Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Paul Berman On Our Current Conditions

Shortly after September 11 Paul Berman wrote a deservedly much noticed book "Terror & Liberalism." In it he asked honest questions and, as is so often the case, was excoriated for it by his alleged peers. Now he has written another book, "The Flight of the Intellectuals," and sat for a discussion about it with Michael Totten.

Please click on the title of this post to read the interview. We assure our readers it will be worth your time. MC could not help but think of President Obama when reading the following passage from the interview:

"Then there's another idea that appeals to many people, which is based not on our own feeling of superiority, but on our own inferiority. We look at ourselves in the Western countries and we say that, if we are rich, relatively speaking, as a society, it is because we have plundered our wealth from other people. Our wealth is a sign of our guilt. If we are powerful, compared with the rest of the world, it is because we treat people in other parts of the world in oppressive and morally objectionable ways. Our privileged position in the world is actually a sign of how racist we are and how imperialistic and exploitative we are. All the wonderful successes of our society are actually the signs of how morally inferior we are, and we have much to regret and feel guilty about. So when we look at the world, we should look at it in a spirit of humility and remorse, and we should recognize that other people have been unfairly treated."

Buy Berman's book HERE.

Hat tip: Instapundit

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