Slouching Towards Vichy: An Interview with Theodore Dalrymple
Dr. Theodore Dalrymple perfectly embodies the old advertising motto “when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” Revered among non-conservatives and largely unknown by the general public, the retired psychiatrist’s oeuvre conveys timeless wisdom and amazing perception regarding the nature of man. Unlike the strange crew now leading our nation back into a seventies-esque malaise, Dr. Dalrymple is conscious of the past and elucidates its lessons for readers. The Oracle from Birmingham is the author of countless essays and several landmark books. He writes prolifically and authoritatively on all manner of topics. His latest release, The New Vichy Syndrome: Why European Intellectuals Surrender to Barbarism, is a continuation of his excellence as it is lively, erudite, and original.
BC: Sir, for those unfamiliar with the contents of your latest book, how would you define the “New Vichy Syndrome”?
Dr. Dalrymple: I would say it is a reflection on the existential state of Europe, if you like on the deeper currents underneath the surface of events.
BC: In terms of tone, your work is downright optimistic in regards to the effects of mass European Muslim migration. This makes it a contrarian view among conservatives. Mark Steyn’s best-seller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, paints a far grimmer picture. Is it possible that all the concerns over a coming Islamic EU are overblown?
Dr. Dalrymple: I am not downright optimistic, but more nuanced. I think the problem lies at least as much with us as with them. By our cowardice, often inadvertently, we support and encourage Islamism. There are many stories of Christmas decorations being taken down, no reference to Christmas being made in case they should offend, etc., when no demand from the Muslim population that these things should be done has actually been made. It is, if you like, an anticipatory cringe that encourages the extremists to push a little harder at what they think is a half-open door. A fine American example of the genre is Yale University Press’s recent book on the cartoon affair.
BC: Along the lines of the last question, to recent immigrants, will the siren song of libertinism prove more powerful than the allure of jihad? I mention this in reference to some of the behaviors you observed in Birmingham and also by the way these individuals describe themselves.
Dr. Dalrymple: Again, the answer is not quite straightforward. What I observed was that many young Moslem men took “advantage” of the libertinism, but not the young women. The latter, incidentally, were often of high caliber, desperate to work and to learn. They saw education and work as liberating, unlike many of the male counterparts. A few of the more intelligent and reflective libertine men will believe themselves that libertinism is not the answer to life’s dissatisfactions and will then find a ready-made utopian ideology at hand, one which emerges from their own background and is therefore a source of pride to them. It is interesting that many terrorists have in fact gone through a libertine phase.
BC: Economics is not the focus of your book, but, in light of recent developments regarding Greece and the other troubled nations in the European Union, do you think the EU is economically sustainable over the long-term?
Dr. Dalrymple: I have never thought that the unified currency was a good idea. It would have to lead eventually to a super-state, with a single fiscal policy, which would bring its own problems and national and international tensions. There is the prospect now of the Germans having to bail out several nations and I suspect they may not wish to do so. If they are forced to do so, the population, which never wanted the Euro in the first place, will become resentful. One of the very dangerous things about the EU is the complete disconnection of its political class from the rest of the population. Explosions of rage are quite possible at some time in the future.
BC: You mention the impact inflation has had on your father’s life and retirement. Has the rise of neo-socialism in the West since the end of World War II proven true the maxim that if you choose security over freedom you eventually wind up with neither?
Dr. Dalrymple: Again, one must not exaggerate the effects in the short term. I have led, and still lead, a life of considerable freedom. But I think succeeding generations will pay the cost, both in freedom and security. They will be paying for us. So I think the answer is “Yes.”
BC: What is “historical miserabilism”? Did you coin this phrase?
Dr. Dalrymple: I don’t know whether it has been used before, so I think I coined it. It is the view that in the past there is no achievement, only crime, folly, genocide, famine, ignorance, etc.
BC: How unique is America in comparison to Europe? In your final chapter you suggest that the same factors which presently imperil Europe may debilitate the United States as well.
Dr. Dalrymple: I think they already are debilitating it. America has one advantage, in that it was founded on a set of principles which are attractive if not metaphysically provable. It can, for example, incorporate immigrants more easily, therefore. With the possible exception of France, which was re-founded with the revolution, one cannot easily say what European countries “stand for” or what makes one, say, Danish, without having been born there. This is not to say that the freedom enjoyed in Britain, which was not formalized in any written set of principles, was not real. American observers of the 19th century often thought that people in Britain were freer than in the United States.
The past reluctance in the United States to cut expenditure along with taxes in my view points to the same kind of malaise as we have in Europe, and has led to the undoubted mess the U.S. is now in. The difference is therefore one of degree, not of kind.
BC: It’s a cliché that the old always disparage the young, but how unique is the present situation in our societies? Youth is celebrated religiously, and, as you put it, “They accept on authority that there is no authority.” Is idiocracy the inevitable result from elevating the opinions of the uninformed over those of the experienced?
Dr. Dalrymple: Although I disparage — overall, not in every case of course — the young of my own country, I do not disparage the young as such. The young of other countries seem much more attractive, intelligent, better-behaved etc. than those of my own country, who are rightly despised and hated in other European countries.
I think the basic problem is that people in Britain at any rate want individual license to do as they please without taking the responsibility for the consequences of what they do. In other words, I get drunk and vomit in the street, but you have to come along and clear it up, not I.
BC: Good judgment used to be a virtue yet now political correctness has rendered “being judgmental” an indicator of intolerance. In this fashion are we mass producing an immoral and deviant citizenry?
Dr. Dalrymple: Certainly we are producing a different citizenry. This is not a spontaneous change, but one brought about by ideology. Of course, you can’t escape from judgment: the idea that you should is itself a judgment. And indeed you have to make judgments in order to be tolerant, otherwise there is nothing to be tolerant of. The problem is that there has been a mass bohemianisation of society, such that the traditional role of the bohemians — to transgress norms, break taboos etc. — has become the moral imperative of a large part of society, with — in my view — unattractive consequences.
BC: Thank you for your time, Dr. Dalrymple.
…so the fight is on.
Vichy?
Or USSA?
Actually, Dr. Bones, it seems clear enough that the KSM, Kiddie Selfservative Movement, is slouchin’ towards Pretoria. Or possibly make that Benares.[1]
That’s a far longer slouch for Old Euros than for Greater Texans and Hyperzionists out here in the boondocks of the world, but there can’t be much doubt they’ll get there eventually.
Meanwhile the peculiar notions of Mme. de Bint Y’or, Foundin’ Mommy to Eurabia Infelix, have had rather more than their fifteen minutes. This latest selection from the neokiddies’ Toynbee-of-the-Month Club cannot have anythin’ to add to the original B.Y. _trippa e bologna_ if it puts its best wares in the windows.
(( Do you suppose that the Hoovervillains can be rottin’ the brain of Neocomrade Dr. Th. Dalrymple at a distance with a sort of Magic Death Rays? Or make that “Magic Dunce Rays,” perhaps. [2] ))
Anyway, it is pushin’ “History is Bunk!” hard to expect everybody to have forgotten that before there was _Nous, Philippe Pétain_ and _¡Travail, Patrie, Famille!_ there had been a military clash of (what were at the time) Great Powers.
Happy days.
___
[1] Even with a footnote, I doubt Rio Limbaugh will be able to make much of that, Dr. Bones, but why not give it a whirl? “The naughty donkey here insinuates that we conservatives are headin’ for a society based on prescriptive inequalities of the type that the Huntin’tonian Clashism product memorably dongdongised as FFBB, ’faith and family, blood and belief,’ Hindu caste being the strongest historical parallel available that would meet with general recognition.”
Very likely the dittobrained will turn that into “Eeek! He’s just callin’ us racists!”
In fact he is not, or, at any rate, not JUST. There can be no question, naturally, but that the kiddies neobelieve in their own pluperfect “colour blindness” 111% at very least.
Still, are they *right* in thus neobelievin’? ’Tis not quite the same question, after all. And Father Zeus knows best.
[2] As they have done with poor Rear-Colonel Blimp, I mean, except that he had to actually alight there to get his therapy sessions. [http://tinyurl.com/yfmc8o9]
Um, #3, you want to try that again? In English, this time, thanks.
JHM dba “Chuck Maurras”
Try doing business under another name, JHM. Chuck’s smoking some strong ganja.
Summary: Marxism institutionalizes Bohemianism.
Thanks for the excellent interview, BC and TD; I was reading just last night a review of “Vichy” in my conservative book club newsletter, so this was timely.
The remedy?? Make the brutes clean up their own vomit; put them on the clean-up crew — quit enabling people and instead institutionalize CONSEQUENCES for foolish, rude, and disgusting behavior.
Somebody be an adult; stop rewarding perpetual delinquency. Stop inculcating moral relevancy — otherwise get used to living in the fetid ethos of slime.
It is interesting that many terrorists have in fact gone through a libertine phase.
A serious libertine phase, if you can believe stories of Major Hasan getting lap dances before carrying out the Awlaki-inspired carnage at Fort Hood Texas.
Or stories of some of the indulgences of the 911 muscle guys.
The Finsbury Park mosque firebrand, Hamza, had a former life as a bouncer.
I’ve been mulling over this weird violence/sex nexus since reading about Sayyid Qutb (al Zawahiri’s guru) getting all hot and bothered by the bobby soxers during his sojourn in Colorado, late 1940′s (damn, horrible American women !) There’s a lot going on, beyond words in the Koran, even beyond brainwashing, with many individuals who wind up performing violent acts in the name of Islam.
I’ve greatly appreciated Mr. Dalrymple’s essays, though it took me forever to get all those consonants straight in spelling his nom de plume.
“I have never thought that the unified currency was a good idea.”
A unified currency might be comparable to a man and woman unifying their finances as part of their marriage pact. They would not consider doing so on the first date. Are you sure your relationship is ready for such a commitment? Do you know enough concerning your partner’s spending habits? Alas, the Germans knew the Greeks were crazy and undisciplined socialists. The relationship was probably doomed from the very beginning. Unifying currencies essentially places the more wealthy and stable nation in a certain degree of jeopardy. It will be damaged if the weaker and immature country continues to spend like a drunken sailor.
A book about Muslims based on anecdotes may be a bit too advanced for the fools that read such drivel regularly. Start off with a book with a lot of pictures and phonetically expressed words.
A book about Muslims based on anecdotes may be a bit too advanced for the fools that read such drivel regularly. Start off with a book with a lot of pictures and phonetically expressed words.
You mean like pictures of Muslims blowing people up in the name of their pseudo-religion?
Sure, a picture’s worth a thousand words, so it’ll get the point across even faster.
Thanks for the tip!
venerial vichi: Please, we killed somewhere from four thousand to eight thousand Iraqis during our invasion of Iraq. That was just in three months. This has become a boring and sick meme; oh, the muslims kill people. We have a trillion dollar industrial military complex designed to kill people, you idiot. And we use it regularly. If you actually care about lives, rather than using death as a way to prime your bigotry pump, you’d start where you actually have a stake in stopping the killing.
What a deal! Go through a “libertine” period, get all jihaded up, blow yourself to smithereens and take as many innocents … er … infidels with you as you can and as your reward? A Libertine Heaven!
Oscar,
I will ask you the same question I ask others who make these lofty moral pronouncements regarding what the public is justified in believing regarding Islam:
Do you base your views upon any real world first-hand experience and observation, or are you parroting what you hear on NPR and such?
I ask this question, because my opinion is based on first-hand experience, and I have drawn a very different conclusion than you.
You tip your hand mightily when you employ such enlightened debate tools as “idiot,” and “fools.”
I would posit that you are the one who has been fooled. I hope your vitriol keeps you warm at night. Please forgive me if I had to spell any of the larger words out phonetically. My “bigotry pump” tends to override the vocabulary and grammar centers of my brain.
Best Regards,
Chinese Gordon
Gordon. Get back to me after you learn how to read. Nothing in your post comes close to addressing any of the points I made. The overwhelming one is:
We have a trillion dollar industry and governmental policy designed exclusively to kill people. We have killed more people in the past twenty years than any mulsims ever could. Given this, explain why you are more concerned with the murder of absolute strangers in foreign lands by Muslims, than you are with the murder of absolute strangers in foreign lands by your own government. Hint, the answer will have something to do with the former feeding your secret bigotry.
Excellent interview Uncle Bern; I won’t bother flattering the good Doctor, as he is probably bored with all the accolades.
As an anarchist, my remedy would be to disband the police. This would be hugely uncomfortable, so much so that communities – (remember them, they were popular in the black and white days) – would form and conspire to mutual social order. Law and order would then become the immediate contract between members of society, whose vested interest in being safe and well, will ensure majority compliance.
My only source of justification, is to reflect on how communities managed in the tens of thousands of years prior to the invention of the peeler’s: “The police are citizens, and citizens are the police.”
15. oscar le grouche:
OLG = “Military Industrial Complex” wahh, wahh
OLG = “Trillions of dollars spent” wahh, wahh, wahh
OLG = “secret bigotry” wahh, wahh, wahh, wahh
Me = Upset that the we defend ourselves, huh bud? Bet your “secret self loathing” would get a big kick out of a US defeat in foreign lands. We have it coming, right?
Please move then and stop taking advantage of the security a strong and effective military provides as you ankle bite your betters.
“We have killed more people in the past twenty years than any mulsims ever could.”
I’m going to chalk that one up to ignorance and assume it can be fixed. I’ll save the word “stupid” until I’ve gotten to know you better. Carelessly misspelling and not capitalizing “Muslims” might be more revealing of your own character, bigotry aside. Again, I’ll save judgment on that one too.
Now, care to back up your assertion?
Ja Milam: You do understand that when we have wars, we kill people right? I’m just checking. One can have a conversation with somebody who understands that when they send bombs and bullets at another people, they die and is willing to stand up for it. An idiot like Scott R gets it. He likes the killing and validates by pretending that the US is in danger of collapse if we don’t have a war every five years. But you pretend that our invasions haven’t killed thousands of people. I’d have more luck arguing with a psychotic like Scott, because he’s ironically in possession of the facts. In other words, talk to the hand you doosh. Go look at Iraq body count if you need the proof, then google US invasion of Panama, Desert Storm, and the Balkans.
Oscar:
You got me. It’s true, I can’t read. In fact this string of letters is just the result of random chance. You are right of course, the US is the root of all evil. You should probably get out while you still can. I would suggest the enlightened nation of Sudan. I think you would like it there.
Seriously though, did you really just tell somebody to “talk to the hand?” Are you kidding me? You are a precious little cupcake!
Yes, war kills people. Always has. Actions have consequences. You need to decide which side you are on. Again, I suggest Sudan. Or perhaps a swashbuckling life for you as a Somali pirate. It’s just the tyrannical oppression of the US military-industrial complex that forces them to turn to kidnapping and theft right? Put your money where your mouth is and go to work for the other team. That would simplify things on this end.
Lastly, if my bigotry is in fact “secret” you must be a regular Hercule Poirot in order to detect it. Kudos to you sir!
oscar the pustule,
See http://www.thereligionofpeace.com
Plus, if we’re going to compare expenditures on killing, I would bet that dollar-for-dollar the Muslims kill a lot more. If they ever got their hands on $1 trillion, who knows how many they’d kill. Need to do an apples-to-apples comparison here.
Re Chuck Maurras
You so crazy!
Re: You can’t read.
Evidence:
I said:
But you pretend that our invasions haven’t killed thousands of people.
You said:
Yes, war kills people
So you either have a reading comprehension problem, or you’re dishonest. Either way, I’m done with you.
3. JHM dba “Chuck Maurras” = Mental masturbation
echo echo echo
To my fellow ignoramuses, I would recommend the book Mohammed’s Believe It or Else. It has lots of pretty pictures.
Oscar won’t back up his assertion because he can’t.