Perugia, a jewel of the West

At this page at the True Justice for Meredith Kercher site there are several photographs of Rudy Guede. He’s a total criminal type, it’s written all over him. It’s a face and an expression we see every day in the crime pages of the newspaper. And college students in Perugia were hanging out and socializing with this obvious thug, who would probably just as soon gobble up and eat them as smoke a joint with them.

Also, on this page are many photos of the murder house and of Perugia. The view from Meredith’s bedroom window, the room where she was murdered, is ravishingly beautiful. (I’m sorry to use the word “ravishing” in this context, but it felt like the right word.) So in this enchantingly beautiful medieval city on a hill, with its winding streets, arches, and alley ways, college students from many countries come, basically to engage in non-stop partying, drug consumption, and sexual hookups, not only with each other, but, apparently, with the various Third World and African males who have become a part of the city and have learned how easy it is to partake of the local (or rather foreign) female goods. When you read about Amanda’s life there, there is no indication that she was going to classes or doing any kind of academic work. What, then, is the Junior year abroad? It’s American parents sending their children to have lots of sex in a foreign country. But this is only right and proper. What, after all, is a liberal arts education for? To make a young person into a citizen of our civilization. And since our civilization today is the civilization of liberalism, relativism, radical personal autonomy, female empowerment, and non-discrimination, the universities are just doing their job—and doing it damned well. Amanda’s problem was that she took her liberal studies just a bit too seriously.

It’s shaping up as one of the major media cover-ups of all time, the U.S. media’s systematic presentation of false information exculpating Amanda Knox, and concealment of true information damaging to Amanda Knox. Why have they done it? The answer seems to be, because it fits the liberal script. The Italians (not in reality, but according to the liberal script as it applies to this situation), are puritanical, narrow, rigid, and prejudiced against the bold, sexually free Amanda. And so Amanda had to be defended at all costs. But we should not criticize the media for this. They, too, have their job, as the guardians and tribunes of our civilization.

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A. Zarkov writes:

Mr. Auster writes:

“So in this enchantingly beautiful medieval city on a hill, with its winding streets, arches, and alley ways, college students from many countries come, basically to engage in non-stop partying, drugs, and sexual hookups, not only with each other, but, apparently, with the various Third World and African males who have become a part of the city and have learned how easy it is to partake of the local (or rather foreign) female goods. When you read about Amanda’s life there, there is no indication that she was going to classes or doing any kind of academic work. What, then, is the Junior year abroad?”

Indeed. I can’t help contrasting this description with my own undergraduate years, which consisted of work and more work interrupted by summers when I would work to pay for school. I had courses like theoretical mechanics (as a sophomore). No history of Star Trek type courses for me. About 50 percent of my freshman class failed out, including several friends. Such an attrition rate today would invite lawsuits. But that’s a lost era and I’m afraid I’m now a dinosaur in modern America.

My daughter went to an Ivy League school as a liberal arts major, and I would go through the course catalog with her every year. One year I did see a course on Star Trek! She told me she could not find a history course that did not preach anti-American, and anti-white values. So she studied ancient history. Is it any wonder that young American girls go off and “hook up” with black men from Third World countries? I can’t help believing that our degraded society really stems from affluence. Juvenal said it best, “Nunc patimur longae pacis mala, saevior armis luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur orbem.” This translates to, “Now we are suffering the evils of a long peace. Luxury, more deadly than war, avenges the conquered world.” (thanks to daughter for quote and translation). What happens when the money runs out as it’s about to?

Stephen T. writes:

Perugia has a chance to remain as idyllic as it looks precisely because the world now knows its justice system cuts with a pretty rough, pitiless blade. Apparently, judges & juries there have less interest in parsing all the details and degrees of complicity in a crime—who exactly struck the fatal stab vs. who was holding the victim down while they were being slain vs. who lied and falsely accused others in order to cover up the evidence and mislead investigators—and instead render more harsh, sweeping judgments: “You were there, you were involved, we may not know who inflicted every wound and we don’t care. One way or another you were up to your neck in this cruel event so you’re GUILTY. Next case.”

If you have doubts about Knox’s conviction on what amounts to a first-degree charge, knowing what you do now, do you believe she should have been exonerated of ALL guilt, then sent home in a business class seat on Alitalia? Even in this country, if you’re involved in the commission of a robbery where someone is killed, but you don’t actually pull the trigger, and maybe you’re only just sitting outside in the getaway car when the crime is actually committed, you can still be held partially responsible for that death and do substantial prison time for your peripheral involvement. Ditto for knowingly falsely implicating an innocent person in an attempt to distract attention away from the real murderers and your own involvement, perpetuate a cover-up, and derail the investigation.

So, if Amanda Knox was convicted of lesser charges like that rather than first degree, and, say, sentenced to 15 years in an Italian prison versus 26, would you feel that an injustice had been done?

LA replies:

I believe that Stephen is misstating the issue. I am not away of any advocate of Amanda’s innocence (including myself when I was advocating it) who said that she was involved in the murder but didn’t personally perform the fatal act, and therefore should get off. No. Those who argue for Amanda’s innocence argue that she was not involved in the murder, period.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 13, 2009 01:30 AM | Send