It's a total failure of the Western imagination that the only enemy they can see is Adolph Hitler. Tariq Ali More Quotes by Tariq Ali More Quotes From Tariq Ali The European Union is effectively a union dominated by the German political and economic elite. Its main function is to serve as a nucleus for financial capitalism and to ease the road for that capitalism. The other functions just irritate everyone: it's undemocratic; decisions are not made by parliament; the European Parliament is not sovereign. Tariq Ali politicaldecisionease The European Union is a union of the extreme center. It's a banker's union. You see how they operate in country after country, appointing technocrats to take over and run countries for long periods. They did it in Greece; they did it in Italy; they considered it in other parts of Europe. Tariq Ali runningeuropecountry At the moment we have a critical situation in Greece. Even as we speak, where there is an open attempt by the EU to destroy Syriza by splitting it. There is a German obstinacy and utter refusal to seriously consider an alternative. The reason isn't even a lack of money, because money swims around the EU coffers endlessly, and they could write off the debt tomorrow if they wanted. But they don't want to do so, because of the election of a left-wing government. They want to punish Syriza in public, to humiliate it so that this model doesn't go any further than Greece. Tariq Ali governmentwritingwings I think Syriza and Podemos are very, very different from Sinn Féin in many ways, and so I wouldn't put all three together. I would say that Syriza and Podemos are movements which have come out of mass struggles. In the case of Podemos, directly out of tariqaliextremehuge mass movements in Spain, which started with the occupation of the square. In Greece, as a response to what the EU was doing there, punishing it endlessly, for the sins of its ruling elite. Tariq Ali squaresstrugglethinking Tony Blair is a war criminal. Tariq Ali blaircriminalswar Most Iraqis, even if they hated Saddam and suffered, say life was much better under him than it was under the occupation and what's going on today. Tariq Ali occupationhatedtoday The past has too much knowledge embedded in it, and therefore it's best to forget it and start anew. Tariq Ali too-muchforgetpast I think the Americans fished out the same condom but found it had too many holes in it. Tariq Ali condomholesthinking Dear old al-Maarri was a great skeptic poet. He wrote a parody of the Koran, and his friends would tease him and say, "al-Maarri, but no one says your Koran." And he said, "Yes, but give me time. Give me time. If people recite it for twenty years it will become as popular as the other one." Tariq Ali givingpeopleyears There was a good moment in Islam when people were actually challenging authority at every level. Very different from the world we live in. Tariq Ali islamchallengespeople The Internet has been an invaluable acquisition. I wonder how we would do without it. Information can be sent from one country to the other within the space of minutes, crossing channels, crossing oceans, crossing continents. But still, we can't compete with the might and power and wealth of those who dominate, control, and own the means of the production of information today. Tariq Ali oceanmeancountry The U.S. is telling the Northern Alliance to kill Taliban prisoners. It's totally a breach of all the known conventions of war. Western television networks aren't showing this, but Arab networks are showing how prisoners are being killed and what's being done to them. Instead, we're shown scenes that are deliberately created for the Western media: a few women without the veil, a woman reading the news on Kabul television, and 150 people cheering. Tariq Ali cheerreadingwar History, when they do it, is ancient history, and they sensationalize even that. Contemporary history is virtually ignored on television. Tariq Ali ancientignoredtelevision We have populations now in the West with a very short memory span. One reason for this short memory span is that television over the last fifteen years has seen a big decline in the coverage of the rest of the world. Tariq Ali populationmemoriesyears The implication strongly is that Osama bin Laden is a Hitler, even though he has no state power at all. It's just grotesque if you seriously think about it. Tariq Ali osama-bin-ladenstatesthinking Gamal Abdal Nasser, the nationalist leader of Egypt, was described by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden as an Egyptian Hitler. Then it carried on like that. Saddam Hussein became Hitler when he was no longer a friend of the West. Then Milosevic became Hitler. Tariq Ali egyptedenleader The United States is now The Empire. There isn't an empire; there's The Empire, and that empire is the United States. Tariq Ali empiresunited-statesstates History rarely repeats itself, but its echoes never go away. Tariq Ali awaynevergohistory 'Theogony' should be read before the great Homeric epics because it gives an account of the cosmology that is taken for granted by Homer. It does for paganism what the Old Testament attempted to do for monotheism. Tariq Ali oldbecausegreattaken-for-granted I am, in general, favourable to activism and social movements and hostile to graft and corruption. Tariq Ali generali-amcorruptionsocial
