An alarming posting has just appeared on the "Scotland on Sunday" website. Authored by Aidan Smith, this report ("Stoned on Archaeology") purports to be an interview-based account of the lifestyle and - more importantly - philosophy of Julian Cope, who is quoted as saying the following:
"I think...that the whole of Europe, indeed the whole of Indo-Europe, is based on latitude. That's the reason white-Anglo-Saxon Protestants are in charge of the world, it's a latitudinal thing. But it's practical to have a Scando-Germanic domination and I use that term really specifically. Are you with me?"
I re-read this passage several times, but with the best will in the world could not avoid seeing in it the expression of a philosphy profoundly associated with colonialism, neo-colonialism and race-based "domination" (the word ascribed to Cope).
Of course it is possible that Aidan Smith has misrepresented Cope and wrongly attributed to him an apparently racist perspective on global politics. If so, it seems important for Cope to dissociate himself from the outlook implied by the "Scotsman" text - which is in the public domain -and all that it implies.
Or is Cope - as appears from the article as published - really in favour of "white-Anglo-Saxon" people being "in charge of the world"? When he - as quoted - speaks of "Scando-Germanic domination" being "practical", does this imply that it is also - in his view - acceptable, or even desirable?
Or has Aidan Smith done Julian Cope a profound injustice?
Treeman (London)