Arnon Grunberg

Religion

Ironic

This afternoon I gave a talk at the NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study) on the occasion of a workshop on “War Expectations”. Click here for more information about the workshop.
I said, among other things (in Sam Garrett’s translation):

“In 2011, an intercultural advisor working for the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan told me that he thought the mere fact that so many Afghanis had come in contact with Westerners and with Western culture would change that country and make it a little more Western.
Possibly so. This winter, in remote Afghan villages I came across villagers sporting iPhones, but I have my doubts about whether that means that they have also adopted the ironic culture of Apple. Where life is a life-and-death struggle, irony is probably a luxury good. Besides, Afghan culture seems to me to be infused with a romanticism that is, above all, not ironic.
Martyrdom and irony do not mix well. The spread of Western technology does not mean that Western standards and values are being spread too.”

(…)

“For the time being, Europe will remain a museumlike continent, with its citizens as its keepers. But looking at the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to a certain extent also those in Kosovo and Bosnia, I must note that the export of the museum-keeper’s view has not yet been successful and is perhaps even doomed to failure.
Whether this has to do with religion, with tribalism or with economics is a question I will not and cannot answer. I am merely stating my suspicion that it has to do with a radically different understanding of what it means to suffer defeat.
In Europe we have seen that one can suffer defeat and live on, even live on well, as in the case of Germany. In other parts of the world, however, the conviction is that there is no life after defeat.
If the export of the museum-keeper’s view actually does fail, one might fear that the exact opposite will happen. In other words, if Afghanistan will not become more European, we may perhaps be forced to become more Afghan ourselves.”

One of the participants asked if I meant to say that the West has become weak and decadent, and if I wasn’t echoing reactionary criticism of centuries ago.

No, not at all, but weakness is to a certain degree a virtue, and not to be is more civilized than to be. The question is: how civilized do we want to be?

Or to be more precise: do we really believe that surviving is a civilized pastime?

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