Lee Bollinger and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University

October 30, 2008

 
 

Lee Bollinger of Columbia University, in spite of his pretensions to the contrary, was a gullible victim of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Bollinger unwittingly gave Ahmadinejad a forum from which to pontificate to the world, a platform from which he could do what totalitarian regimes always do in their foreign relations: fool the outside world by presenting themselves as nontotalitarian states, as cooperative members of the comity of nations (Hannah Arendt).

 
 

That is, Bollinger presented Ahmadinejad with an assembly in which to lie to the world about Iran’s ruling elite and their ultimate intentions. Further, the event was part of a distinguished speakers series, thus assisting Ahmadinejad all the more in spinning his lies to the credulous as supposed truth. Now, to be sure, we know that Bollinger went out of his way to insult and to come to terms with Ahmadinejad, calling him “a petty and cruel tyrant.” So doesn’t that make up for giving him a speaker’s platform? Actually, no, it doesn’t.

 
 

Ahmadinejad used the opportunity to attempt refutation of the charges, first of all, so it’s a flat whitewash there. Second, by inviting and meeting with Ahmadinejad, Bollinger is setting the precedent of asking totalitarian figures to all of a sudden become nontotalitarian: these leaders are too far gone into their world of fiction, and by asking them to come back to the real world we play into their hands. They are emboldened by being courted. Worse, Bollinger is even failing to see at all that Ahmadinejad is indeed a leader from a totalitarian state.

 
 

A few insults don’t change anything if we launch them from a basic perception that this person, who actually comes from a world of complete repression, is somehow from the nontotalitarian world. That, ultimately, is the damage Bollinger did: by inviting Ahmadinejad, he implies that Ahmadinejad is like us, someone who is nontotalitarian. That is to say, why would we ever invite someone to speak who we knew was and is a totalitarian leader? Ergo, Ahmadinejad must not be a totalitarian leader, if Lee Bollinger has invited him.

 
 

Tony Downing