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Ask Me Anything
Here’s a confession. The hardest part of my job is deciding what I should write about every day. Every single day, I wake up and scour the news, trying to decide what’s most important. I take this responsibility (and myself) so seriously you’d think I was compiling the President’s Daily Brief. I worry non-stop that I’m going to fail to bring the most important news or the critically important argument to your attention, and that as a consequence of my negligence, the Free World shall perish.
I caught myself doing this today and decided this was seriously neurotic.
So today’s ask me anything day. Within the bounds of the CoC, I’m here today to answer any question you have. I’ll try to do that to the best of my abilities, which are in truth very limited and modest.
Go for it.
Published in General
Was Arsalan from Lion Eyes inspired by a real person? What about Immie (perhaps the funniest character of any modern novel I have read)?
Have you ever been to Shiraz?
From your perspective, how do you see the future (near and mid-term) of the non-NATO, European former Soviet republics and fellow travelers. I’m thinking Albania around to Armenia. I have a special interest in Moldova (where my wife served in the Peace Corps).
Really good question. I’m not typical. I look at the news in a way most media consumers don’t. Most people in France and Turkey don’t read or watch or listen to the US media at all, whereas I try to follow it as closely as I can. I also read (and watch) many outlets that I don’t think do a very good job of covering the news, because I want to figure out where people who don’t agree with me are getting their opinions.
I’m shocked — even from here — by the stories that predominate in the US, or more precisely, by those that don’t. Over the past decade, for a number of reasons that I’ve written about, foreign news has dropped off the US media radar — although recently outlets such as Vice have been moving — very effectively — to fill that niche. Because I skim many foreign newspapers every day from regions and countries that interest me, I’m often really surprised that Americans are surprised by a story that’s been developing for months or years.
For example, every time the US media uses the phrase, “Since Paris and San Bernardino,” I’m baffled. These weren’t the first ISIS attacks beyond the so-called Caliphate; they were prefaced by a long string of attacks in Libya, Tunisia (Bardo and Sousse), Yemen, Cairo, Turkey (Diyarbakır, Suruç, Ankara), Cairo again (the downing of a Russian passenger jet), and Beirut — so these must have gone mostly unnoticed in the US, or dismissed perhaps as “normal for places like that,” which most emphatically they were not.
The other thing that I think people don’t realize is that the Internet changes, depending where you are geographically. Google feeds you news stories, in part, based on their assessment of what you’re interested in; if you’re in France, you’ll get French stories, unless you deliberately train Google by not clicking on them. Many stories are censored in Turkey, so you don’t know about them until you fly out of Turkey.
If my job didn’t require me to keep up with the US news closely, and if I only followed mainstream French stories, I think I’d have a fair-to-middling grasp of what’s going on in the US, but I’d miss many important nuances. But I think France does a better job of covering the US than vice-versa: If I only read about France from mainstream US news outlets — or from American bloggers — I’d have a completely distorted view. And the mainstream media’s coverage of Turkey during the time I lived there was so ridiculously inaccurate and misleading that I could hardly blame Turks who concluded it was some kind of conspiracy. After all, Americans are supposed to be smart and all-knowing — so when The New York Times, e.g., gets basic facts about the place totally wrong, it’s hard for Turks to believe that it isn’t deliberate, especially when they fail to correct them.
I have a lot of sympathy for mainstream US media outlets that have trouble getting the basics right about countries that are very difficult to report on, but I’ve been baffled by how bad the reporting on France has been since I got back here. Paris isn’t exactly a hardship posting, and you don’t need a flak jacket to report on any neighborhood in France. So especially in the wake of the two big terrorist attacks last year, I was really shocked by the amount of pure nonsense that was floating around the US media.
OK. What kind of fiction do you like? Who are your favorite authors? How about music? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have any other interests than politics and international affairs?
Jacques Brel, George Brassens, Serge Gainsbourg, Claude Nougaro, Jeanne Moreau, Michel Jonasz … Michel Jonasz? And yes, I confess a weakness for Patricia Cass.
Does Cesaria Evora count?
Wow. Interesting question. No, I don’t think so; or at least, I don’t see how it could have been won, in the long term. By that point the anti-imperialism movement was far too advanced. The brutality of the French war effort poisoned French relations with the Islamic world in a way that’s still felt very deeply. The difference now between Franco-Moroccan relations and Franco-Algerian relations (not to mention the difference between Algeria and Morocco) suggests that the problem might in fact be a lot less acute now had France not prosecuted the war at all and abandoned Algeria without a fight. I don’t think the effect of events like this can be understated.
But in a completely counter-factual world — one in which France anticipated the FLN and forestalled it by making every Algerian an equal citizen of France — well, we’d have a very different France, for sure. Whether we’d have a very different Islam, I don’t know: we might have had a different kind of Algerian Islam. Too hard to say.
Given that the classical gold standard was an international standard, is there enough international cooperation left in the world or enough US economic power to bring it back?
Marco Rubio, for a number of reasons. First, I think he has the best chance of being accepted as legitimate by both Democrats and Republicans, and right now I think the level of domestic political polarization is the biggest domestic problem we’ve got. Second, even though he’s made a few comments about foreign policy that have made me wince, he seems to have a better handle on both the facts and the extent of the challenges than any of the other candidates — and a vision of the US’ role that makes far more sense to me than the others. Third, he seems to be the only candidate who’s thought deeply about the nature of the changes to the global economy and what they really imply for the US, and how much of a transformation the US economy has to go through to stay competitive — but he’s managed to convey these ideas this in a way that’s optimistic rather than terrifying, which is an important gift.
Finally, I’m pro-immigration — a lot of it — and don’t think we’ve got a hope of staying competitive without it. I’m unconcerned by the so-called Gang of Eight “betrayal” that drives many here nuts. I don’t think we’re going to drown in Mexicans, not even close, and I don’t think our immigration policy is a plot to ensure a Democratic majority — unless we turn it into one by making ourselves a party that’s repulsive to immigrants, which would be the most tragic own goal imaginable. Immigrants are natural allies of conservatives. If they hate the GOP, it’s our fault: The anti-immigrant rhetoric is the best way I can imagine to ensure no immigrant would ever feel comfortable with the GOP in power.
His vision of the United States — as the only country in the world founded on ideas, not ethnicity — is deeply important to me.
I’m not without reservations (many, in fact), but that’s how I’d vote as of today.
Do I have to choose? If I do, I’d say sanitation, and let Indian entrepreneurialism take care of education — because I think it will.
What do you think of Mark Steyn?
Advanced age? From your avatar and your enthusiasm I picture you no older than your mid thirties, but possibly even younger. How old are you? If don’t wish to answer that one, that’s fine with me. :)
Hired top-flight Western campaign consultants, as I’m sure the AKP did. And spent much more money lobbying the West, as the AKP did. And they should have vigorously challenged the idea, from the outset, that the AKP a) had a monopoly on piety and b) was the only party able to bring peace to the Southeast. They got stuck in the 1990s and they just couldn’t evolve.
A question one never asks a lady! Especially if you can google the answer.
My question: Claire what errors appear in your wikipedia bio?
It’s been in the news, but not at all at the top of the headlines. You can check out the front pages of a few different French newspapers from across the political spectrum to get a sense of how low on the list of France’s concerns this is. Google translate will give you the jist:
Figaro (center-right)
L’Humanité (left)
La Croix (Catholic)
And here’s a French media review in English.
Germany has had a large Turkish “gastarbeiter” community since the 1950s. What do they think of the recent flood of Muslim immigrants?
Well, first, I don’t know that it has one — last the matter was put to the electorate, the Republicans did very well, and we won’t really know how successful the Party’s communication is now until the next election. But it does seem to me that the GOP often presents itself in ways that do it needless harm, and that’s probably because a) it’s deeply internally divided about what it stands for; b) there are many Republicans who either just aren’t very talented politicians, or are really out of touch with the rest of the country; and c) there seems to be a leadership deficit in the Party, with very few members capable of explaining what I think of as conservative ideas — or in the older parlance, liberal democratic ideas — to a generation that really doesn’t understand them.
Can you clarify? I think I know what you mean, but I’m not sure.
Do you mean, for example, trying, imprisoning, and/or executing a criminal? Passing laws that apply to a whole citizenry? Raising taxes? There are many circumstances in which it’s moral for a group to do what would not be moral if done by one person alone. Maybe I need clarification about this question, too; I may not be understanding it.
The use of our nukes in Japan is an interesting side note here. For the best summary of the war realities and ethical components of those bombings, view Bill Whittle’s video explaining why Mr. Seymour is 100% correct. https://vimeo.com/71774851
I love this post! My question: what are your thoughts about the Jews in Europe? In which countries do you think anti-Semitism is a minor issue? And in which countries do you think the dangers are becoming much worse?
So much. I don’t even know where to start on this one. Perhaps the two biggest lessons are these: 1) Americans take America, freedom, and American influence in the world for granted in a way that’s both ungrateful and deeply delusional. America is exceptional, but Americans are not: It’s our founding ideas that are exceptional. 2) I think Americans would be well-served by swapping out two years of high school with two years of working abroad. Not studying, and not partying, either, but trying to start a business and earn a living abroad. And not in Paris, either, but in countries like India, Brazil, and China. I don’t think there could be any faster, more effective way to impress upon Americans what we’ve really got and why we want to keep it, and I’m sure most would come back with a much better sense of what they need to study, and why, to be competitive in a global economy — as well as the motivation to do it.
I don’t think Americans get much out of spending those years in high school, and it seems to me both parents and students are conspiring to keep millennials from becoming adults. That’s the fast-track to it.
Claire, sorry but this simply isn’t true. All data show that Hispanics are not motivated by immigration when voting. John Grant covered it, much of it analyzed by Tino Sanandaji, in a post three years ago — data upon which the bien pensant can only heap obfuscating scorn, as witness the comments section. Hispanics heavily favor Democrats on Obamacare, taxes, welfare, gun control, energy policy, and foreign affairs. They are not natural conservatives. They vote 70% Democrat even fourth generation of being in the U.S. Their family illegitimacy rate is 53%.
The biggest reason why California, my own state, is locked-up permanently for Democratic statism is that it’s inundated with people whose views of the political world has been deeply shaped by the peonage system of Spanish-Catholic colonialism. Hispanics have a deeply ingrained clientelist view of the political world.
Which is to say, people are not naturally self-interested, rational utility maximizers. There is no spontaneous order.
My question for you is, what would America be like if all 122 million Mexicans got up and moved to the United States? Would the country still be the same?
Also, do you read Heather MacDonald and Victor Hanson on immigration?
Ever since I saw her picture in the society pages of a Brazilian newspaper, I have thought not just that Tatiana Bubniak is a wonderful girl, and not just that “Tatiana Bubniak” is a wonderful name, but that every girl should call herself “Tatiana Bubniak” every once in a while. It just sounds great. I held to this completely untested belief for many years, until one day, considering some Magyar study materials, I came across the work of Zsuzsa Pontifex. I thought: this one’s even better. Think of all the cool things you can say with that as your affected name. Like: “The hell with this burqa – I’m Zsuzsa Pontifex!” Or: “Zsuzsa Pontifex here, with the only two things you need to know about that handbag that Oprah couldn’t reach: today it’s free, and today it’s mine.”
I have no idea what the real Zsuzsa (or Tatiana) says, but I bet it’s got an edge. Anyway, as a girl, what do you think?
I think he’s a great writer, consistently witty and readable, but I think his ideas are becoming tired. I understand that — if you’ve got a winning formula, you stick with it — but I don’t read him for new ideas or a fresh perspective.
47. Soon to be 48.
I have a notion that everyone has an arrondisement, the way everyone has a Zodiac sign. Do you agree?
Agreed that there was never a possibility of a South African style compromise between the pieds-noirs and the FLN. Perhaps if there had been however:
That I don’t know. I would assume they feel positive about accepting Syrian refugees. Turkey has accepted two million refugees, so I would assume that they share the sense of most Turks that it’s a moral responsibility to give refuge to the victims of the conflict. I’m just guessing, but I’d assume some are hopeful that this will presage an idea of German citizenship that includes them more fully; I’d assume others are frightened of an anti-immigrant backlash that will be directed toward them. It’s a good question, and if I were there, I’d love to ask them. Maghrebi immigrants in France are scared to death of another terrorist attack, for obvious reasons, but those I’ve spoken to are well aware that the risk doesn’t come from Syrian refugees, but from second- and third-generation immigrants.
“The rights to which the Americans appealed to justify their independence were rights which they shared with all human beings everywhere. This is the true meaning of American exceptionalism, and it is one that can never be shared with any other nation.”
–Jaffa, Harry V. (2012-08-26). Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West (Kindle Locations 278-280). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Nice list. Don’t know Cesaria. And Yves Montand too?