'I blame gravity.' 'Eh?' 'Gravity - I blame it.' 'For what?' 'For... traffic accidents, the decline of morals, bad thoughts between work colleagues... oh, you know.' 'Eh? Gravity?' 'Absolutely, I can prove it to you...'
Cue Slavoj Žižek, becoming something of a regular here. This time he's talking to Stephen Sackur (who, I am bound to say, makes a too flattering reference to yours truly) and Sackur puts it to Žižek that he should not be attributing responsibility for Islamic fundamentalist denial of education to girls, the throwing of acid in their faces if they dare to go to school, to global capitalism. But absolutely, Žižek responds, he can prove it: some decades ago Afghanistan used to be a very secular country, and what happened? It was caught up in global politics - including the Soviet occupation - and its 'fundamentalization' was a result precisely of that. Just as telling is what he goes on to say, this time about Kansas. Used to be the bedrock of progressive populism; today Bible belt something-or-other. (Start 14 minutes in - thanks: JB.)
What, then, isn't the result of capitalism? After all, like gravity, it's everywhere. So... the election of Barack Obama and the campaign since mounted against his presidency by the US right? Well, yes - absolutely. The invasion of Iraq and the rule of Saddam Hussein? Quite so. The financial crisis and the attempt to deal with it? And bad human attitudes and the moral philosophy of liberalism? Traffic accidents? Road rage? The decline of educational standards? Yes, a thousand times yes, and absolutely.
And this is the point, isn't it? Making capitalism - or anything - the cause of and responsible for pretty well everything is not a serious causal hypothesis, but a way of having something to blame when you need it.
It's like this column (via Mick) by the witless Simon Tisdall. Intolerance of Christians in the Muslim world? Due 'in a fundamental sense' to... well, why don't we just say the West, for short? No doubt, the attitude of the coach of Egypt's football team is also to be ascribed to the perception of Western delinquencies, as spelled out by Tisdall. If an angry Islamist were to mess up Tisdall's computer and his desk by pouring several gallons of melted vanilla ice cream over them, one can be sure that would also be attributable to 'offensive cartoon caricatures of the prophet Muhammad'. But it would be small loss to contemporary journalism.