He rightly points out that "the campaign against certainty is merely the philosophical veneer for an attempt to politically marginalize and intellectually disenfranchise believers. Instead of arguing the merits of any issue, secularists are trying to win the argument by default on the grounds that the other side displays unhealthy certainty or, even worse, unseemly religiosity."
What is it with the intellectuals of this country? We are attacked by Islamic fundamentalists who crash airplanes into buildings and kill 3000 people. We are at war with Islamic jihadists who cut off people's heads; blow themselves to bits in order to kill others; and who are determined to subjugate us to the "will of Allah" or to kill us--and these brilliant thinkers, these superior intellects, take up arms and wage an intellectual war on....Christianity.
Hello? Christians stopped killing others as as a theological imperative a few centuries ago. They may have some social ideas that you can disagree with, or some moral superiority that irritates you, but they haven't made it a practice of burning people at the stake for quite some time.
So what in Heaven's name (if I may use the phrase) is going on here? This relentless media and academic hostility and rage directed toward Christianity, Judaism, and any religion except for Islam is truly an amazing spectacle.
There are three things that explain this bizarre behavior.
First is psychological displacement. It's interesting to me that all religions except for the one that is causing all the trouble in the world are the object of derision, while the dangers of believing--or listening to anyone who believes in them-- are magnified all out of proportion to the reality. I would venture to say that there are idiots, criminals, and ne'er-do-wells in every religion on the face of the earth. But the only religion that encourages its members to kill those of other religions is Islam.
Psychological displacement is a psychological defense mechanism that allows its user to separate emotions from the real object and redirect those intense emotions toward someone or something (in this case, "other religions") that are less offensive or threatening for the purpose of avoiding having to deal directly with what is frightening or truly threatening (i.e., Islam).
By pretending that the U.S. is in imminent danger of a "Christian theocracy" being imposed at any moment, the intellectual elite of this country have given in to a fear so abject and immobilizing, that they are willing to collaborate with and appease those who would willingly kill them as they try to impose an Islamic theocracy. As they indulge in this psychological defense, without any introspection or self-awareness to limit the behavior that flows from it; our enemies with a great deal of contempt and amusement are able to use them for their own purposes--including murder and mayhem. There is no action of the U.S. in the war on terror that these morons are gleefully willing to undermine or criticize (e.g., here).
ShrinkWrapped has an excellent post on the second aspect of this displacement--called Identification with the Aggressor.
Identification with the Aggressor is a particular defense mobilized by people in traumatic situations of victimization. In this defensive maneuver, the person who is being threatened or abused, is traumatized by terror and rage; they are helpless in the face of these overwhelming feelings and their psyche is unable to function. Once the immediate threat is over, they have a limited number of ways to deal with the terror. One way is to become like the abuser (which is why so many abusers were themselves abused in their childhoods). This is not a conscious behavior. No one decides that they want to do to someone weaker and dependent what was done to them or that they want to be "just like" their abuser. However, when one's life depends on the actions of another person, the particular terror and helplessness is an impossible combination. To survive, one must find a way to feel close to and understand the powerful and frightening authority figure. This is as true for abused children as it is for victims of horrible crimes. It is the basis of the Stockholm Syndrome. The victim must see the perpetrator as a potentially kind, even loving, person. They form an intense emotional bond with the person. It is that relationship that is evoked and feels protective when they are overwhelmed in the future.
Hence we have all the talk about the "religion of peace"; the spectacle of walking on eggs so as not to offend even the most extreme and fanatical of Islam; making it a crime to "defame Islam"--but the trashing of Christians and Jews is tolerated, even considered avant garde; the bizarre military rules and regulation about the handling of a holy book, so as to minimize the possibility of "mishandling" a Koran--all while the practitioners of this religion murder those of their own faith who convert to Christianity; confiscate Bibles of visitors to Saudi Arabia (do you think they keep them reverently in a mosque somewhere?); and where religious leaders routinely exhort their followers about the evils of the Jews, and vicious anti-semitism is a way of life.
These "intellectuals" need to take a long, hard look at what is going on in the world. Then take a good hard look at what is going on inside of themselves and acknowledge their own fears and anxieties about the insanity going on in the world; and their unwillingness to question the validity of their own basic principles and to recalibrate those ideas based on reality.
If they don't and persist in looking through the rose-colored glasses of relativism and appeasement; then the rest of us will continue to witness many more incidents of displacement and identification with the aggressor in their behavior. The blind intellectual gurus of moral uncertainty will focus their energies on the harassment and elimination of almost all references to and use of religion from American history and the public sphere; while they give aid and comfort to a religion that will gleefully kill them once their usefulness to advancing the jihad is ended.
Of this, I am certain.
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