An Essay on Western Masochism
Buch, Englisch, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 141 mm x 224 mm, Gewicht: 302 g
ISBN: 978-0-691-15430-5
Verlag: Princeton University Press
Fascism, communism, genocide, slavery, racism, imperialism--the West has no shortage of reasons for guilt. And, indeed, since the Holocaust and the end of World War II, Europeans in particular have been consumed by remorse. But Pascal Bruckner argues that guilt has now gone too far. It has become a pathology, and even an obstacle to fighting today's atrocities. Bruckner, one of France's leading writers and public intellectuals, argues that obsessive guilt has obscured important realities. The West has no monopoly on evil, and has destroyed monsters as well as created them--leading in the abolition of slavery, renouncing colonialism, building peaceful and prosperous communities, and establishing rules and institutions that are models for the world. The West should be proud--and ready to defend itself and its values. In this, Europeans should learn from Americans, who still have sufficient self-esteem to act decisively in a world of chaos and violence. Lamenting the vice of anti-Americanism that grips so many European intellectuals, Bruckner urges a renewed transatlantic alliance, and advises Americans not to let recent foreign-policy misadventures sap their own confidence. This is a searing, provocative, and psychologically penetrating account of the crude thought and bad politics that arise from excessive bad conscience.
Fachgebiete
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
- Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
- Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
- Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Postkoloniale Geschichte, Nationale Befreiung und Unabhängigkeit
Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction 1
Chapter One: Guilt Peddlers 5
The Irremediable and Despondency 6
The Ideology That Stammers 9
The Self-Flagellants of the Western World 13
A Thirst for Punishment 22
Chapter Two: The Pathologies of Debt 27
Placing the Enemy in One's Heart 28
The Vanities of Self-Hatred 33
One-Way Repentance 40
The False Quarrel over Islamophobia 47
Chapter Three: Innocence Recovered 57
How Central Is the Near East? 59
"Zionism, the Criminal DNA of Humanity" 62
Unmasking the Usurper 67
A Delicate Arbitrage 74
America Doubly Damned 80
Chapter Four: The Fanaticism of Modesty 87
A Tardy Conversion to Virtue 88
The Empire of Emptiness 90
The Pacification of the Past 93
The Guilty Imagination 96
Recovering Self-Esteem 100
The Twofold Lesson 106
Chapter Five: The Second Golgotha 111
Misinterpretations of Auschwitz 113
Hitlerizing History 117
The Twofold Colonial Nostalgia 127
Chapter Six: Listen to My Suffering 139
On Victimization as a Career 140
Protect Minorities or Emancipate the Individual? 148
What Duty of Memory? 157
Chapter Seven: Depression in Paradise: France, a Symptom and Caricature of Europe 167
A Universal Victim? 168
The Wild Ass's Skin 176
Who Are the Reactionaries? 179
The Triumph of Fear 183
Metamorphosis or Decline? 186
Chapter Eight: Doubt and Faith: The Quarrel between Europe and the United States 193
To Be or to Have 194
The Troublemakers in History 199
The Archaism of the Soldier 203
The Swaggering Colossus 207
Conclusion 215
Postscript to the English Translation 223
Index 229
