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Merry Christmas to All, and Some Thoughts on Turkish Thugs
Merry Christmas, Ricochet! Or Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it and, otherwise, merry day in which you eat Chinese food and go to the movies. To those I’ve offended by mentioning Christmas, I apologize for my insensitive remarks. I promise I will learn and grow from the experience.
Speaking of things one must not say, I just published a piece in City Journal about the recent news from Turkey. As I stress in it, it’s not just news from Turkey, but news from America — news from the Poconos Mountains, in particular — and thus properly filed under “domestic news.”
It’s normal that Americans view news from Turkey as less important than other stories in the headlines. After all, Turks aren’t doing anything quite so attention-grabbing as hacking Sony, destabilizing the postwar European order, or rampaging through the Middle East as they behead, rape, crucify, and enslave everything in their path. Thus, the reader who has noticed the news from Turkey might believe the story goes something like this: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the authoritarian thug running Turkey, has been rounding up journalists who bravely exposed his corruption.
That American readers now understand that Erdoğan is a corrupt authoritarian is an improvement. (They may vaguely recall that not long ago, he was viewed by the large parts of the Western intelligentsia—and by the very same news organs reporting the latest developments—as a liberal-minded reformer.) But this is actually a story about two thugs.
That double-thugged aspect tends to be downplayed in much of the reporting on the matter, which makes me a bit berserk: so much so that my City Journal editors rightly suggested I “tone it down” a bit. I am sure they were right and I’m sure I would have done so in their place. I guess the piece didn’t really need seventeen uses of the word “thug.”
I was a bit surprised to learn that we’re no longer allowed to use the phrase “oriental subtlety” in America, though. But if we’re not, we’re not. So don’t for a moment imagine that I might be the kind of person who originally prefaced the word “subtlety” with “oriental.”
Anyway, you can read all about it in City Journal. I’m sure that paying attention to the details of Turkish news is precisely what you feel like doing on Christmas Eve. (And, alas, I suspect very few Americans are paying attention to those details, where the devil is to be found, as usually he is.)
But — if you’re in a hurry to get back to your family and think about pretty much anything else — here’s the short version: to anyone who follows the news from Turkey, it’s obvious that the country is in the grip of a hysterical and paranoid power struggle between two thugs (Islamists both, of mildly different strains), and probably a number of other thugs, too. But one thing’s for sure: if you read an article on the matter that doesn’t mention at least two thugs, and stress that one of them — for reasons no one understands — is in the United States, it’s not serving you well. That there are two key thugs and many key details is not obvious from the way this story’s generally been covered. I think that’s a bit of a shame.
That said, some Americans, like Reuben Silverman — a graduate student in San Diego — do pay close attention. His blog is proof that it’s at least theoretically possible to mind these details carefully, and that doing so is not literally beyond the intellectual capacity of a Westerner. If a bright graduate student in San Diego can do this, I assume someone within the collective employ of Western governments can do it, too, and is. But I may be mistaken, because we are showing no sign of it.
This is unfortunate. So I did my best. Anyway, if the press had been doing its job, the tweet below would make you laugh until your eyes water. If it doesn’t, keep reading until it does. Because it will.
Fixed it for you! #Turkey pic.twitter.com/rQaZA5kjzv
— Erik Meyersson (@emeyersson) December 22, 2014
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Published in General
GG,
Gulen has 146 Charter Schools in 26 states & DC. He has lots of students. He imports mostly Turkish teachers who specialize in Math & Science. As far as I know the parents are happy customers as we in America have lost the “sputnik” drive that was so strong when I was growing up.
The questions are whether there are other motives behind this and have there been any ‘side effects’ in these schools. I don’t know any specifics but just the size of his involvement gives one pause.
Regards,
Jim
Gulen meets a real need. It is up the America to bring up a fresh field of STEM teachers whose ideology we do not have to worry about because they have been recruited by someone like Gulen.
A fair point.
The reason I ask is that my son went to an award-winning math/science charter high school, and one of the things about that experience his mother and I appreciated was the much greater transparency with respect to curriculum content, classroom process, administration, etc. than we experienced with LAUSD.
Now, if Gülen literally ran a madras, say in Dearborn, MI, I agree the problem would be obvious. But I do wonder what the issue is with teaching math and science—even with Turkish teachers. That’s setting aside the transparent concern trolling in which Gülen is merely the stalking horse for an attack on charter schools—period.
Anecdote (i.e. not data): I interview candidates for software engineering roles at $DAYJOB, a Fortune 100 American tech company. I can’t recall the last time I interviewed a natural-born American.
GG,
I don’t want to comment one way or the other about Gulen. However, it looks to me that the issue you are talking about is the effect of the last 40 years of endless leftward fantasy running education in America. Charter Schools are filling the gap for quality education before college. Common Core is supposed to be about this too. However, it sounds like Common Core is just the left’s attempt to co-opt the desire for quality with one more very large gimmick that loses the quality it’s supposed to bring back.
Regards,
Jim
Claire GG and all,
I did a little quick investigation of my own. Not the kind that might be required by a government but what I like to investigate. Gulen became a member of the Nursi Movement when he was very young. Said Nursi is a very interesting Turkish religious figure. He wrote his own theological interpretations of the Koran. The quote that caught my eye is below.
This ‘non-physical jihad’ or ‘jihad of the word’ is what I have been talking about in dealing with Islam. I called it Mystical Jihad v. Literal Jihad. The mystical interpretation of Koran allows for jihad to be seen as an internal personal struggle of the soul.
Jihad of the word (Mystical Jihad) constitutes my minimum requirement for rapprochement with Islam as physical jihad (Literal Jihad) removes the possibility of co-existence.
I am saying nothing in direct reference to Gulen or the present political situation in Turkey. However, I find this interesting.
Regards,
Jim
Good Shabbos
Regards,
Jim
I have a question: Claire, when are you leaving Turkey?
And a consideration. In Islam children are prized so the use of contraception would be an aberration. Why hasn’t that recognition been made?
Claire, the phrase “Turkish thug” is redundant. If you don’t believe me, ask a Greek or an Armenian.
I believe she now lives in Paris.
Yet the birth rates are falling – in Turkey and in Iran. BOTH national leaders (well, Ahmadinawhackjob) decried the phenomenon and both have exhorted their nations to have more children.
In the end, having children is a sign of hope and love. The more you feel this, the more children you have it seems. Islam can say what it wishes, it will only have the birth rate its population feels.
So while we note “high” birth rates among the muslims in Europe, it is more that the Europeans’ birth rates are so low as to harbor extinction that makes this notable. And Iran clearly has a problem. As does Turkey.
Yes, that’s correct. Sorry to be a bit late on this one; I’ve been focusing on cardiac surgery in Bangalore (long but very interesting story); however I do now live in Paris (another long but interesting story).
Cardiac Surgery in Bangalore?
I hope it was for a story, and did not involve either you or anyone you know.
Happy New year, Claire!