This week's winner is a matched pair, at least in terms of subject matter. Here at Gates, the question was whether or not Britain is
too decadent to survive, to wit:
| | Charles Krauthammer put it best: |
| "Decadence is defined not by a civilization's art or music, but ultimately by its willingness to simply defend itself." |
| From your pen to the citizens of Britain, Dr. Krauthammer. Quit fiddling around over there. London is burning. It's not the job of moderate Muslims to extinguish the fire; it's their job simply to get out of the way while "the authorities" begin acting as if they had sufficient testosterone to take the hose in hand and start spraying down the conflagration. |
| Enough with the Nero imitations. |
Meanwhile,
Norm Geras won the non-council vote with his post proposing that it is indeed time to take the hose in hand. However, being British and well-spoken, he was also more eloquent:
| | It needs to be seen and said clear: there are, amongst us, apologists for what the killers do, and they make more difficult the long fight that is needed to defeat them. (To forestall any possible misunderstanding on this point: I do not say these people are not entitled to the views they express or to their expression of them. They are. Just as I am entitled to criticize their views for the wretched apologia they amount to.) |
You can see it all over at The Watcher's Council,
here.
10 comments:
All these essays and articles, as well written and insightful as they may be, won't rid us of those who want to kill us and make the world into their own image.
What is needed is force, and unfortunately, force is something we western effetes are very uncomfortable talking about, never mind actually implementing.
We chanced to watch a video of "My Fair Lady" last night and one of the songs Show Me sums up beautifully what we have become:
"Words! Words! Words!
I'm so sick of words!
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you!
Is that all you blighters can do?"
If it really is all we can do,
then The End is Near.
Congratulations Dymphna,
And come on erp, violent human actions must always be preceded by words - that's a workable definition of the human right there - all the more for states than for individuals, or you will be rightly called a psychopath/animal. Our present words must be given a chance both to move those in authority and would-be democracy in the Moslem world, and to focus our own populations on the imperative of self-preservation. We are not there yet. It is always easy to denigrate the writers in the name of the man of action, but those who do so are, well, writing.
psychopath/animal?
Typical liberal MO = Ad hominem attacks and appeasement.
I rest my case.
Nope, erp, I'm not calling you a psychopath, animal, or anything else. I like your comments. I'm just pointing out that even you write befor you act, as we all should. If, however, you were to happen upon a new scene and the first thing you did was intuivitely ascertain who was the bad guy in it, and then almost instantly strike him down, then you would be displaying the instincts of the animal, which you are not.
truepeers, either you are naive or you're being coy. We have been talking for decades and I'm not talking about my personal philosophy which is -- I wouldn't hurt a fly.
For example, we were just cleaning the porch and my husband gently swept a big spider (we live in Florida and trust me spiders here are as big as saucers) outside rather than kill it. And no, we're not religious but we very much revere life. That's why I think we must act with the full force of our righteousness. We can't risk bombs blowing up in the faces of innocents, not can we allow terrorists to rule our streets.
I don't know where you're from, but if you're an American you will remember how lawless New York City was before Mayor Giuliani was elected. NYC was declared a dead zone. Citizens were afraid to be in the streets. The hoodlums had taken over.
In just a few short years of massive law enforcement, New York emerged from its gray shroud and became a vibrant interesting place to work in or visit. Giuliani was roundly criticized for his gestapo tactics, racism, etc., but he didn't back down and it's a good thing because after 9/11, he needed to have a calm well ordered city so they could absorb the shock and keep on functioning.
They hadn't kowtowed to the terrorists in the city and we can't cower because terrorism is too scary to do anything about.
It isn't. We're the good guys and they're the bad guys. Liberals must understand that their ridiculous lifetime aversion to making value judgments hasn't stood them in good stead. There is an evil enemy and it is NOT us.
YOu're absolutely right, erp. I guess I was just reacting to what I first thought was a discounting of writers. We have to act now. But to organize our actions, what we must do is draw the lines and make clear to everyone that they have to take sides on the basic question: whether violence against the global economic system and its leading nations can be justified. Those who try to justify it need feel the righteous heat of the law, let alone those who actually act violently. But in order to draw the lines well, we need lots of good writing because a lot of people in our own countries (mine, Canada) are still really dazed and confused about who the bad guys are.
Ah, poor you, a Canadian. Why did Canadians allow their government to shame them by their craven behavior. We used to live in Vermont and spent very pleasant times in Canada and about 15 years ago we did a trip of a lifetime.
We spent neearly a month driving from Montreal due west ending up in Jasper. What a wonderful time. We were treated like honored guests and enjoyed meeting and talking to so many of your fellow countrymen and women.
We've traveled a bit and seen some beautiful places, but high on my list of top ten gorgeous places on the globe is the view of
Lake Louise from the terrace of the Chateau.
We in the anglosphere need Canada on our side. I hope you can convince your compatriots that appeasement and pacifism only works if you're a child and have a big brother to fight your battles. If your want to be adult, you have to fight your own battles.
Yes we have some battles to fight in Canada. Our biggest sin is anti-Americanism (usually defined more in terms of the government than the people), which many though by no means all of us suffer. But this sin goes back to our founding as a country after the American "revolution", aka the first civil war. You see, many Canadians would not doubt their place in the Anglosphere; rather, it is yours, the Americans', place they would question. But these are silly quibbles, masking how much our two peoples' share (the narcissism of small differences).
We joined you in Afghanistan, but the anti-Americanism and, perhaps, the self-interest of those associated with the oil for food scam, may explain Chretien's policy on Iraq. However, the most plausible explanation would be that our military was already stretched thin on various missions and there was just not any significant capability to offer, so weakness was masked with false idealism - fear of being a terrorist target also played a role.
While many are deluded about the realities of the world, I think Canadians would build up their military, as we are already beginning to do, if we had a good idea of what it would be used for. And here the Americans have to lead in developing a new vision of how we are all going to fight fourth generation wars. Policing and intelligence seem to me as important as traditional military, and instead of fearing unrest in our highly "multicultural" population, we need to start bringing people on board to fight what is in fact a scourge against all humanity. The people the Islamicists threaten most of all by their behaviours is all the Moslems in the world. As is made clear by the death toll in Iraq. When people grasp this point, maybe we will see a clearer drawing of the lines. I do not yet believe that Islam, in any form, must necessarily be a threat to the west. But I am willing to listen carefully to the alternative view. It is an open question but one slowly closing due to the lack of strong Moslem voices that would refuse any and all victimary roles and denounce Islamist violence with no ifs ands or buts, and that would outline how Islam and western modernity can peacefully coexist.
Lake Louise is indeed gorgeous, but next time keep driving to the west coast and you might add a few more views to your top ten list!
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