The editors of the Wall Street Journal saw fit to print an
article by that French Jew who calls himself philosopher of France if not philosopher of Europe ;
or maybe it is philosopher of the world, extending that to the galaxy if not
the entire universe and beyond. But let it be known that if there is anything
universal about this guy, Bernard-Henri Levy, it is that he has been a
universal calamity for the human race.
He is the one that convinced France
which then convinced NATO to intervene in the Libyan civil war, an act that
turned out to be a bone-headed move that backfired as predicted, with the
consequences that it unleashed a series of calamities in North Africa, the
Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and still metastasizing.
Instead of hiding his head in shame by covering it with a thick layer of
oblivion, this same guy is now addressing Europe
and others to tell them they ought to “Pull Out of Sochi to Protest the Kiev
Massacre.” This happens to be the title of the article he wrote; the one that
the Journal saw fit to print. It also came under the subtitle: “It is absurd,
if not obscene, to pretend that there are two Putins” and was published on
February 20, 2014.
Levy begins the article with what he undoubtedly believes is
the greatest philosophical observation ever made by someone since the beginning
of time: “Two images from Wednesday compete for space in people's minds.” He
goes on to say he saw the “immaculate snow of Sochi ”
and “the bloodied snow around the barricades of Maidan, Kiev 's Independence Square .” Which makes you
wonder: Did they not have television in France for the past half century?
That's all we have been seeing on this planet: One channel showing festivities
and the other showing conflict. One channel showing serenity and the other
showing war. One channel showing a placid landscape and the other showing blood
flowing out the dead and dying bodies of civilians.
And then Levy does something that is so Levy-like, it turns
your stomach. He writes this: “special units of the Ukrainian government, with
Vladimir Putin's seal of approval, attacked the protesters there.” I don't know
how they respond to this kind of assertions in France
or in Europe, but I can see even small kids here in North
America raising their hands to ask: How does he know that? Does he
have any proof? Is there an email that went from Putin to Ukraine 's
special units? Did he intercept such email?
He then goes on to talk about all the bad things that Putin
is supposed to have done in Syria and Chechnya, and without warning to the
reader that he is shifting gear, talks about Spain in the 1930s, Central Europe
in the 1940s and Poland in the 1980s which makes you ask the question: When was
Putin born? But no, he says, he wasn't talking about Putin just now; he was
talking about “democracy never defend[ing] its values.” And you ask yourself:
What kind of a jumbled, disorganized mind is this? What kind of a philosopher
is he?
He goes on to talk about this being an insult to the
intelligence, and a breakage of the heart to which you say amen. It is
certainly an insult to the intelligence to have elevated this thing to the
level of a philosopher; and it breaks your heart to know that apparently this
the best mind that modern France ,
the home of Descartes, is able to produce at this time. What happened to you,
France?
Levy now asks the leaders of the European Union if their
place is not “there in Kiev ,
in the flaming Maidan.” And he offers a suggestion to presidents Holland and Obama, telling them to urgently convene the UN
Security Council to discuss the situation in Ukraine , and to present a formal
notice to the regime there as well as to what he calls its Kremlin patron. And
so you want to know: What kind of notice is that? And what do you think Putin
will do with a notice of this nature, whatever the content will be?
And he makes a final plea to the Olympic committees of the
nations in Sochi
where he says the flame of the Olympic ideal was stolen by a thug and where the
winning athletes bite medals that have the metallic taste of blood. You know
something, my friend? The first thing I ever wrote creatively – which I did
when I was a very small child – was French poetry. I loved abstractions but
this stuff by Levy, if it means anything at all, it is way over my head.
Maybe that's what he meant to do because right after that he
asks: “Do you not see the absurdity?” Had he stopped here, it would all have
made sense; he is recreating the old “Theater of the Absurd.” But no, he does
not stop here. He goes on to tell about two Putins, one with a valet and one
without but with a 2 billion dollar check. That's it; I give up on this guy. I
don't understand him anymore.
And finally, he says that for the sake of democracy, people
should boycott the closing ceremony of the games which he calls the “Games that
were the shame and defeat of Europe .”