Back at the old version of this blog, I wrote a short piece that suggested that Theo Van Gogh's brutal murder presented a "special problem" for Western progressives. Specifically, I said it was a koan — either to be wrestled with, or completely ignored.
I should have added then (so I will now) that the exact same thing is the case for Western progressives (i.e., non-classical liberals) with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. In my own survey of the blogosphere, I am continually amazed at just how much Ali and Van Gogh are completely ignored by the progressives. But, again, I think I know why. Koans are difficult to deal with. The temptation at every juncture is to say, "to hell with this" and go on pretending the confusion isn't there. Or to convince oneself that there is no confusion. It is human nature to take the path of least resistance. The problem is that learning is never that path.
Jay Nordlinger echoes all of this, in his own way, here (scroll down a bit). His kosmic kwote:
Hirsi Ali, as you know, is the phenomenally brave woman from Holland, who was born in Somalia and now lives in the United States. And I don’t know whether anyone else in the world so discomforts liberals and leftists. I will indulge in psychological speculation:
She discomforts them because she highlights their own cowardice before the jihad. They would rather not focus on things that Hirsi Ali knows we should focus on. They would rather think about global warming — in which the villains are George W. Bush, the Republican party, and capitalism. You know: very easy. When you criticize Republicans and SUV-drivers, they don’t put a knife through your chest.
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