ANDREI S. MARKOVITS 23
such thing at all.
If
they changed anything, according to Gellen, they
simply rearranged the Manhattan skyl ine, no more, no less. The cal–
lousness of these comments by such noted and mainstream journalists,
while nowhere near the wanton insanity of the comments made by the
composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (who likened the destruction of the
Twin Towers to the greatest piece of art that he had ever experienced)
were not aberrant or atypical. In no other European country's publica–
tions have concepts like "Auschwitz," "Dresden," and "Hiroshima"
been invoked with such frequency and fervor as in articles and letters to
the editor in Germany. Such sentiments have also been common to the
famed "Stammtisch," Germany's version of pub talk. A clear sense of
"payback time" and a good measure of "Schadenfreude" emerged :
finally, the Americans were getting what they had long deserved and
what escaped them for far too long.
But something else is at stake here other than a hatred of America,
the ultimate progenitor of capitalism and globalization : the hatred of
and assault upon America on the part of Hitler, the terrorists of Sep–
tember
I
rth, the American Right
a
la
McVeigh, and the German Left as
well as the Right have not emerged only because the United States–
and especially New York-are the capital of global capitalism. The
aversion arises also because the United States-and, again, especially
New York-represents the greatest socia l experiment on earth. We have
an existing multicultural society which enemies of the United States
reject.
Citizens from eighty-two countries and United States citizens of every
conceivable religion, ethnicity, and skin color died in the World Trade
Center. Anywhere else this would have been unthinkable, yet this kind
of multiculturalism has become a part of everyday life in New York, and
perhaps in Los Angeles, over the last ten to fifteen years. Potential suc–
cess in constructing a truly multicultural society is as much of a red flag
for the enemies of America as is its leadership in the process of global–
ized capitalism. To be sure, virtually all of these German (indeed Euro–
pean) reactions were also voiced in the United States, particularly
among intellectuals both of the Right and the Left.
However, in the United States one also could observe a number of
important developments that may turn out to be extremely positive in
the long run. To begin with, it is conspicuous how immediately after a
few sporadic racist outbreaks against Arab (or presumably Arab-looking)
citizens, all the responsible authorities strongly condemned these
actions. Whether these were university presidents or local and national
media, everywhere one hears and reads about how all Arab citizens of
