Anticipatory Retaliation and Captain Ed have made a couple of comments about Ted Rall that got me engaged, and rather than just post a comment myself I decided to put it in a new post. I think it's important to understand Rall as well as Al Qaeda and the Ba'ath, not because we can't defeat them without understanding them, but because by understanding them we'll be able to defeat them more quickly and finallly.
The things Ed and A.R., (and Michele and Totten) point out about Rall's prior "contributions" suggest that he's really a rather demented individual, at least from our point of view. And it's relevant to ask whether or not his behavior makes more sense from another perspective. I read a great essay the other day on USS Clueless to the effect that Bin Laden's strategy was, and is, to enlist Allah in the fight against the infidel. Essentially you could look at this as the sort of behavior a lover might engage in if he wanted to impress or gain the attention of the beloved. And everything Bin Laden knows about the beloved comes from a mixture of Islamic doctrine and counter-enlightenment philosophy that emerged in the early 20th Century. So he first perceives what he believes Allah hates, and then acts in a way that's consistent with his beloved's priorities or preferences.
One could almost look at Rall in the same way, and there might even be someone in his experience that's connected with the same counter-enlightenment component, or what Armed Liberal calls "liberation theory" in a series of posts that begin with The War Against Bad Philosophy. The only thing that's different between my perspective, and what A.L. is talking about, is the role that romanticism plays, or may play, in all of this.
So I think you could look at Rall's behavior as making sense not merely in the context of a philosophy with which we disagree, but in the light of emotional attachments that are difficult for us to fathom. From Rall's point of view he's not only acting ethically but heroically. In a sense he and Bin Laden love sibling Gods. Although related they aren't identical. They have the same mother, but different fathers. So it's not at all surprising that their disciples have such a high degree of empathy.
Posted by Demosophist at November 16, 2003 02:40 AM | TrackBack