Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Free Speech Update

Critic Emily Hill notes that one of the best things Martin Amis has going for him is his critics:

Put your hands up, said Amis, if you think you are morally superior to the Taliban. When a minority of the audience did so, Amis muttered: ‘About 30 per cent…’ His implication is that, in our current relativistic climate, it is taboo to assert your superiority to anything – even the Taliban. Anyone who values freedom, Amis says, should have a problem with Islamism. He graphically went through some of the feudal punishments that the Taliban metes out to women who step out of line. ‘We’re in a pious paralysis when we can’t say we’re morally superior to the Taliban’, he said. His attack on cultural relativism is welcome, and it certainly exposed moral sheepishness amongst the assembled at the ICA. But I couldn’t help thinking: is that it? Is that what it means to be ‘Enlightened’ and principled today – to be Not-The-Taliban? Amis didn’t go any further on the matter.

[HT:
Arts & Letters Daily ]


1 comment:

Coventrian said...

Why should any intelligent person raise their hand at Amis's command like performing monkeys?

The problem with Amis is that he thinks himself to be superior to everybody.