetings, demonstrations and protest actions. The flagellants were vehemently anti-semitic, often killing Jews in towns they passed. The modern flagellants haven't so far organized pogroms. But they actively organize protest campaigns against Jews, against Israel.