Home » Opinion » Steyn – just wasting my time
Steyn – just wasting my time
November 5, 2010
By
Jesse Tahirali
Maybe I was desensitized by Ann Coulter’s insanity last year. Maybe after enduring an hour of her rage-baiting and fallacious pseudo-arguments, the term “controversial speaker” took on a new definition in my mind. I was expecting to have an excess of lunacy to comment on today, but after seeing Mark Steyn earlier this week, I’m not really left with much to discuss.
His speech — loosely centred around the thesis that there is a cataclysmic Islamic takeover of the Western world happening right now — was definitely colourful at times. Perhaps if performed for a different audience, his highlighting and ridiculing of the extreme aspects of Islam may have sparked outrage or at least some visible discourse.
But in front of the sea of sympathetic septuagenarians, his blips of controversy roused nothing more than periodic applause.
To be honest, though, I couldn’t even tell that Steyn was a figure of controversy. If numerous people — including Steyn himself during the preface of his talk — hadn’t repeated rumours of his disagreeable nature, I don’t think I would have even realized that I was in the presence of a “controversial author.”
Don’t get me wrong — I don’t subscribe to the notion of equating Islam with unstoppable evil. But the talk just wasn’t interesting. And at times it was just bizarre.
I’ll admit that I hadn’t done much research going into this lecture — the fact that he spoke with some sort of British accent actually caught me off guard. But not as off guard as when a dominatrix appeared on stage to perform a painfully-scripted dialogue with Steyn.
Even the whips and leather were soon overshadowed by Steyn interrupting his speech to serenade the audience.
On two separate occasions, he actually sang.
It’s hard to describe exactly what I was thinking during the performance. I spent most of my time at Centennial Hall trying to sort out what the hell was unfurling before me.
With all the chatter, speculation, and preparation for what was supposed to be an outrageously offensive follow-up to the “go ride a camel” antics of Ann Coulter, this episode basically went out with a whimper. It was like bunkering down for a doomsday meteor only to have a rock the size of a Chihuahua’s head hit the Earth.
All things considered, I am a little offended that this event was hyped up to the extent it was. I’m a little offended that Steyn didn’t even try to substantiate any of his semi-controversial theses.
I’m offended that after weeks of anticipation, Steyn left me with nothing to write but this boring column.
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Jesse is the Editor-in-Chief for Volume 105 of the Gazette. While completing a double major in physics and mathematics at the University of Western Ontario, he was first a graphics editor, and then the opinions editor at the Gazette.
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