Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000
RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.
Countrymen,
ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT
Google News today (13JUL06) has not one link on the train bombings in Bombay and a cataract of links on Israel’s splendid attack on Hizbollah. Ditto Drudge and PLine so far as I can tell.
My estimate: the Bombay situation is far more important than the Israel/Hizbollah one because it is fresh, indicating a fresh initiative from al Qaeda, of more strategic significance than the Israeli operation (which was known to be coming by any reasonable person). The Bombay bombings demonstrate significant fresh al Qaeda puissance. However, the target — “idolatrous” Hinduism — is long-declared to be in the Arab/Moslem iconoclastic cross-hairs.
The two drivers of those folks are iconoclasm and misogyny (queering), the first theological and the second sociological. Iconoclasm is deeply rooted in Islam — the point at which all of its “peace” disappears entirely, to be replaced by fanatical retribution in the name of God. It is also a strong element of Protestant Christianity, both Lutheran and Calvinist but especially Calvinist, the theological basis of this country. Thus it is unsurprising that so many Americans — Protestants especially, Catholics less so, for they are not iconoclast by background — sympathize with Islam’s iconoclasm and especially its al Qaeda(Sunni)/Shiite iterations.
Americans think of Indians as idolaters and their iconoclastic sympathies are excited when those idolaters get theirs. In global strategy/national security at this time, that attitude is self-destructive.
It is wrong in any case, because Hindu iconography is not idolatry, though it easily can be, as can — and usually is — any iconography, including Calvinist (e.g., the “New England Village Church”).
The iconoclastic motive arises as an answer to the fact that visual symbols are more easily idolized — taken for the ultimate they are meant to symbolize — than aural and tactile, etc. symbols are.
Received the following response to the line, Thus it is unsurprising that so many Americans — Protestants especially, Catholics less so, for they are not iconoclast by background — sympathize with Islam’s iconoclasm and especially its al Queda/Shiite iterations.
Really think so?
Made this reply:
Yes, it explains the vast (but not majority) schadenfreude here in response to the 9/11 attack as well as the significant support for the likes of Kerry, Dean, ANSWER, MOVE-ON, probably most Blacks and the unanimous opposition of the main-line Protestant denominations in this country to our government’s current operations in the GWOT.
Taking public Protestant and even Roman Catholic European opinion into the total, and especially their schadenfreude in re any US casualties in the GWOT, the iconoclastic predilection of particularly Protestant Christianity is showing itself in very great force.
The iconoclasm underlying the iconographic austerity — at least traditionally — of any Presbyterian or Congregational (now UCC) sanctuary, and often Methodist and Baptist ones, has the same impetus — and historically not a little of the same fanatical, imbecilic violence — as that now partially accounting for the wickedness of our Caliphist enemies.
Iconoclasm has never had staying power sociologically, and never will, but it never disappears either and its demise, once it is rampant, has never been other than through armed conflict, as we see today.
There is a truth inside the iconoclastic impulse — a warning of theological danger, as we hear from the Old Testament prophets and from Jesus the Christ, and as expressed in the schadenfreude around the 9/11 attack — but if sensibility regarding the dangers of iconography becomes more than an abjuration and elevates itself to a “holy cause,” then it has devolved into a demonic (there is no other adequate word) power that must be destroyed aggressively, directly and immediately.
Iconoclasm’s plague-like nature is evident once it has gone rampant. It must be treated as a sociological pandemic. Historically this has always been the response and it is also, significantly, the unanimous recommendation of theologians for dealing with it.
That, as we know, is our situation today. But it is worth pointing out, I think, so that we also keep our equanimity, that our own traditions and impulses, formed in part by those traditions, coincide in substance if not always implementation with those of our enemy.
Iconoclasm, which is a demonic activity deserving destruction, is never a majority view, but its legitimate sources — which it has illegitimized through hubris — are points of sympathy for nearly everyone and especially for those who contend honestly and persistently with the dangers implicit in the ambiguities inescapably attending existence at all.
Received this follow-on response:
Don’t agree with the link between iconoclasm and schadenfreude over 9/11.
Made this reply:
Understand. Will try again:
9/11 was against the buildings, primarily, as symbols/icons, not, primarily, against the people inside them. The WTC Towers symbolize/iconize American competence and power (suzerainty in al Q’s view) in global trade and commerce to many here around the world, including al Q. Pentagon and (intended) White House, symbolize/iconize American military/cultural competence and power (again, suzerainty in al Q’s view) in global politics and sociology to many here and around the world, including al Q.
The aim of the attack was to demonstrate that the most sacred or cherished symbols/icons of the dominant group in America are vulnerable and that millions, world-wide, including here and not only Muslims, would cheer the news of their demise as direct symbolic/iconoclastic evidence that America is not the plenary competence and power it is *presumed* — and for many, accurately — to pride itself on being.
Also 11 September is the date Christian forces defeated the Ottomans at Vienna. The date Islam was defeated and needs to get its own back, in UBL’s and many others’ view.
The schadenfreude here and elsewhere was directly inspired by the iconoclastic satisfaction of seeing key symbols of American competence and power given the boot. As UBL was quoted saying afterwards: “It was more than we hoped for.” Indeed it was, especially those images of the dramatic crash of the WTC Towers and the destruction of the life that supported them beneath them. The intended destruction of the symbols of American military and cultural competence did not succeed so well, especially with respect to the White House.
The recent attacks on trains in Bombay are of the same character: attacks on primary symbols/icons of Indian competence and power. Bombay was India’s 9/11. The bus attacks in London a year ago did not have the symbolic/iconoclastic value, at least not quite, of the 9/11 attacks here and the Bombay attacks in India. A Q knows how to pick targets for their symbolic/iconoclastic value. They are good at it.
An intuitionist thought: long run, a Q is going to be more of a problem, and persistently so, than Iran. The logic of that one is hardly obvious, admittedly, and I will not try to elaborate it at this point, just mention it.
Also received this response:
… quoting my late friend and boss in early ’80’s this [train bombings in Bombay] amounts to a fart in a windstorm.
Events in Middle East in past week have exposed the real chess game for all to see … even deniers and the ignorant.
Made this reply:
As for the fart in the windstorm at Bombay, I think this one may be more odoriferous — and over a much wider area — than is apparent at first release!
We knew the Israeli operations were coming sometime. The Bombay attack is new on the radar so far as our assessments are concerned — but not so far as a AQ’s are concerned.
India, USA and Russia are the prime movers in the modern world and for centuries to come. Whatever happens in India or Russia are of utmost concern to us because those occurrences are all tipping points in the GWOT. The second tier prime movers are Germany and Japan.
Now you know why Council on Foreign Relations will never invite me to address their wizened, addled pates!
Update 1: Confessions Of A Public Defender
Update 2: Race Relations And Law Enforcement
Update 3: India army chief: we must prepare for simultaneous war with China and Pakistan
Update 4: BRICS Declaration on Pakistan
Update 5: Secretary Tillerson Discusses USA Relationship With India
Update 6: When India’s Strategic Backyard Meets China’s Strategic Periphery
AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA
