Who Can Really Say?

Symbolism Kills, Complexly

It's only late January but Tim Blair has found what he says may be the single most revolting comment we'll read this year. It's from Manchester University Professor of Cultural Theory, Terry Eagleton, who explains why suicide bombers are just like World Trade Center jumpers:

It is possible to act in a way that makes your death inevitable without actually desiring it. Those who leapt from the World Trade Centre to avoid being incinerated were not seeking death, even though there was no way they could have avoided it.

Gee, if you look at it that way, a suicide bomber is just like a self-immolating Buddhist Monk. Almost noble, actually -- at least until a synapse fires. Yeah, it takes that long.

Eagleton goes on to explain that "Blowing yourself up for political reasons is a complex symbolic act . . . ." I wonder if he thinks that assisting the death wishes of Islamofascists by killing them first is also a symbolic act, if only a simple one at that? Nah. Another synapse just fired.

Suicidally linked to the Beltway Traffic Jam.

Posted by Peter at January 27, 2005 08:05 PM