Month: September 2004

  • Phobia

    I’ve been thinking about the puzzling (to me anyway) question of where all this automatic hostility to science comes from. This is not the first time I’ve thought about that question, of course; it’s not even the second, or the fifth. I think about it quite often. It is something of an enigma. There are a lot of people out there who do reliably say very dismissive things on the subject, not as if such things were controversial or debatable, but as if they were obvious and taken for granted and incontrovertible. As if it were just common knowledge among all people who pay attention even slightly, that science is root and branch wicked and harmful and to be condemned out of hand. It’s odd.

    The question has renewed force because of reading Sandra Harding. She’s a really good example – paradigmatic, one might say – of this kind of thing. Of just assuming from the outset that science is a terrible thing and that everyone who reads her already knows that. She has to be assuming that, because she sure as hell does a crap job of making a case for it. In fact she does no job at all. She just takes that assumption as her starting point. No evidence, no explanation, hardly even any examples. Just earnest cross-eyed science-hatred. Okay, so why?

    There are some obvious reasons. It’s powerful and succesful, it’s difficult, capitalism needs it, it can be smelly and/or dirty, we were bad at it in school. That kind of thing. Compelling stuff, needless to say. But there are other reasons, and those are the ones that it’s interesting to think about. (Irritating, but interesting.) The ones that are less explicit, less ‘theoretical’ and rational, less academic; the ones that are more like fear of snakes or spiders, or dislike of people in suede shoes.

    Thinking about those reasons of course risks getting into into armchair-Freudianism territory, and that’s not a territory I want to light out for. But I’ll take the chance anyway. Cautiously. Right: I think one of those background reasons is the fact that science doesn’t give a shit. At all. It’s not just that it’s not all that bothered, it’s that it does not care at all. That’s the problem right there: it’s the realm of what just is, no matter what we think about it. Where our wishes, hopes, plans, fears make nothing happen.

    Of course that’s true of life anyway, with or without science. It rains or it doesn’t, the volcano erupts or not. In fact science and technology are our best shot at changing obdurate facts about the world that we don’t like – sickness, weather, hunger. But still, science also makes the independence of what is from what we want it to be, systematic and official, and that’s why people hate it, as if it were a bully wandering around stomping on all our little doll houses and acorn tea sets. We feel beside the point next to it. It’s not democratic, or multicultural, or libertarian, or kind; all those words and all words like them are just the wrong category. We feel more at home in the kind-ought-value-want category. So it feels natural to a lot of people to hate science, and they assume not only that it feels natural to everyone but also that that is the right way to feel, the humane, thoughtful, reflective way to feel. At least, that’s my guess. But it’s not a scientific guess, just an armchair one.

    [Update: By ‘we’ of course I mean those who fit the description and not those who don’t.]

  • Another Rhetoric Guide

    Shame about the exclusively male pronouns though.

  • The Line Between Explanation and Sympathy

    The problem of examining motivations without excusing.

  • Unveiling the Debate on Secularism and Rights

    A ban on conspicuous religious symbols in state schools and state institutions has caused heated debate regarding secularism vs. religious freedoms, giving us the opportunity to reiterate our defence of secularism and women’s and children’s rights. While Islamists and their supporters have proclaimed that banning religious symbols in schools and state institutions is a ‘restriction of’ ‘religious freedoms’ or ‘freedom of belief’, ‘religious intolerance’, ‘a violation of women’s and girls’ rights’, ‘racist’, ‘discriminatory’, and so on, we believe the truth is simple and quite contrary to what they claim. In brief:

    The ban is pro-secularism not a restriction of religious freedoms and beliefs: A ban on conspicuous religious symbols in state schools and institutions is but one step toward secularism or the separation of state and religion. Secularism is an advance of civilised humanity. In the nineteenth century, this was a demand targeted against the Church resulting in for example France’s 1905 law; today, it is first and foremost a demand against political Islam, particularly since that movement has wreaked havoc in the Middle East and the world. At a minimum, secularism ensures that government offices and officials from judges, to clerks to teachers are not promoting their religious beliefs and are instead doing their jobs in a neutral and impartial manner. In the same way that banning a teacher from instructing creationism instead of science in the classroom isn’t a restriction of his or her religious beliefs or freedoms and is not considered religious intolerance, so too is the banning of religious symbols not to be considered so. One’s religious beliefs are a private affair; public officials cannot use their positions to impose or promote their beliefs on others.

    The ban is pro-children’s rights: When it comes to the veiling of girls in schools, though, children’s veiling must not only be banned in public institutions and schools but also in private schools and everywhere. Religious schools must also be banned. Here the issue extends beyond the principle of secularism and goes straight to the heart of children’s rights. While adults may ‘choose’ veiling, children by their very nature cannot make such choices; what they do is really what their parents tell them to do. Even if there are children who say they like or choose to be veiled (as some media have reported), child veiling must still be banned – just as a child must be protected even if she ‘chooses’ to stay with her abusive parents rather than in state care, even if she ‘chooses’ to work to support her family in violation of child labour laws or even if she ‘chooses’ to stop attending school. States must intervene to protect children no matter what. Also, states must level the playing field for children and ensure that nothing segregates them or restricts them from accessing information, advances in society and rights, playing, swimming and in general doing things children must do. Whatever their beliefs, parents do not have the right to impose their beliefs, including veiling on children just because they are their own children, just as they can’t deny their children medical assistance or beat and neglect them or marry them off because it’s part of their beliefs or religion.

    The ban is pro-women’s and girls’ rights not vice versa: In addition to being pro-children’s rights, a ban on conspicuous religious symbols is pro-women’s rights not vice versa. It protects women (albeit minimally) from being harassed and intimidated into veiling. Those of us who have fled political Islam know full well the levels of threats and intimidation women have faced both in the Middle East and here in Europe and the West to wear the veil or else. The political Islamic movement behind veiling is the same movement that is waiting to execute Kobra Rahmanpour in Iran, impose Sharia law in Iraq and enshrine Islamic inequalities in the Afghan constitution. It is the same movement that has blown up innocent people on buses, cafes and in office buildings across the globe. Everywhere it has had power, it has murdered and brutalised. Women and girls have been its first victims. Now it is this very movement that is demanding the institutionalisation of its repressive measures against women in the heart of Europe, framed in terms of ‘women’s rights’ and ‘religious freedoms’! What cheek! It is this very movement that have become accomplished and renowned in and symbolic of the assault on women’s right and freedoms. The debate on veiling must be seen within this wider context.

    ‘My Hijab, My Right’ – I don’t think so: Of course an adult woman has the right to practice her religion, customs and beliefs in realms other than those where she is representing the state or the educational system. Of course it is her ‘personal choice’ to be veiled. But if you remove all forms of intimidation and threats by Islamists, Islamic laws, racism, cultural relativism and ghetto-isation by Western governments, norms that consider women half that of men, and so on I assure you that there will be very few women wearing the veil. Even if there are still those who do so, one must remember that it is not a positive right. ‘My Hijab, My Right’ is like saying ‘My FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), My Right’!!! The veil is an instrument to control a woman’s sexuality, like FGM. It is meant to segregate women. It is in no way like a nose ring as one writer has claimed! Have innumerable women been killed, tortured and flogged for transgressing the nose ring in Europe? I don’t think so. Today, more than ever before, the veil is political Islam’s symbol and women and girls are its first victims. The veil is not just another piece of clothing – just as FGM is not just another custom. I suppose if it were to be compared with anyone’s clothing it would be comparable to the Star of David pinned on Jews by the Nazis to segregate, control, repress and to commit genocide. There is much that will come to light about this Islamic holocaust when the Islamic regime in Iran – a pillar of political Islam – is overthrown.

    The ban is not racist or discriminatory: Some say that banning religious symbols is racist or discriminatory; in fact, it is discriminatory and racist to create separate laws and policies for different people, including immigrants and women living in Islamist communities in the West. Such ‘differences’ have been so hammered in by cultural relativism and multi-culturalism that a ban of religious symbols immediately causes some to cry racism and demand ‘the right to wear the veil’! In fact, crying racism is the new catch phrase of Islamists and the political Islamic movement along with their supporters in order to shut people up and hinder opposition, as they know full well that no one wants to be called a racist even if the matter has nothing to do with racism.

    And this labelling as ‘racist’ anyone who criticises Islam or the political Islamic movement has reached preposterous heights. As an example, one woman wrote to me saying she smelt ‘Islamophobia’ (whatever that means) in our call for secularism because ‘Christmas, Easter and many other religious events are celebrated in Britain’ and she could not ‘demonstrate in favour of secularism when [she] knew this [was a] double standard’! She therefore joined the Islamists’ demonstration in defence of the Hejab and against secularism instead of our counter demonstration! Why not join secularist forces and call for further demands such as the banning of religious schools and all religious holidays (as we have)? Suffice it to say that multi-culturalism has made irrationality into an art form. True, racism is part and parcel of the system, but defending secularism has nothing to do with racism. Was the battle for secularism in Europe in the nineteenth century racism against the Church or Christians?

    This has nothing to do with supporting ‘imperialist’ France: And of course I mustn’t forget our dear anti-imperialists, which say defending secularism equates supporting the ‘imperialist French state and its education system’. The struggle for secularism and women’s rights has nothing to do with supporting the French government and everything to do with defending progressive human values. These are values that people and the working class have fought and died for. Also, if you continue their bogus rationale then for example no one in France should have opposed the war on Iraq since it would have been siding with the ‘imperialist French state’. These anti-imperialists are so staunchly anti-imperialist that they can be nothing else. Interestingly though they are only anti-imperialist if they can remain reactionary at the same time. When Western governments promoted the Taliban and promote the Islamic regime of Iran, they seem to have amnesia. When women are stoned to death in Iran, when the Afghan Constitution asserts that no human right can contradict Islam, or Sharia law is imposed on Iraq, they are unable to even mutter syllables to show us they are at least alive and breathing.

    There are no more pressing issues: And finally, for now, for those who keep on about how many more pressing issues there are than a ‘piece of clothing’; yes, we know the drill – when it comes to women’s and girls’ rights, there are always far more pressing issues. It’s one way of ignoring critical issues and hoping they will go away. But they won’t. At least not while we’re around.

    First published in English in WPI Briefing 129.

  • Letters for September, 2004

    Letters for September, 2004.

  • Henry James

    David Lodge has a new novel out, Author, Author. It’s about Henry James, and about writing – especially about writing. I thought Lodge’s two latest novels were really verging on bad, but this one sounds brilliant. The people on Saturday Review last week (all but one, who was tepid) competed with each other in superlatives. ‘I just, loved it,’ they kept exclaiming.

    I find James quite an interesting character, and always have. His letters fascinate me. I have a lovely volume of letters beween him and his also fascinating brother William. But I find Harry even more interesting, I suppose because he’s more obsessive and peculiar – less ‘normal’ than William. Though neither of them was what you’d call average. At any rate, it’s suddenly apparent that a lot of people find Harry interesting, although predictably and boringly enough that’s sometimes because of his sexual orientation rather than because of the intellectual life – the writing and the thinking about writing. But not Lodge’s, apparently.

    Mark Lawson did a long interview with Lodge on Front Row yesterday. It’s good stuff. And Jonathan Derbyshire did one for Time Out last week and has posted the transcript on his blog. Lodge has written about consciousness before, and the new novel could be seen as the third in a sort of trilogy about consciousness. But this one is also a historical novel, which complicates things:

    Somewhere in ‘Consciousness and the Novel’, in fact, I quote [James] saying that the historical novel is an impossibility, because the novelist cannot think himself back into the consciousnesses of people in, say, the Middle Ages. That was a very interesting indication of how he thought the quick of fiction was in the interior consciousness of the characters, and that however many facts you might accumulate, you could never actually know what it was like to experience the world in those distant periods.

    It’s a suggestive thought – because of course what it suggests is ‘yes but you can’t actually know what it’s like to experience anyone else’s consciousness, no matter how contemporary. You can get hints, an idea, an approximation – maybe – provided your sources aren’t lying to you, or lying to themselves and hence to you, or inarticulate, or confused, or…’ – well you see the problem. It’s all guess-work and extrapolation. Though I suppose what James meant is that we have far less material with which to make those guesses and extrapolations; we have fewer hints and ideas and approximations.

    I think our sensibility and our consciousness is not so totally different from that of the late Victorians. So it’s not impossible to reconstruct their view of the world. And we have an enormous amount of data about how people actually felt and thought. We know an immense amount about James himself too. So we know a lot more than a Victorian novelist could know about medieval history. So there’s no real contradiction in trying to write a novel about Henry James.

    The letters help, and there are a lot of them. James did have a point – there aren’t a great many letters of the kind he and William wrote, from the 14th century. The Paxtons wrote different kinds of letters and besides they were later.