The assassination of French satirists and police at Charlie Hebdo resonates particularly strongly. Americans take for granted political satire’s great purpose: to unveil communal recognition of a moment’s unspoken truths. Contemporary American political satire is safely and universally anodyne. It’s not post modern, just another dreary SEO empowered brand.
Elsewhere, shared laughter can be a more purposeful political and social act. With real repercussions. Political satire at its best gives immense power and voice to the seemingly powerless. And helps societies see dangers they might otherwise willfully ignore.
The re-emergence of Europe’s old “New Right” (ENR) from its birth in 1968 through the 1980s to its new, more viral guise underscores political satire’s importance. Satire is a crucial part of a healthy secular society. ENR long understood extremist Het Vlaams Blok leader, Filip Dewinter when he declared “the ideological majority is more important than the parliamentary majority.”
A new novel imagining France governed by Muslims summons a firestorm. This book and other best sellers about Islam in France and the French identity create a mood that ‘the center is giving way to extremes’. Here, in the realm of fascist and racial culture fears and sub rosa warfare, satire is especially valuable. Calls for a deceptive peace through satire’s self censorship in the name of ‘responsibility’ are a chimera.
Fascism in France is a complex, evolving and active political phenomenon. It deserves more attention here soon. For today, it’s worth noting that both Le Pens built the Front National into the third largest political party in France only partly upon French fascist Alain de Benoist’s Nouvelle Droite from 1968 et les autres. Along the way they rejected many of de Benoist’s core beliefs, including his stance against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia (de Benoist consistently has been anti-clerical). Marine Le Pen, even more than her father, combines the most antidemocratic aspects of the ENR with the virulent racialist existentialism of a ersatz Duginism. In a recent mock poll, she beat Hollande for the presidency with 54% of the vote.
It would be a compound tragedy if Le Pen manages to hijack the Charlie Hebdo heartbreak to further the FN’s racist, violent intolerance and gain additional traction. Merkel recently spoke out against German ultra Rightists groups. Europe needs more active affirmation of liberal democratic values. The French political establishment waivers how to deal with the FN in the assassinations’ aftermath. The lights truly go out in Europe if the intolerance of 3 extremists with guns empower the brown barrack intolerance of the crowd.
We reserve comment re putative American GWOT enthusiasts, unencumbered by history, now urging an alliance with the European right against muslims in Europe (and giving a silent nod to Putin). The Russian response reveals much. Putin expresses his sympathy to France. Yet Kremlin front organizations and mainstreamed fascist and nationalist rightists differ.
Russian TV predictably claimed US special forces carried out the attack. Not a few Russian Orthodox activists blamed Charlie Hebdo and call their murder ‘a just punishment’. The Russian Mufti Council denounced both the shooting and Charlie Hebdo’s ‘sin of provocation’. Authoritarian regimes naturally fear and suppress political satire. Putin knows Russia is a multi-ethnic, multi-faith State potential powder keg.
Practical politics aside, the ideological parallels between embracing (i) the Paris attackers; and also (ii) French fascism’s grievance are not accidental. Russian revanchism is based on abstract emotionalism. Hence an obsession to be free from others’ imagination and perceived slights shared with militant Islam. Putin stoked national and racial identity politics; solidarity with FN as fellow kampfer necessarily would become routine. A popular Izvestiya commentator tweeting “Je suis Le Pen, Je suis Front National” (Yegor Holmogorov) is unremarkable.
From the other side, Dugin, Russian fascists and the Russian Orthodox Church have since 2006-2008 cultivated a joint alliance between militant Islam and the ROC for external reasons. Dugin and Kirill, then Metropolitan (now Patriarch since 2009), embraced a joint critique with Islam against the West, denouncing international human rights, legalism and individualism as decadent Western secular offshoots.
In 2013 Dugin hosted at Moscow State University videos for “Eurasia TV”. One promoted Islam with a sheik who allied Islam with Russia, both rejecting Western individualism, elections and voting in favor of tribal (and faith-based) identity politics. The claim is Russia and this ‘authentic’ Islam share a geo-political desire to roll back the West and be free of its narrative.
That rage to be free from hurt feelings (but note, not from inflicting them) is summed up by French citizen Limonov:
The frivolous, obscene, humiliating, cocky and arrogance-filled attitude which was demonstrated by these assholes from Charlie Hebdo does not remain unpunished anymore in the modern world, as we see.”
Limonov’s a marginal gadfly in Russian fascist politics. Yet across the Zaftra set it’s much the same. A highly trivial but telling example: Holmogorov wrote after seeing “Interstellar” his offense that the movie depicts Americans and liberal democracy flying to space from dying Earth to find humanity a new home. His better ending – he envisioned Russian missiles intercepting and destroying the American rockets in mid air, giving fireworks for mankind left to die on Earth.
Victims’ grievance, trapped within someone else’s story, justifies literal and figurative destruction. Creating their own peaceful narratives and tuning out the rest is denied to them. Nihilism doesn’t embrace authentic creation.
Events in France are moving rapidly. The overall ideological challenge will remain after today’s tragic news fades. All the more reason why it’s vital to re-affirm our first principle commitment to inclusive, tolerant, secular liberal democracy. These ideas project great power and strength when we collectively stand for them.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Good catch, didn’t recognize the ‘parallels’ until you mentioned it.
The national debate over ‘Leviathan’ is also instructive. Boris Nemtsov notes the differences how Russian society handled a similarly controversial film by the famous Soviet/Russian director Konchalovsky in the 1990s (Russian). https://www.facebook.com/boris.nemtsov/posts/753384781397791 Here’s the IMDB link to that film. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110289/
‘Leviathan’ is obviously about contemporary Russia but surprisingly speaks to universal life lessons that world wide audiences might recognize. According to Russian condemnation of this film, the State Department was behind it, meaning Foggy Bottom at long last might be an Oscar Winner.
Alex says
His better ending – he envisioned Russian missiles intercepting and destroying the American rockets in mid air, giving fireworks for mankind left to die on Earth.
a less subtle version of the plot of Ben Elton’s “Stark”. one might almost suspect plagiarism.