Moronic Superiority Complexes

Recently, Bill Maher invited Lou Dobbs, Ben Affleck and terrorism expert Danielle Pletka (2:25 onwards) to his show to discuss -- well, does he ever have any one agenda or theme? He sort of dances all over the place with no intention of a serious discussion.

Anyway, during this episode, Bill started talking about the Muslim tradition of 'naqab', i.e. women veiling their faces and its disappointing that despite Bill Maher having the opportunity to use his soapbox to do some good and engage the public (in HBO's case, the affluent, educated public) in real debate, all he does is perpetuate the stereotype of the arrogant American on his cultural/political/moral high horse. My sister-in-law did accurately point out to me that he considers himself a comedian/satirist and not a real journalist, but even Jon Stewart does some research before approaching his guests and uses his platform to see what the other side has to say, not just slap his opinion on everyone else.

I find it appalling how Bill Maher can call the American way culturally superior to all other cultures without batting an eyelid. In my personal opinion, being culturally superior also inherently means being socially and morally superior - in which case, he should have taken the high road by inviting a Muslim to his show to have a real discussion about the naqab and Islamic way of life, instead of putting on three completely unqualified WASPs to "debate" Islam's cultural oppression.

If America was culturally superior there would be no racism here - let's not forget their ugly history of slavery, and how much law enforcement today depends on racial profiling to do its job, and how private companies rush to fulfill "diversity" and affirmative action requirements the moment any advisory body singles them out as possibly racist.

The "idea" behind America is truly a great one - no doubt about that. How can you find fault with the philosophy "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal"? But America isn't equal and when people like Bill Maher ignore the reality of a broken system, and just mouth off rhetoric about the perfect American way, it's really quite pathetic.

Because let's not kid ourselves -- America currently suffers from a president who is deaf to the demands and needs of his people and his Congress, a Congress that's too involved in getting itself out of a plethora of sexual, corruption and money laundering scandals to legislate effectively, a disenchanted electorate that doesn't actually vote, and a myriad of social problems - rising crime, increasing poverty, an alarming divorce rate and, lets not forget, reality TV. Hardly my idea of a culturally/morally superior nation. Economically, of course, it's a whole different story, and you'd think that Bill Maher would have read enough books by now to understand that equating economic imperialism with cultural superiority is so 10 years ago.

I do think that Lou Dobbs (however thick he may be in general) did have a fair point in asking that Muslims be cognizant of American culture when they're here, just as Americans are in the Muslim world (though lets not pretend that female American journalists are covering their hair out of respect, most likely its fear that they'll be shot if they don't... plus there's plenty of naked Western women lying around on the beaches in Dubai!)

However, you do have to think -- this country was founded by people who came here to escape religious persecution, who founded this country on the belief that every person should have the ability to practice his religion as he pleases. So didn't it occur to Bill Maher that this is America, the land of the free -- and if a woman is wearing a naqab here, she probably believes in it and isn't being forced to wear it? She's exercising a fundamental freedom guaranteed to her by the Bill of Rights.

I also think that Americans would never have bothered to debate about the culture of a foreign, "oppressive" religion before 9/11. People were wearing naqabs before that but now suddenly its a big deal to shield your face as a sign of modesty. This is now being equated to terrorist/Taliban like oppression, and thick-headed people like Bill Maher feel that its their "duty" to "save" these poor women from such inequality considering they're on freedom-filled home turf. He should pause to think about this "savior" impulse, considering it is what also drove Bush to Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussain and now look at the mess he's left with. "We will be greeted as liberators", said Cheney. Yeah, right. If the job of the liberator is have his ass handed to him, sure.

The naqab is a choice, and many Muslims today debate if even hijab is compulsory. I'm not super educated in this realm but if anything I do know that the Qur'an at the very least calls for modesty, which frankly I believe the majority of American parents would be very supportive of considering all recent parenthood studies show that American parents today believe there is too much sex and violence on TV. Even the Superbowl cannot be considered sacrosanct television anymore, what with 5-second delays to control semi-intentional wardrobe malfunctions.

Anyway, perhaps I give people like Bill Maher too much credit. Just because you're on the "intellectual" HBO (that's if you think sex-crazed New Yorker women with too much time on their hands and the bloody escapades of a mafia family equate to intellectual), doesn't mean that you necessarily have to have a superior intellect, if any at all.