Those Planes Really Hit Europe

Forget about certain inane elements of the American left's response to 9/11. Here's a mind-numbing takeon the real meaning of the attacks from increasingly prominent Euro intellectual, Slavoj Zizek:

"The true politico-ideological catastrophe of 11 September was that of Europe. The result of 11 September is the unheard-of strengthening of the American hegemony in all its aspects. Europe succumbed to a kind of ideologico-political blackmail of the USA….And at this point where the reference to mere survival enters the stage as the ultimate legitimisation, that we are dealing with political ideology at its purest. On behalf of the 'war on terror', a certain positive vision of global political relations is silently imposed on us Europeans.

And if the emancipatory legacy of Europe is to survive, one should take the 11 September fiasco as the last warning that the time is running up, that Europe should move fast to ascertain itself as an autonomous ideological, political and economic force with its own priorities. The Left should unabashedly appropriate the slogan of unified Europe as a counterforce to Americanised globalism."

The emancipatory legacy of Europe! Among many other things, there's a deft move to airbrush Europe's leading role in making the 20th century extremely bloody both there and abroad. Instead the real problem is increased global trade, a stalking horse for Americanization despite the rising economic power of China, India and others.