Re: An odd addition to the axis of evil

From: AaronLynch@aol.com
Date: Wed Feb 13 2002 - 14:36:10 GMT

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    From: <AaronLynch@aol.com>
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    Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 09:36:10 EST
    Subject: Re: An odd addition to the axis of evil
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    In a message dated 2/13/2002 6:38:29 AM Central Standard Time, Vincent
    Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> writes:

    > Hi everyone,
    >
    > Saw this in 'The Times' last Friday, thought it was interesting:
    >
    > [From the Media Diary]
    >
    > 'The readers of the Weekly Standard, bible of American neo-conservatives
    and
    > a distant colonial cousin of this newspaper [owned by Murdoch then...],
    have
    > an unusual grasp of foreign affairs. In its Question of the Week section,
    > readers were asked to nominate a fourth member for George W.Bush's Evil
    Axis
    > of Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Syria was suggested by 32 per cent of
    > readers, Libya by 7 per cent, but the runaway winner was France which
    polled
    > 41 per cent.'
    >
    > I guess the memories of the French nearly bringing down GATT still rankles
    > with the readers of the Weekly Standard. Either that or the meaning of
    > 'axis of evil'- which went down incredibly badly in Europe, particularly
    > within the corridors of the EU- means something very different to right
    wing
    > Americans...
    >
    > Hence, and here's the memetics link, how could anyone argue that it's the
    > idea of an 'axis of evil' that's the meme, as I presume some would?
    >
    > Vincent

    Hi Vincent.

    I doubt that GATT had anything to do with this. Instead, many American
    neo-conservatives view the world in terms of Evangelical Christianity and
    religious morality. I haven't asked neo-conservatives about France, but they
    probably see that country as having loose morals, as favoring big government,
    and lacking Evangelical Christian faith. Their xenophobia probably resembles
    that expressed by Pat Robertson several years ago when he referred to
    Scotland as a "dark land filled with homosexuals" (or some such).

    The "axis of evil" phrase was not widely used until Bush's state of the union
    speach before Congress.

    --Aaron Lynch
     

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