Mr. Kimball, I am an admirer of yours and of the New Criterion – very gratifying to have you blogging at Pajamas.
I recently listened to Ramadan’s delivery in a debate entitled something like “Resolved: the West should not only defend its values but promote them as superior [to the Muslim world].” How is it that minds otherwise wholly opposed to the plain meaning of Ramadan’s obvious preference are so distracted by these by now rote French postmodern dissimulations? And the historiography! According to this brand of intellectual insurgent, all wisdom issued directly from 12th century Spain, without which the tribes of Europe would have remained forever ignorant. The success of this misrepresentation – and the rhetorical disarmament that is its purpose – depends upon the kind of ignorance I would ordinarily presume to be absent from the Oxbridge set. It is a backdoor to the absurd claim that Islam and Muslim jurisprudence-theology originated human rights thought, and thence to the cultural relativist – really revanchist – claim of cultural equality.
I’d like to propose an effort to introduce the history of the Byzantine state and its environs into the general historical chronology (presuming anyone teaches straightforward chronology anymore). The thug intellectual revolutionaries like Ramadan are exploiting this particular black hole too effectively, in my opinion. It would also be an effective way of introducing “actual existing” Islam into the canon, regardless of its hagiography. I was fortunate to go to a high school (mid ’90s) that taught western civilization over the course of two years, beginning with Sumeria and ending with World War 2, ideally. We also had a class entirely on American history. Perhaps the powers that be could make room for Byzantium and a greater understanding of the Classical-Medieval/Modern transition, end the general historical education with the Napoleonic wars or French Revolution, and incorporate the 19th and 20th centuries into the American course. We must find some way to innoculate the educated against the lies otherwise designed to ensare them and I think this might help.
