The Volokh Conspiracy - Enjoying the Fruits of Liberalism, and Rejecting the "Costs":

Given that newspapers, bloggers, t.v. stations, etc. in all Western countries have now published or shown the offending Mohammed illustrations, and given that the public in many Muslim countries doesn't seem to distinguish between what individuals do and their countries (given that the state apparently has an obligation to censor "blasphemy"), it strikes me that the boycott should spread to all Western goods and technology. Here's a comment I can respect from the Washington Post:

"I am not willing to buy any product from a country that has insulted my prophet, my religion and my dignity as a Muslim," said Leila Faleh, 42, a hospital administrator shopping at the store. "I would rather go back to drinking milk from a cow and eating dates."

Yes, go back to drinking milk from a cow, and eating dates. Go back to a 35 year life-span, to a world without antibiotics and anesthesia, to a world where human slaves are bought and sold, and lfe is cheap. Do without your cars, refrigerators, television, and cell phones. But please, don't enjoy the fruits of Western liberalism and then violently reject the freedom that not only accompanies it, but that was a necessary precondition to it. The Middle East is in desperate need not of democracy, but liberalism.

If Ayn Rand were still alive, she would probably suggest that WE boycott THEM, wondering how we let cultures that left to their own devices would be living like the Patriarchs came to threaten us with our own technology. The sanction of the victim, indeed.

UPDATE: I wasn't trying to be subtle, so I must have just been unclear. The problem is not with the boycotters, though to be consistent they should be boycotting a lot more than Danish cheese. The problem is with those who threaten, engage in, or even merely support violence against the West, precisely because of its liberalism (including the fact that one could publish "blasphemous" pictures of Mohammed without being arrested) [for example, see these pictures from a London protest], but meanwhile benefit from all the benefits that liberalism has provided them.

	[David Bernstein, February 3, 2006 at 10:19am] Trackbacks Enjoying the Fruits of Liberalism, and Rejecting the "Costs": Given that newspapers, bloggers, t.v. stations, etc. in all Western countries have now published or shown the offending Mohammed illustrations, and given that the public in many Muslim countries doesn't seem to distinguish between what individuals do and their countries (given that the state apparently has an obligation to censor "blasphemy"), it strikes me that the boycott should spread to all Western goods and technology. Here's a comment I can respect from the Washington Post: "I am not willing to buy any product from a country that has insulted my prophet, my religion and my dignity as a Muslim," said Leila Faleh, 42, a hospital administrator shopping at the store. "I would rather go back to drinking milk from a cow and eating dates." Yes, go back to drinking milk from a cow, and eating dates. Go back to a 35 year life-span, to a world without antibiotics and anesthesia, to a world where human slaves are bought and sold, and lfe is cheap. Do without your cars, refrigerators, television, and cell phones. But please, don't enjoy the fruits of Western liberalism and then violently reject the freedom that not only accompanies it, but that was a necessary precondition to it. The Middle East is in desperate need not of democracy, but liberalism. If Ayn Rand were still alive, she would probably suggest that WE boycott THEM, wondering how we let cultures that left to their own devices would be living like the Patriarchs came to threaten us with our own technology. The sanction of the victim, indeed. UPDATE: I wasn't trying to be subtle, so I must have just been unclear. The problem is not with the boycotters, though to be consistent they should be boycotting a lot more than Danish cheese. The problem is with those who threaten, engage in, or even merely support violence against the West, precisely because of its liberalism (including the fact that one could publish "blasphemous" pictures of Mohammed without being arrested) [for example, see these pictures from a London protest], but meanwhile benefit from all the benefits that liberalism has provided them.