David Talbot’s interview with Susan Sontag, conducted, so far as I can tell, on his knees, starts with a preposterous amount of throat clearing and excuse making and silly swipes at alleged “censorship.” These pampered journalists, who have never seen a moment of real censorship in their lives, and who have marginalized conservative voices for their entire careers in their own organs and field of influence, take the occasion of the massacre of thousands of their fellow citizens to worry about themselves – and preen self-righteously at the same time. Then there’s the sheer pretentiousness of it all. I’m particularly fond of Talbot’s use of the word “texts” to discuss Sontag’s works. (I’m not the first weblogger to notice this). Not books; not pieces; not articles; not essays – but “texts.” Ooooh. That must mean she’s a real intellectual. The silver lining is that Sontag has now stated her belief in the notion that we are indeed confronting a jihad and that there can be no compromise with these murderers. But the rest of the interview completely belies this view. Item one: if there is no negotiating with these killers, what do we do? According to Sontag, we don’t bomb. The Taliban soldiers are just “a lot of kids.” We don’t even drop food packages, which, in her eyes, are a cover for an unholy war. In fact, you can read this interview again to see whether she has any practical recommendations for our response, and you will come up empty. Like Katha Pollitt, she has absolutely nothing to say, except that we all need to read the latest “text” by Stanley Hoffmann in the New York Review of Books. I’m sorry, but this is self-parody. Her only practical recommendations are that we should stop military action against the Taliban and urge a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Gee, that will terrify the terrorists. They won’t dare murder us again after that. She dismisses out of hand the notion that the anthrax attacks could be the work of al Qaeda. She refers to them as “what I think are 99 percent certain to be just domestic copycat crazies on their own war path.” Why does she have such certainty? No reason given. When you’re that brilliant, why bother with reasons? She further complains that the media has “censored” pictures of grisly horror at the WTC site because it would demoralize the people. Is she kidding? Pictures of severed hands and tangled limbs would not demoralize this country. It would enrage this country. If such pictures have been held back, it is out of respect for the dead and their families, and precisely in order to restrain possible anger. That piece of loopy judgment alone should tell us all we need to know about what planet Sontag is living on. Throughout it all, she denigrates the Brits for their support of the United States and calls president Bush “ridiculous.” No, Ms Sontag. It is you who are ridiculous.
THE STRANGEST OF ALLIANCES: It didn’t take long for the activists who loathe the pharmaceutical industry to use the current crisis for their own advantage. Encouraged by Senator Charles Schumer, Jamie Love, of the Naderite Consumer Project on Technology, now has Bayer’s Cipro in his sights. He wants HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson to break Bayer’s patent in order to address what Love sees as an anthrax emergency. “He’s the damn secretary of Health and Human Services,” Love tells Salon’s Anthony York. “He should be trying to protect the American people. He’s just afraid to break the patent. He says that the U.S. will respect the patent right, even if it means endangering public health. That’s a hell of a lot of respect, I must say. He seems to lack a little bit of guts. He’s not lacking any legal authority, but does seem to be missing a bit in the courage department. He’s afraid to say the truth — he doesn’t want to send the wrong signal on the patent issue, even if that means putting people in danger.” A few points. Cipro isn’t the only anti-biotic that can treat anthrax. Plenty of others can as well. If anything, public health experts worry that over-prescribing the great but strong Cipro could accelerate the emergence of an anthrax super-strain that truly would be immune to most anti-biotics. So retaining the patent for Bayer is in no way a real danger to public health. Second, Bayer is ramping up production as fast as it can. It seems to me that Love is engaging in a classic piece of opportunism. He wants to cripple the patent system in general and sees an opportunity to do it now. No doubt he’s sincere, and sees no future threat to research in wrecking pharmaceutical profits. But he’s wrong, and could do far more harm to public health in the short and long term if he succeeds.
POLITESSE: I have heard from some that I was too aggressive in my discussion with Katha Pollitt, even uncivil. I feel bad if I was rude. But I want to make the following point about civility. It’s not everything. Sometimes, it’s corrupting. When thousands of people have been murdered, biological warfare has been launched, and American soldiers are putting their lives on the line, I don’t find cozy twittering about how hilarious it is that a woman had a fight with her daughter about flag-waving to be appropriate. I don’t find condescending disparagement of other people’s patriotism as somehow mindless appropriate. In fact, this kind of denial in the face of this horror strikes me as deeply wrong. It angers me. I reserved my anger for Pollitt’s arguments, not her person. And fierce criticism is not the same as censorship or intimidation. I’ve long enjoyed Katha’s company; have had pleasant encounters with her; and have no reason to doubt that she is a kind and genuine person. But I find her insouciance toward these events and inability to come up with a coherent response to them appalling. At some point, acquiescence in civility is a surrender of moral seriousness. I know many people are having similar confrontations in less formal settings, and they must know what I mean. I’d rather be remembered for losing friends in this conflict than going along to get along, while the threat deepens. Sorry, but it’s the only way I can live with myself.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “[O]f all the forms of foreign disturbance suffered by Syria in these new days of change, Zionism is the most violent and the most detested by the native population. That hatred may be called ineffective; the Jewish advance is bound to continue so long as there is peace and so long as the English are in undisturbed possession. The Jews bring with them a much higher material civilization, trained scientific experts, a largely increased exploitation of the land, and of all natural resources…. It [Zionism] has behind it what none of the other forces intruding upon the Syrian world can boast — a strong moral motive, not technically religious, but having the force of a religion. The Jewish race as a whole, in spite of certain dissidents, and certainly the Jewish immigrants pouring into Palestine, are inspired by as strong a motive as can move men to action. But this strength alone would not maintain the Jews against the fierce hostility of the Moslem world which surrounds them. That hostility is another moral force with which the future cannot but be filled. We in the West do not appreciate it because we do not hear its expression, we are not witnesses of the gestures nor partner in the conversations which fill the Near East; but if we ignore it we are ignoring something which may change our fate.” – Hillaire Belloc, “The Battle Ground” (1936).
The Dish 