Actually, now that I think about it, I do wish he'd shut up.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
THE VAST LIMP-HAIRED CONSPIRACY
Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you...but in this case, we're dealing with an acute--possibly chronic--case of narcissim-induced victimhood paranoia:
Actually, now that I think about it, I do wish he'd shut up.
Actually, now that I think about it, I do wish he'd shut up.
DARTH ISLAM
Christopher Hitchens is absolutely correct:
I am reminded of a line from the 1977 Star Wars movie...to "liberally" paraprase: The more you tighten your grip, Islam, the more people will slip through your oppressive jihadi fingers.
Along with Hitchens I agree that this imbecilic pc bullshit must stop (he said it nicely though).
CAIR appears to be nothing more than an advance recon unit for Al Qaeda-style jihad, disguised as self-righteous and terribly oppressed muslim moderates. They must be disabused of the notion that their crusade to obtain special status for Islam under the law--by eliminating free speech protections--has any chance of success. Only the the useful PC idiots of the left are sympathetic with their efforts, but that is exactly the problem.
Both CAIR and the left have made a mockery of one of our most precious freedoms and the think they can get away with it. But, as Princess Leia pointed out once in a galaxy far far away, they are only succeeding in hardening the resolve of people like myself to actively oppose their coercive and cynical manipulation of our free society. Once I could have cared less about Islam and what any Muslim believed or how they lived--as long as they left me alone. Now I have the strange and compelling desire (my "difficulty dealing with authority" personality, I guess) to organize a "Flush the Quran Day" of protest along with other forms of targeted non-PC civil disobedience, just to demonstrate to Darth Islam and the Grand Moff Leftists that submission is not an American character trait.
Darth Islam may find our lack of faith in Allah disturbing, but they have no magical powers to make me or anyone else conform to their religion unless we ourselves give it to them.
UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein comments:
Which goes to show, I guess, that you just don't know the power of the dark side until you submit to it.
UPDATE: Now, this is civil disobedience.
Why, then, should we be commanded to "respect" those who insist that they alone know something that is both unknowable and unfalsifiable? Something, furthermore, that can turn in an instant into a license for murder and rape? As one who has occasionally challenged Islamic propaganda in public and been told that I have thereby "insulted 1.5 billion Muslims," I can say what I suspect—which is that there is an unmistakable note of menace behind that claim. No, I do not think for a moment that Mohammed took a "night journey" to Jerusalem on a winged horse. And I do not care if 10 billion people intone the contrary. Nor should I have to. But the plain fact is that the believable threat of violence undergirds the Muslim demand for "respect."
Before me is a recent report that a student at Pace University in New York City has been arrested for a hate crime in consequence of an alleged dumping of the Quran. Nothing repels me more than the burning or desecration of books, and if, for example, this was a volume from a public or university library, I would hope that its mistreatment would constitute a misdemeanor at the very least. But if I choose to spit on a copy of the writings of Ayn Rand or Karl Marx or James Joyce, that is entirely my business. When I check into a hotel room and send my free and unsolicited copy of the Gideon Bible or the Book of Mormon spinning out of the window, I infringe no law, except perhaps the one concerning litter. Why do we not make this distinction in the case of the Quran? We do so simply out of fear, and because the fanatical believers in that particular holy book have proved time and again that they mean business when it comes to intimidation....
It is often said that resistance to jihadism only increases the recruitment to it. For all I know, this commonplace observation could be true. But, if so, it must cut both ways.
I am reminded of a line from the 1977 Star Wars movie...to "liberally" paraprase: The more you tighten your grip, Islam, the more people will slip through your oppressive jihadi fingers.
Along with Hitchens I agree that this imbecilic pc bullshit must stop (he said it nicely though).
CAIR appears to be nothing more than an advance recon unit for Al Qaeda-style jihad, disguised as self-righteous and terribly oppressed muslim moderates. They must be disabused of the notion that their crusade to obtain special status for Islam under the law--by eliminating free speech protections--has any chance of success. Only the the useful PC idiots of the left are sympathetic with their efforts, but that is exactly the problem.
Both CAIR and the left have made a mockery of one of our most precious freedoms and the think they can get away with it. But, as Princess Leia pointed out once in a galaxy far far away, they are only succeeding in hardening the resolve of people like myself to actively oppose their coercive and cynical manipulation of our free society. Once I could have cared less about Islam and what any Muslim believed or how they lived--as long as they left me alone. Now I have the strange and compelling desire (my "difficulty dealing with authority" personality, I guess) to organize a "Flush the Quran Day" of protest along with other forms of targeted non-PC civil disobedience, just to demonstrate to Darth Islam and the Grand Moff Leftists that submission is not an American character trait.
Darth Islam may find our lack of faith in Allah disturbing, but they have no magical powers to make me or anyone else conform to their religion unless we ourselves give it to them.
UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein comments:
What is so disheartening is that here we have a university, with the help of law enforcement, turning an issue of free speech (and, to be fair, maybe vandalism or misdemeanor theft) into a double felony.
Which makes sense in a culture where butt-slapping thirteen-year olds are rapists and sexual predators, I suppose, or where “torture” and “racism” mean so much that they no longer mean anything at all.
Or where discoursing on the holy spunk and sheep-brained Catholics lands you a job with a presidential candidate…
Perhaps had Shmulevich issued his protest in a “free speech zone,” he’d have had better luck with the university. At any rate, a few years in the clink — and maybe some time in a re-education camp (the Pakistan mountain region has some fine facilities, I’m told) — will do this hater some good. Because as we know, there’s simply no excuse for tolerating intolerance.
Which goes to show, I guess, that you just don't know the power of the dark side until you submit to it.
UPDATE: Now, this is civil disobedience.
Monday, July 30, 2007
A SHOCKING BETRAYAL OF THE LEFT'S TALKING POINTS
A war we just might win? Boy, I bet the left is feeling pretty betrayed right about now....
It is after all their worst horror story. Watch for an excacerbation of all the denial and paranoia they have exhibited since 9/11. The Postmodern Bullshit Alert Level is going to go up to RED any moment.
PARANOID LOGIC
The beginning of the 21st century will surely be looked back on as a golden age of paranoia. The headlines of today fairly ooze with the delusions and vast conspiracies dreamed of in the mind of the paranoid left.
Let's just take two examples.
The first I mentioned in passing the other day, but it deserves to be specially highlighted because it is the most recent in a series of many bizarre conspiracy theories emanating from anxious leftist as they attempt to keep the holes in their ideology plugged; thus preventing any reality from washing over them or flooding their thought processes.
Every time a leak in that ideological dike appears, the paranoid brand chewing gum is brought out to stop it up. The TNG memos were a clever plot by Karl Rove. The Bush Administration was behind 9/11; Katrina was allowed to destroy New Orleans because Bush hates blacks. George Bush is about to impose a theocracy on the unsuspecting U.S. Pat Tillman was murdered because he wanted to meet with anti-war activist Norm Chomsky. The list of the paranoid delusions goes on and on and on.
Taken as a whole, they are evidence of an ongoing and determined refusal to face reality--because it is a reality that threatens the belief systm of a whole section of the American population. Without the delusions and conspiracies concocted by the always creative political left, their whole house of Marxist cards will come crumblin down.
Some have said that Unwillingness To Face Reality And Its Consequences is the most serious mental illness of our time; and that is most certainly true.
If scientists can say that obesity is "socially contagious", consider for a moment how a much more contagious psychological processes like paranoia and projection are. Indeed, this tendency to deny reality is at epidemic levels. In our own country, we must deal with an entire poltical party and half the nation in the grip of the illness.
But there are also other large groups and populations that suffer from mass paranoia and projection. Let us take the second example drawn from news headlines this week:
The "Pat Tillman was deliberately murdered by the Bush Administration" and "The Jews are behind the genocide in Darfur" stories are both perfect examples demonstrating how the bacteria of paranoid stupidity is spread. The infecting agent is usually a true believer who cannot face some unpleasant aspect of reality (i.e. that always "unpleasant truth") that is starting to trickle out into the open. It must dammed up immediately. The paranoid gum is handy and easy to use--just chew it up and plaster it over the hole.
For the political left, the gum is a creative conspiracy theory that links the Bush Administration to anything bad in the world--in this case to discredit a celebrity military hero who died under tragic circumstances, but who died fighting for his country. Such a bizarre distortion of the cirucumstances of his death serves to undermine his bona fides as a real patriot while demonizing the entire Bush Administration and the war on terror. It is simply another manifestation of BDS.
The second story is a manifestation of the deep-rooted dysfunction of the religion of Islam, which has mired a good portion of the world in it medievalism. In order to rationalized its backwardness and the failure it has been societally and culturally, the Jews serve as the handy scapegoat on which they can blame all their own societal failures. To do otherwise would mean they would have to question some very basic assumptions about their fantasized superiority.
In making paranoid pronouncements, the paranoid person always takes himself or herself extremely seriously. Rarely do the 9/11 Truther, the Pat Tillmaniac, or the Islamoparanoid present themselves to a mental health professionals seeking help; or even complaining about their psychological projections, no matter how bizarre or dysfunctional they may be. That is because for them, the paranoia and the accompanying projections explain away and rationalize so much about their failures as individuals and cultures.
The insane asylum we call the Middle East and all its affiliates in Africa and Indonesia where Islamic delusion runs rampant have a fully formed paranod fantasy that explains their lack of progress and their dysfunction in the real world. Likewise, the lunatic left also subscribes to their own special convoluted explantions of dysfunction and lack of power. In both cases, if the object of their projections did not exist, they would have to invent them because their world view cannot be held together without the gummy glue of the paranoid fantasies that connect all their dots.
Everything can be explained by paranoid logic. In fact, paranoia is really nothing more than the use of reason and logic in the service of the irrational and bizarre.
The above mental gymnastics allow the paranoid person to externalize blame and avoid responsibility for his situation in life, as well as his own feelings. It is always someone else's fault and not his. It is always someone else who is experiencing the objectionable feelings, and he is always the victim of it.
In addition to externalizing blame for one's own pitiful situation in life, there is yet another advantage to paranoia and projection: often, a creative distortion of reality can reliably pump up one's own self-esteem. You are righteous, persecuting the true racists thus proving you, yourself, are incapable of any racist thoughts or emotions.
Sometimes, it pumps it that self-esteem up at the expense of a great deal of fear; but nevertheless, it is comforting to know that someone appreciates your genius or the threat you represent. Clearly if the CIA, FBI, aliens, Jews , POTUS, Republicans [fill in your favorite bogeyman here] are out to get you, you must be very special and unique.
In short, paranoia and its baby brother projection organize and distort reality in a way that makes it palatable; and, at the same time help the user to avoid recognizing some unpleasant truths about himself. When practiced on a societal or cultural level, it accomplishes the same thing. All you have to do is eliminate the external problem and everything will be all right with you and you'll never have to question your beliefs again.
The con artist does this consciously and deliberately and understands the effectiveness of the psychological maneuver. Con artists come in all sorts of political stripes, of course, but in our day the great examples are pretty much exclusive to the political left, because the vast majority of the left's minions have such an intense need to appear virtuous. In fact, the appearance of virtue in themselves is much more important than any other reality.
Reality is always redrawn in order to pump up their own righteousness and virtue. Anyone who opposes their policies is automatically branded as racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobic-- take your pick, depending on the circumstances.
Hell, anyone who offers ANY new ideas in these areas are automatically branded with one of the "isms".
In the example above where the Darfur Minister of Defense lays the blame for the genocide on the Jews, he is just drawing from a similar tradition that runs through the most dysfunctional threads of Islam. The Jews are responsible for the misery of the Palestinians (it is never the Palestinians own fault); the Jews ritually eat the blood of Muslim babies; plot to destroy Islam; and are guilty of all sorts of atrocities and convoluted plots to take over the world (reference the Protocols of the Elders of Zion).
It is useless to point out the truth to people in the grip of these kind of paranoid delusions. It is just so easy to attribute one's own cynical motives and unacceptable feelings to others, particularly when such attribution is culturally sanctioned.
It is inconceivable to paranoid persons that people actually exist who view the situation differently from them. It is inconceivable that they could be wrong about their perception of reality. Con men always think others are out to con them. In fact, most paranoids consider themselves the ONLY reality-based community, because they get to define what reality is and it is always what they happen to feel. And it is always about making sure they feel good and virtuous and self-righteous.
Paranoia and projection also provide a rationale and justification (to the paranoid, at least) for acting out against those who--from their perspective-- stand in the way of implementing their social programs; or will not submit to the will of their god (whoever and whatever it may be).
Do not make the mistake of thinking that only psychiatric patients who have a serious mental illness utilize these defenses. Paranoia is, indeed, a symptom of a mental illness; but both paranoia and projection are physiological states of the brain that can be achieved by otherwise "normal" people under the proper circumstances. The distortion of reality that occurs with the use of these defenses is always done to serve inner needs.
Paranoia and projection are not mental illnesses that can be "cured" by mass quantities of antipsychotic medication in the water supply. This is a distortion of reality in order to meet the inner needs of a crumbling self or society that cannot psychologically sustain itself otherwise.
To those who are using such a defense, their behavior and rhetoric seem perfectly logical and internally consistent. It is, in fact, as impeccable as any reasoning can be--considering that it originates from distorted premises. Paranoia has been referred to as "the rational in the service of the irrational" for good reasons.
And, by that kind of "logic" it makes perfect sense to use the maximum force possible to destroy those who the paranoid believes are responsible for the evil: e.g., all those absurd conspiracies that are wholeheartedly supported by the left that claim Bush and Cheney downed the twin towers; and have those who oppose them murdered. All those absurd theories that the Israelis created a disease that is specific to Arab genes or that the fictional Protocols are behind the lack of Nobel Prizes for Muslims; or even that the genocide in Darfur is just another Jewish conspiracy. These kind of paranoid fantasies all comes from the same psychological source.
As long as they maintain those delusions, they do not have to deal with the sad state of their own society; their own sick religion; or their sad ideological failures.
Let's just take two examples.
The first I mentioned in passing the other day, but it deserves to be specially highlighted because it is the most recent in a series of many bizarre conspiracy theories emanating from anxious leftist as they attempt to keep the holes in their ideology plugged; thus preventing any reality from washing over them or flooding their thought processes.
Every time a leak in that ideological dike appears, the paranoid brand chewing gum is brought out to stop it up. The TNG memos were a clever plot by Karl Rove. The Bush Administration was behind 9/11; Katrina was allowed to destroy New Orleans because Bush hates blacks. George Bush is about to impose a theocracy on the unsuspecting U.S. Pat Tillman was murdered because he wanted to meet with anti-war activist Norm Chomsky. The list of the paranoid delusions goes on and on and on.
Taken as a whole, they are evidence of an ongoing and determined refusal to face reality--because it is a reality that threatens the belief systm of a whole section of the American population. Without the delusions and conspiracies concocted by the always creative political left, their whole house of Marxist cards will come crumblin down.
Some have said that Unwillingness To Face Reality And Its Consequences is the most serious mental illness of our time; and that is most certainly true.
If scientists can say that obesity is "socially contagious", consider for a moment how a much more contagious psychological processes like paranoia and projection are. Indeed, this tendency to deny reality is at epidemic levels. In our own country, we must deal with an entire poltical party and half the nation in the grip of the illness.
But there are also other large groups and populations that suffer from mass paranoia and projection. Let us take the second example drawn from news headlines this week:
SUDAN: JEWS BEHIND DARFUR CONFLICT
Sudanese defense minister says '24 Jewish organizations fueling conflict in Darfur'
Sudan's defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, has accused "24 Jewish organizations" of "fueling the conflict in Darfur" last week in an interview with a Saudi newspaper.
Hussein was interviewed during an official state-visit to the Saudi kingdom last week.
A journalist from Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper asked Hussein: "Some people are talking about the penetration of Jewish organizations in Darfur and that there is no conflict there?"
"The Darfur issue is being fuelled by 24 Jewish organizations, who are making the largest amount of noise over the issue, and using the Holocaust in their campaigning," the Sudanese defense minister replied.
Hussein added that the Darfur conflict was driven by "friction between farmers and herders and shepherds. Among the biggest problems is that of water, which is used to exploit the differences and fuel the conflict."
"Are these Jewish groups supporting (the rebels) financially?," the interviewer from Okaz asked Hussein.
"Yes, they provide political and material support through their control over the media and across American and British circles," Hussein said, adding that Jewish groups were using "all means to fuel these conflicts."
The "Pat Tillman was deliberately murdered by the Bush Administration" and "The Jews are behind the genocide in Darfur" stories are both perfect examples demonstrating how the bacteria of paranoid stupidity is spread. The infecting agent is usually a true believer who cannot face some unpleasant aspect of reality (i.e. that always "unpleasant truth") that is starting to trickle out into the open. It must dammed up immediately. The paranoid gum is handy and easy to use--just chew it up and plaster it over the hole.
For the political left, the gum is a creative conspiracy theory that links the Bush Administration to anything bad in the world--in this case to discredit a celebrity military hero who died under tragic circumstances, but who died fighting for his country. Such a bizarre distortion of the cirucumstances of his death serves to undermine his bona fides as a real patriot while demonizing the entire Bush Administration and the war on terror. It is simply another manifestation of BDS.
The second story is a manifestation of the deep-rooted dysfunction of the religion of Islam, which has mired a good portion of the world in it medievalism. In order to rationalized its backwardness and the failure it has been societally and culturally, the Jews serve as the handy scapegoat on which they can blame all their own societal failures. To do otherwise would mean they would have to question some very basic assumptions about their fantasized superiority.
In making paranoid pronouncements, the paranoid person always takes himself or herself extremely seriously. Rarely do the 9/11 Truther, the Pat Tillmaniac, or the Islamoparanoid present themselves to a mental health professionals seeking help; or even complaining about their psychological projections, no matter how bizarre or dysfunctional they may be. That is because for them, the paranoia and the accompanying projections explain away and rationalize so much about their failures as individuals and cultures.
The insane asylum we call the Middle East and all its affiliates in Africa and Indonesia where Islamic delusion runs rampant have a fully formed paranod fantasy that explains their lack of progress and their dysfunction in the real world. Likewise, the lunatic left also subscribes to their own special convoluted explantions of dysfunction and lack of power. In both cases, if the object of their projections did not exist, they would have to invent them because their world view cannot be held together without the gummy glue of the paranoid fantasies that connect all their dots.
Everything can be explained by paranoid logic. In fact, paranoia is really nothing more than the use of reason and logic in the service of the irrational and bizarre.
- Are you poor? Someone must have robbed you of what you are entitled to!
- Are you angry and experiencing hatred, but like to think of yourself as a loving, compassionate sort of person? Then the object of your hatred magically becomes the one who hates...you!
- Is your genius not universally recognized? You must have powerful enemies that prevent you from achieving the success you know should be yours.
- Have you made mistakes in your life? Someone has clearly tricked you into acting a certain way otherwise you wouldn't have.
The above mental gymnastics allow the paranoid person to externalize blame and avoid responsibility for his situation in life, as well as his own feelings. It is always someone else's fault and not his. It is always someone else who is experiencing the objectionable feelings, and he is always the victim of it.
In addition to externalizing blame for one's own pitiful situation in life, there is yet another advantage to paranoia and projection: often, a creative distortion of reality can reliably pump up one's own self-esteem. You are righteous, persecuting the true racists thus proving you, yourself, are incapable of any racist thoughts or emotions.
Sometimes, it pumps it that self-esteem up at the expense of a great deal of fear; but nevertheless, it is comforting to know that someone appreciates your genius or the threat you represent. Clearly if the CIA, FBI, aliens, Jews , POTUS, Republicans [fill in your favorite bogeyman here] are out to get you, you must be very special and unique.
In short, paranoia and its baby brother projection organize and distort reality in a way that makes it palatable; and, at the same time help the user to avoid recognizing some unpleasant truths about himself. When practiced on a societal or cultural level, it accomplishes the same thing. All you have to do is eliminate the external problem and everything will be all right with you and you'll never have to question your beliefs again.
The con artist does this consciously and deliberately and understands the effectiveness of the psychological maneuver. Con artists come in all sorts of political stripes, of course, but in our day the great examples are pretty much exclusive to the political left, because the vast majority of the left's minions have such an intense need to appear virtuous. In fact, the appearance of virtue in themselves is much more important than any other reality.
Reality is always redrawn in order to pump up their own righteousness and virtue. Anyone who opposes their policies is automatically branded as racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobic-- take your pick, depending on the circumstances.
Hell, anyone who offers ANY new ideas in these areas are automatically branded with one of the "isms".
In the example above where the Darfur Minister of Defense lays the blame for the genocide on the Jews, he is just drawing from a similar tradition that runs through the most dysfunctional threads of Islam. The Jews are responsible for the misery of the Palestinians (it is never the Palestinians own fault); the Jews ritually eat the blood of Muslim babies; plot to destroy Islam; and are guilty of all sorts of atrocities and convoluted plots to take over the world (reference the Protocols of the Elders of Zion).
It is useless to point out the truth to people in the grip of these kind of paranoid delusions. It is just so easy to attribute one's own cynical motives and unacceptable feelings to others, particularly when such attribution is culturally sanctioned.
It is inconceivable to paranoid persons that people actually exist who view the situation differently from them. It is inconceivable that they could be wrong about their perception of reality. Con men always think others are out to con them. In fact, most paranoids consider themselves the ONLY reality-based community, because they get to define what reality is and it is always what they happen to feel. And it is always about making sure they feel good and virtuous and self-righteous.
Paranoia and projection also provide a rationale and justification (to the paranoid, at least) for acting out against those who--from their perspective-- stand in the way of implementing their social programs; or will not submit to the will of their god (whoever and whatever it may be).
Do not make the mistake of thinking that only psychiatric patients who have a serious mental illness utilize these defenses. Paranoia is, indeed, a symptom of a mental illness; but both paranoia and projection are physiological states of the brain that can be achieved by otherwise "normal" people under the proper circumstances. The distortion of reality that occurs with the use of these defenses is always done to serve inner needs.
Paranoia and projection are not mental illnesses that can be "cured" by mass quantities of antipsychotic medication in the water supply. This is a distortion of reality in order to meet the inner needs of a crumbling self or society that cannot psychologically sustain itself otherwise.
To those who are using such a defense, their behavior and rhetoric seem perfectly logical and internally consistent. It is, in fact, as impeccable as any reasoning can be--considering that it originates from distorted premises. Paranoia has been referred to as "the rational in the service of the irrational" for good reasons.
And, by that kind of "logic" it makes perfect sense to use the maximum force possible to destroy those who the paranoid believes are responsible for the evil: e.g., all those absurd conspiracies that are wholeheartedly supported by the left that claim Bush and Cheney downed the twin towers; and have those who oppose them murdered. All those absurd theories that the Israelis created a disease that is specific to Arab genes or that the fictional Protocols are behind the lack of Nobel Prizes for Muslims; or even that the genocide in Darfur is just another Jewish conspiracy. These kind of paranoid fantasies all comes from the same psychological source.
As long as they maintain those delusions, they do not have to deal with the sad state of their own society; their own sick religion; or their sad ideological failures.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
ENABLING EVIL IS ALL IN A DAY'S WORK FOR THE LEFT
But of course they stand for social justice and all. Case in point:
The usual definition of a civil libertarian is a person who is actively concerned with the protection of individual civil liberties and civil rights. Now, "civil liberties" is the name given to those freedoms that completely protect the individual from government; and civil liberties set limits for government so that it can not abuse its power and interfere with the lives of its citizens.
I would suggest that those individuals who are preoccupied with the US treatment of non-citizen, enemy combatants and prisoners of war are only civil libertarians in some abstract, perverted sense of the word.
If they were truly concerned with such issues, then they would be having a fit when Iran incarcerates American and British citizens for trumped up charges of espionage; or when Lebanon kidnaps Israeli soldiers and hold for a year or more. Or, they might even concern themselves with the barbaric treatment the civil libertarians of Al Qaeda afford those unfortunate souls it captures.
Alternatively, they might concern themselves with the overt abuse of government in situations such as this one are laws such as this are passed. Or in the inherent abuse of civil liberties under enforced multicultural (i.e., idiotic) political correctness.
But these so-called civil libertarians are really only leftist activists and apparently they do not concern themselves unduly with such issues. They only care about the rights of terrorists and the rights of enemies of the U.S. They would, if they could, grant all of them the benefit of U.S. citizenship. They only care about the civil liberties of those who want to kill Americans--that's how wonderful and compassionate and caring they are.
In lieu of granting citizenship to every terrorist thug we capture, I'm all for following the Geneva Convention to the letter (sadly, the animals we face did not sign said treaty and feel no compunction whatsoever in taking murder and torture to ever higher and disgusting levels).
But unless and until we give these terrorists the same rights as any US citizen, the left will not be satisfied. Their sense of moral outrage is engendered by alleged incidents like Koran flushing, but not, it seems, by incidents of beheading. That tells me all I need to know about the so-called "morality" of the left, who fancy themselves champions of the oppressed. Enablers of everything evil is more like.
Ayn Rand wrote in Atlas Shrugged: "The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force."
In other words, Guantanamo, is not any abuse of the US government's power; on the contrary, it is an appropriate use of the that power (particularly during war) to protect its citizens from those who are actively using force to try to harm them.
The compassionate leftist activists, so concerned with human rights and social justice, in this case (and many others) merely represent yet another example of the narcissistic sociopathy (also called "malignant narcissism") that dominates the mind of today's poltical left.
The typical leftist collectivist, considers his or her sociopathy as a form of altruism, or "selflessness", however; and they score big points from the self-esteeem and PC gurus for protesting against the proper use of government to protect its citizens; even as they agitate for the use of its coercive power to implement their own agenda (not anyone else's, of course).
They don't want the government to be coercive when it comes to dealing with those who want to kill and destroy us; but they have no trouble accepting coercion when it serves to advance their own ideology. Another contradictory discourse that is all in a day's work for today's political left.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has more. As she points out:
The real scandal isn’t that the US has locked up suspects at Guantanamo Bay, but that it’s let so many of them go free - free to resume their terrorism:AT LEAST 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees have been killed or recaptured taking up arms against allied forces following their release.
They have been discovered mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but not in Iraq, a US Defence Department spokesman told The Age yesterday…
His comments follow the death this week of Taliban commander and former detainee Abdullah Mehsud, who reportedly blew himself up rather than surrender to Pakistani forces. In December 2001, Mehsud was captured in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay until his release in March 2004. He later became the Taliban chief for South Waziristan.
How many people have now been murdered by fanatics set free from Guantanamo Bay, at the urging of so many civil libertarians and Leftist activists?
How many deaths do those civil libertarians now have on their conscience?
The usual definition of a civil libertarian is a person who is actively concerned with the protection of individual civil liberties and civil rights. Now, "civil liberties" is the name given to those freedoms that completely protect the individual from government; and civil liberties set limits for government so that it can not abuse its power and interfere with the lives of its citizens.
I would suggest that those individuals who are preoccupied with the US treatment of non-citizen, enemy combatants and prisoners of war are only civil libertarians in some abstract, perverted sense of the word.
If they were truly concerned with such issues, then they would be having a fit when Iran incarcerates American and British citizens for trumped up charges of espionage; or when Lebanon kidnaps Israeli soldiers and hold for a year or more. Or, they might even concern themselves with the barbaric treatment the civil libertarians of Al Qaeda afford those unfortunate souls it captures.
Alternatively, they might concern themselves with the overt abuse of government in situations such as this one are laws such as this are passed. Or in the inherent abuse of civil liberties under enforced multicultural (i.e., idiotic) political correctness.
But these so-called civil libertarians are really only leftist activists and apparently they do not concern themselves unduly with such issues. They only care about the rights of terrorists and the rights of enemies of the U.S. They would, if they could, grant all of them the benefit of U.S. citizenship. They only care about the civil liberties of those who want to kill Americans--that's how wonderful and compassionate and caring they are.
In lieu of granting citizenship to every terrorist thug we capture, I'm all for following the Geneva Convention to the letter (sadly, the animals we face did not sign said treaty and feel no compunction whatsoever in taking murder and torture to ever higher and disgusting levels).
But unless and until we give these terrorists the same rights as any US citizen, the left will not be satisfied. Their sense of moral outrage is engendered by alleged incidents like Koran flushing, but not, it seems, by incidents of beheading. That tells me all I need to know about the so-called "morality" of the left, who fancy themselves champions of the oppressed. Enablers of everything evil is more like.
Ayn Rand wrote in Atlas Shrugged: "The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force."
In other words, Guantanamo, is not any abuse of the US government's power; on the contrary, it is an appropriate use of the that power (particularly during war) to protect its citizens from those who are actively using force to try to harm them.
The compassionate leftist activists, so concerned with human rights and social justice, in this case (and many others) merely represent yet another example of the narcissistic sociopathy (also called "malignant narcissism") that dominates the mind of today's poltical left.
The typical leftist collectivist, considers his or her sociopathy as a form of altruism, or "selflessness", however; and they score big points from the self-esteeem and PC gurus for protesting against the proper use of government to protect its citizens; even as they agitate for the use of its coercive power to implement their own agenda (not anyone else's, of course).
They don't want the government to be coercive when it comes to dealing with those who want to kill and destroy us; but they have no trouble accepting coercion when it serves to advance their own ideology. Another contradictory discourse that is all in a day's work for today's political left.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has more. As she points out:
Savvy Democrats ought to be questioning the Bush administration’s mass release of Saudi detainees given such analysis. But they’re all too busy pressing for the immediate closure of Gitmo and the full liberation of every last detainee from the facility.
Democrats: For freeing jihadists faster.
Put that on a bumper sticker.
CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES
Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.Send all entries for next week's carnival to Dr. Sanity by 8 pm ET on Saturday for Sunday's Carnival. Only one post entry weekly per blogger, please. And you might read this before submitting an entry.
**NOTE: I am now getting many more submissions than I can possibly include in the weekly Carnival. Please don't be offended if your submission is not used (oh, okay, be as offended as you like) as it only means that for a variety of reasons I wasn't able to fit it into the "flow" as I put together each Carnival.
REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!
1. Does this mean I can't throw a copy of Al Gore's The Assault on Reason down a toilet without getting arrested? Can this blogger get arrested for hate crimes too? How about for hate crimes against Poles?
2. I guess it isn't a hate crime to kill children and rape women..as long as it's done for religious purposes; in which case we must be especially sensitive....unless it is this religion, whose beliefs are beyond the pale and completely irrational. Is this a hate crime? Or just a crime of pure, unadulterated narcissism.
3. Islamosuckered? Mutt and Jeff. The Cowboy and the Munchkin. Pinky and the Brain.
4. Who Nu? the war in Iraq was a Jewish conspiracy! And , clearly, Harry Potter is a Zionist plot. And, btw, it's an unconvincing portrait of evil.
5. CSI: Global War on Terror ! Join Al Qaeda and see the world (before you die)--it's quick and easy! Don't you know that wars are determined by polls? What does the military know about such matters, after all?
6. Just in case you were wondering what a real theocracy looks like.... Just in case you were wondering what really trashing the Constitution looks like....
7. Palestinian responsibility?? Don't be absurd. The Muslim world cares deeply about them.
8. Proof that it doesn't take any brains to work for the government (in this case, the French government). Uh-oh...
9. Being "staunch" clearly doesn't mean what it used to.
10. Swooping down out of the nutosphere... Put a sock in it. He is, of course, talking to the pampered parochial narcissist buffoons of the nutosphere. (I rather like that phrase)
11. A case of "chickens coming home to roost" perhaps? The oxyest-moron. Indeed.
12. The Greens will succeed where the terrorists didn't.
13. My friends make me fat. Damn them. But I knew it wasn't my fault. Well, the company you keep does have significant impact.
14. If we have to witness a breasts not bombs protest, then isn't asking for "cleavage cash" a bit hypocritical? Is Hillary trying to say she prefers bombs to breasts? Just asking. I guess it depend on the meaning of "is".
Or, a tempest in a B-cup or something.15. Personally, I think we should send in the clownfish.
16. Is it a crime to love art now too???
17. A short-lived, adolescent, white, middle-class phenomenon. But hey, dude, it was far out!
18. And so are "Super High Gravity Locations"!
19. But it's for the chiiiildreeen! A "congestion" tax?
20. There's the "other" Robert Plant, and then there's the original one. Which is crazier? You decide.
21. The **asterisk** rebels !?@#
22. WWLD? (What Would Lefties Do?) The mind boggles.
***************************************
Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.
If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on "Word of Blog" below the button to obtain the html code:
Saturday, July 28, 2007
IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY
...and I intend to take full advantage of it!
More blogging later. Feel free to comment on any topic of your choosing.
BTW, do the people who subscribe to this realize how unbelievably psychotic they sound (as in, completely out of touch with reality) ? I have had to hospitalize people with less complicated conspiracy theories because they were an imminent danger to themselves and others.
Get a grip, people.
This is why you are referred to as the "lunatic left" and why the adjective "reality-based" that you use to describe yourselves is so ludicrous.
More blogging later. Feel free to comment on any topic of your choosing.
BTW, do the people who subscribe to this realize how unbelievably psychotic they sound (as in, completely out of touch with reality) ? I have had to hospitalize people with less complicated conspiracy theories because they were an imminent danger to themselves and others.
Get a grip, people.
This is why you are referred to as the "lunatic left" and why the adjective "reality-based" that you use to describe yourselves is so ludicrous.
Friday, July 27, 2007
THE COST OF FREEDOM: Fighting and defeating the new barbarians will exact a great toll. The question is, are we willing to pay it?
I have been reading some of the reactions to the last book in the Harry Potter series; and one that keeps popping up in various iterations is, "But WHY did Rowling have to have so many people die in that book? Was that really necessary?"
It strikes me that there is something very significant in that particular reaction to the denouement of the series, because it reflects a particularly 21st century/post-9/11 kind of mindset: the idea that something of value can be achieved without sacrifice or burden or loss.
One of the important themes of the Harry Potter books is that it is important to do what is right, instead of what is easy. Sometimes even, the ultimate sacrifice must be made--that is, if you are truly willing to stand up and defend that which is right and good and decent in the world. And, it is that very truth which in the end destroys evil, because evil simply cannot stand against this kind of deep magic.
It is also interesting that the evil we confront in our day and age has even managed to pervert the kind of sacrifice which is made out of love to save lives--specifically by creating the horrific abomination they call a "martyr", and which is in reality nothing more than a brainwashed human bomb, determined to kill and be killed.
I love to read fantasies as much as anyone, but you can easily get lulled into thinking that, in the end, everything will come out ok and none of the good guys will get hurt or have to suffer unduly when they battle evil. In the real world, though, it is more often the case that the good and virtuous whose cause is just will not always win the battle, or even the war.
They especially are not likely to win it if they do not accept that there is a cost that must be paid--in lives and treasure--to secure the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for one's self and one's posterity.
Those who believe such values are theirs by right and are maintained for free, often show a correspondingly condescending sense of superiority along with an extremely narcissistic entitlement . They have forgotten--if they ever knew at all--how those precious freedoms and the human values on which they are based ever came to be the legacy of America.
Suffice it to say that, "Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." (see Mudville Gazette).
Like Harry Potter and his friends in their magical world, we are today fighing a ruthless enemy whose nihilism and fanaticism seems to know no bounds. They are clearly willing to sacrifice their lives for the values of enslavement, submission and death. And their brilliance lies in their ability to present to us a difficult conundrum that we must solve--a conundrum that is not that much different than that which is presented by any of the Voldemorts, Saurons or other "dark lords" of literature.
I wrote about this very problem in a post called "The Brilliance of the New Barbarians" exactly a year ago, and some of what I said then is applicable here.
In a comment on this thread at The Belmont Club, Wretchard noted:
I remain confident that we are not about to lose the values we hold dear and which define the American soul because we must fight the enemy on a playing field of his choosing. But we are losing our moral heading nevertheless. Not, as the political left would insist as they keep harping on the so-called "atrocities" they accuse our own soldiers of regularly committing (and which in many cases are grossly overblown and exaggerated, if they have any truth to them at all) ; but because of the frightened unwillingness to express the same level of outrage at the unbelievable atrocities that the enemy commits on a daily basis.
In order to combat and defeat this new barbarism, we must first confront it for the evil it is and be willing to do whatever it takes to defeat it. We are not perfect, and the more we demand such perfection of ourselves, the more we flounder in a quagmire of moral uncertainty and paralysis.
If we appease or ignore the evil; if we pretend that it doesn't exist; or if we can only see it in our own imperfect behavior; then it will continue to menace everything we hold dear; and sooner or later, it will defeat us--no matter how perfectly moral we are or how much restraint we demonstrate in response to the enemy's provocations. Self-flagellation and righteous restraint will not win this conflict. We must be sure in our own hearts and minds of the endurance and worth of our own values in order to do what is necessary to defeat evil. And we must be willing to do it in spite of our own human imperfections.
Our ambivalence toward the worth of our own values is what is dragging us down in this conflict. Value by value we are giving ground to the enemy whose only desire is to destroy our way of life and supress the very freedoms they use to subvert it. All we have to do is look around and see how willing most of the Democratic presidential candidates were to suck up to those who plot to destroy America; and then witness the adulation and praise they received when they expressed their desire to appease and submit to the new barbarians in the name of "peace".
Well, why not? Isn't peace the goal?
Remember how quickly the Western leaders were willing to compromise freedom of speech in the Danish cartoon matter in order to accommodate the enemy's threats? Consider how many other accommodations many of us are willing--and eager--to make to ensure the Death-Eaters of our own world won't get angry or upset with us over anything.
And we can't even criticize their insane religion/ideology of death without having the priests of multicultural nihilism swoop down upon us. Very soon, we will have compromised away all that matters to us for the sake of "peace" (but which is really a sort of voluntary enslavement enforced via a societal suicide pact); and in the end, we will no longer have either our precious freedom, nor will we have peace.
If we continue on the path of appeasement we will be defeated by the enemy's unrepentant ruthlessness and their endless love of death. Thomas Sowell once remarked that, "If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win", and he is most certainly correct.
The cost of this war will ultimately be more than all the lives lost; it will also be for the humanity and civilization we must temporarily abandon to win.
When we are finally cornered and must allow our own barbarism to surface to combat theirs head to head, then we must be prepared to live with the consequences, including the agonizing guilt that will ensue--or everything we hold dear, everything we aspire to become, will forever perish from this earth.
This reality is what I hate and despise most about these Islamic fanatics we are fighting--who do not let reason or life interfere with their jihad; who abide by no treaties, follow no rules, and scorn the very values upon which Western civilization is founded. We could have lived with them they did not insist that we must become what they are or die. But it is they who have defined the ground rules (or the non-rules) of this conflict; and it is they who have set the playing field; and eventually, we will have to meet them at their level--or they will win.
One of the oh so brave leaders of the new barbarians, Ayman al-Zawahri, has said the following while hiding out in his cave:
So, what should civilization's response be? Should we pretend we don't hear him? That his forces in Iraq aren't really there because "Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror"? Or, shall we fantasize, like so many on the left seem happy to do, that Zawahiri doesn't really mean it? And, even if he did, what harm can he really do?
Even if you hate the idea of violence and death --and what sane and rational person doesn't?-- isn't it time to get really serious about the danger? If a few barbarians with boxcutters on an airplane can kill 3,000 people at a time; what do you imagine will happen if these same barbarians get hold of a nuclear weapon?
In a post titled "WE HAVE MOVED INTO A TIME BEYOND HUMAN WISDOM", I discuss a disturbingly painful conversation between Blackfive and "a peaceful, gentle soul" that begins:
You must read the entire conversation because it is the clearest explanation I have ever seen that makes me understand why I hate and despise these islamofascist barbarians so much: they have deliberately brought civilization to a "time beyond human wisdom."
In doing so, they have brought about a deadly paralysis in Western civilization. Sometimes it seems to me that we have been attacked and stabbed in the heart by Tolkien's Shelob; and bound and wrapped in her web, we wait, unmoving and barely conscious, to be eaten at her whim.
Blackfive concluded his post with this:
We cannot achieve victory against these 21st century barbarians without great cost--in lives and in treasure; and it may be that the biggest cost will be the toll it will take on the very soul of those of us who stand for civilization and decency. Wartime has always been a time of painful discontinuity--a time where in order to achieve peace, we must fight; and in order to preserve life, we must kill.
We must face this unpleasant reality without flinching; because our children and those who come after us depend on us to preserve the fragile and precious legacy of freedom that our own forefathers died to give to us.
President Lincoln understood the sacrifice and pain it requires: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "
It must not be our generation that allows it to perish.
It strikes me that there is something very significant in that particular reaction to the denouement of the series, because it reflects a particularly 21st century/post-9/11 kind of mindset: the idea that something of value can be achieved without sacrifice or burden or loss.
One of the important themes of the Harry Potter books is that it is important to do what is right, instead of what is easy. Sometimes even, the ultimate sacrifice must be made--that is, if you are truly willing to stand up and defend that which is right and good and decent in the world. And, it is that very truth which in the end destroys evil, because evil simply cannot stand against this kind of deep magic.
It is also interesting that the evil we confront in our day and age has even managed to pervert the kind of sacrifice which is made out of love to save lives--specifically by creating the horrific abomination they call a "martyr", and which is in reality nothing more than a brainwashed human bomb, determined to kill and be killed.
I love to read fantasies as much as anyone, but you can easily get lulled into thinking that, in the end, everything will come out ok and none of the good guys will get hurt or have to suffer unduly when they battle evil. In the real world, though, it is more often the case that the good and virtuous whose cause is just will not always win the battle, or even the war.
They especially are not likely to win it if they do not accept that there is a cost that must be paid--in lives and treasure--to secure the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for one's self and one's posterity.
Those who believe such values are theirs by right and are maintained for free, often show a correspondingly condescending sense of superiority along with an extremely narcissistic entitlement . They have forgotten--if they ever knew at all--how those precious freedoms and the human values on which they are based ever came to be the legacy of America.
Suffice it to say that, "Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." (see Mudville Gazette).
Like Harry Potter and his friends in their magical world, we are today fighing a ruthless enemy whose nihilism and fanaticism seems to know no bounds. They are clearly willing to sacrifice their lives for the values of enslavement, submission and death. And their brilliance lies in their ability to present to us a difficult conundrum that we must solve--a conundrum that is not that much different than that which is presented by any of the Voldemorts, Saurons or other "dark lords" of literature.
I wrote about this very problem in a post called "The Brilliance of the New Barbarians" exactly a year ago, and some of what I said then is applicable here.
In a comment on this thread at The Belmont Club, Wretchard noted:
The brilliance of the new barbarism is that you cannot fight it without destroying your own value system into the bargain.
Traditionally the solution has been to consider wartime a discontinuity, when civilization's rules are suspended. It becomes possible, for example, to lay waste to the Monte Cassino Abbey. Berlin was bombed without regard for its buildings, churches or people.
The alternative is to create methods of fighting so discriminating that we can literally shoot between the raindrops. But that creates a different problem, for we will need an intelligence system so comprehensive that it will become intrusive.
Either way, the war cannot be won without cost. And the fundamental fraud foisted on the public is to claim we can have war without horror, conduct an intelligence war without dishonesty and cunning and obtain victory without sacrifice.
I remain confident that we are not about to lose the values we hold dear and which define the American soul because we must fight the enemy on a playing field of his choosing. But we are losing our moral heading nevertheless. Not, as the political left would insist as they keep harping on the so-called "atrocities" they accuse our own soldiers of regularly committing (and which in many cases are grossly overblown and exaggerated, if they have any truth to them at all) ; but because of the frightened unwillingness to express the same level of outrage at the unbelievable atrocities that the enemy commits on a daily basis.
In order to combat and defeat this new barbarism, we must first confront it for the evil it is and be willing to do whatever it takes to defeat it. We are not perfect, and the more we demand such perfection of ourselves, the more we flounder in a quagmire of moral uncertainty and paralysis.
If we appease or ignore the evil; if we pretend that it doesn't exist; or if we can only see it in our own imperfect behavior; then it will continue to menace everything we hold dear; and sooner or later, it will defeat us--no matter how perfectly moral we are or how much restraint we demonstrate in response to the enemy's provocations. Self-flagellation and righteous restraint will not win this conflict. We must be sure in our own hearts and minds of the endurance and worth of our own values in order to do what is necessary to defeat evil. And we must be willing to do it in spite of our own human imperfections.
Our ambivalence toward the worth of our own values is what is dragging us down in this conflict. Value by value we are giving ground to the enemy whose only desire is to destroy our way of life and supress the very freedoms they use to subvert it. All we have to do is look around and see how willing most of the Democratic presidential candidates were to suck up to those who plot to destroy America; and then witness the adulation and praise they received when they expressed their desire to appease and submit to the new barbarians in the name of "peace".
Well, why not? Isn't peace the goal?
Remember how quickly the Western leaders were willing to compromise freedom of speech in the Danish cartoon matter in order to accommodate the enemy's threats? Consider how many other accommodations many of us are willing--and eager--to make to ensure the Death-Eaters of our own world won't get angry or upset with us over anything.
And we can't even criticize their insane religion/ideology of death without having the priests of multicultural nihilism swoop down upon us. Very soon, we will have compromised away all that matters to us for the sake of "peace" (but which is really a sort of voluntary enslavement enforced via a societal suicide pact); and in the end, we will no longer have either our precious freedom, nor will we have peace.
If we continue on the path of appeasement we will be defeated by the enemy's unrepentant ruthlessness and their endless love of death. Thomas Sowell once remarked that, "If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win", and he is most certainly correct.
The cost of this war will ultimately be more than all the lives lost; it will also be for the humanity and civilization we must temporarily abandon to win.
When we are finally cornered and must allow our own barbarism to surface to combat theirs head to head, then we must be prepared to live with the consequences, including the agonizing guilt that will ensue--or everything we hold dear, everything we aspire to become, will forever perish from this earth.
This reality is what I hate and despise most about these Islamic fanatics we are fighting--who do not let reason or life interfere with their jihad; who abide by no treaties, follow no rules, and scorn the very values upon which Western civilization is founded. We could have lived with them they did not insist that we must become what they are or die. But it is they who have defined the ground rules (or the non-rules) of this conflict; and it is they who have set the playing field; and eventually, we will have to meet them at their level--or they will win.
One of the oh so brave leaders of the new barbarians, Ayman al-Zawahri, has said the following while hiding out in his cave:
"...al-Qaida now views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."
The Egyptian-born physician said that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and Palestinian militants would not be ended with "cease-fires or agreements."
"It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahri said. "We will attack everywhere."
So, what should civilization's response be? Should we pretend we don't hear him? That his forces in Iraq aren't really there because "Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror"? Or, shall we fantasize, like so many on the left seem happy to do, that Zawahiri doesn't really mean it? And, even if he did, what harm can he really do?
Even if you hate the idea of violence and death --and what sane and rational person doesn't?-- isn't it time to get really serious about the danger? If a few barbarians with boxcutters on an airplane can kill 3,000 people at a time; what do you imagine will happen if these same barbarians get hold of a nuclear weapon?
In a post titled "WE HAVE MOVED INTO A TIME BEYOND HUMAN WISDOM", I discuss a disturbingly painful conversation between Blackfive and "a peaceful, gentle soul" that begins:
You are not going to like this.
On the demonstrable virtues of not caring if children die, on hardening your mind for war, and other things we can no longer avoid discussing.
Beware that you are ready before you pass this seal.
Let us begin with a debate between a peaceful, gentle soul, and me. The topic could be Israel's war, or ours in Iraq, or -- if they have the heart for it -- the one to come.
You must read the entire conversation because it is the clearest explanation I have ever seen that makes me understand why I hate and despise these islamofascist barbarians so much: they have deliberately brought civilization to a "time beyond human wisdom."
In doing so, they have brought about a deadly paralysis in Western civilization. Sometimes it seems to me that we have been attacked and stabbed in the heart by Tolkien's Shelob; and bound and wrapped in her web, we wait, unmoving and barely conscious, to be eaten at her whim.
Blackfive concluded his post with this:
"It cannot be," I must say. "Love should always rise, above war and fear and death. Love should always be first, and not last, in our hearts. It should never be that love brings wrong, and disdain brings right.
"And yet," I say, "It is. I have shown you that it is. That means we have moved into a time beyond human wisdom. We can no longer know the right. It is beyond us.
"We can only do," I must warn her, and you. "We can only do, and pray, that when we are done we may be forgiven."
We cannot achieve victory against these 21st century barbarians without great cost--in lives and in treasure; and it may be that the biggest cost will be the toll it will take on the very soul of those of us who stand for civilization and decency. Wartime has always been a time of painful discontinuity--a time where in order to achieve peace, we must fight; and in order to preserve life, we must kill.
We must face this unpleasant reality without flinching; because our children and those who come after us depend on us to preserve the fragile and precious legacy of freedom that our own forefathers died to give to us.
President Lincoln understood the sacrifice and pain it requires: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "
It must not be our generation that allows it to perish.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
SPITTING IN THE FACE OF THE U.S. MILITARY
Hot Air has a roundup of information on the identity of "Scott Thomas" and The New Republic story whose credibility has come under quite a bit of scrutiny. Ace reveals some interesting information that demonstrates there is more to this story and to "Scott Thomas" Beauchamp than meets the eye; and John Podhoretz tells everyone to "chill out".
But the damage is already done. And once again, as the smoke clears, the political left has managed to defame and undermine the U.S. Military and promote the prominent leftist notion that it is composed of a bunch of sociopaths and sadists.
I could say the same thing, actually, about the composition of the ranks of the left; but why bother? As Podhoretz notes:
The answer to that crucial question should have been determined PRIOR to publishing the story that appeared in TNR.
And, can anyone doubt that the story was rushed to publication because it just happened to fit in the editors' pre-existing ideological template, which views the military only in this light? Somehow, I suspect that Michael Yon's incredible dispatches or Bill Roggio's would never pass ideological muster in that environment; but Private Beauchamp's titillating prose fit in just right(or is it just left?).
Eric Allie captures the whole affair very well:
But never forget how much they support the troops; or how extremely patriotic they are!
But the damage is already done. And once again, as the smoke clears, the political left has managed to defame and undermine the U.S. Military and promote the prominent leftist notion that it is composed of a bunch of sociopaths and sadists.
I could say the same thing, actually, about the composition of the ranks of the left; but why bother? As Podhoretz notes:
The only issue here was, and remains, whether the stories Beauchamp told in his Diarist (and in the two that preceded it) were matters of fact, or embellishments of tales he had heard around the base, or were invented out of whole cloth.
The answer to that crucial question should have been determined PRIOR to publishing the story that appeared in TNR.
And, can anyone doubt that the story was rushed to publication because it just happened to fit in the editors' pre-existing ideological template, which views the military only in this light? Somehow, I suspect that Michael Yon's incredible dispatches or Bill Roggio's would never pass ideological muster in that environment; but Private Beauchamp's titillating prose fit in just right(or is it just left?).
Eric Allie captures the whole affair very well:
But never forget how much they support the troops; or how extremely patriotic they are!
PREDICATED ON DEFEAT
Blogging will be light today because I will be speaking out of town. Let me leave you with these thoughts from Victor Davis Hanson:
Hanson also notes that the Democrats are basically "positioning themselves into a corner in which any good news from Iraq de facto is fatal to their election prospects."
Think about that. And think about the kind of "debate" I listened to this morning on NPR while I was getting ready to leave on whether or not Al Qaeda in Iraq was really Al Qaeda or not.
Let's see...is Kos in Chicago or Las Vegas really Daily Kos or not, I wonder? Is it all part of thenutnetroots as they continually try to expand their operations into a national--perhaps global?--war on reality? Or just a distraction from the blog?
I'll let you decide how you want to answer that.
Frankly, any presidential candidate whose success is predicated on ensuring the defeat and humiliation of his or her own country by a group of murderous medieval barbarians is not a candidate I want to lead my country under any circumstances.
Lincoln went through Gens. Burnside, Halleck, McClellan, McDowell, Pope, and Rosecrans before finding Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas. In World War II, we never did get Mark Clark out of Italy. No need to mention the train of generals in Vietnam before Creighton Abrams turned things around. Good generals study the errors of their predecessors as they wait for history’s call. In the case of Sherman and Grant, the key difference that marked them as great men, other than an instinctive genius for tactics and strategy, was insight into the mind of the enemy, especially his motivations and contradictions, and a complete calmness in the face of the battle hysteria around them and the backbiting at home.
I preface all that by saying I believe Gen. Petraeus is the right commander after Franks, Sanchez, and Casey, unflappable in the face of bad news at the front and politicking at the rear. If we can give him a year, he will stabilize the country—and the US will have pulled off the impossible of establishing some sort of consensual society, analogous to a Kurdistan or Turkey, in the heart of the ancient caliphate.
How will we sense any progress? Mostly to the degree which Democratic rhetoric insidiously lessens, as Sens. Like Biden, Clinton, Obama et al. begin to hedge their bets in fear that good news will embarrass them around midyear next.
Hanson also notes that the Democrats are basically "positioning themselves into a corner in which any good news from Iraq de facto is fatal to their election prospects."
Think about that. And think about the kind of "debate" I listened to this morning on NPR while I was getting ready to leave on whether or not Al Qaeda in Iraq was really Al Qaeda or not.
Let's see...is Kos in Chicago or Las Vegas really Daily Kos or not, I wonder? Is it all part of the
I'll let you decide how you want to answer that.
Frankly, any presidential candidate whose success is predicated on ensuring the defeat and humiliation of his or her own country by a group of murderous medieval barbarians is not a candidate I want to lead my country under any circumstances.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
PARANOIA AND PROJECTION IN THE ARAB WORLD:The Externalization of Blame for Arab/Islamic Dysfunction **UPDATED**
The always informative MEMRI has a translation up of some of the Syrian government's press articles criticizing other Arab governments in the region:
You have to read all the excerpts to get the full effect, but the the quoted sections exemplify how the Arab world always seems to externalize blame for all the problems of their society.
One typical excerpt:
"The Lebanese Judas Iscariot is the individual or group that rejects national unity and attempts to keep [Lebanon as a fragmented] federation of ethnic cantons, based on the advice of the Elders of Zion...
Some time back, Lisa Beyer wrote about the "big lie" of the Middle East:
Indeed, if Israel did not exist, the Arab world would have to invent it, because without Israel to blame all their problems on (and, of course, America), the nations of the middle east would not be able to go on.
David Frum suggested in an article titled, "Why is it Always About Israel?" that:
Frum was correct in suggesting that the problem cannot be fixed by negotiation, but he is off the mark about the source of the problem. While it is true that Arab radicalism deliberately promotes the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and continually disrupts any possibility of resolving it, the cause of that dispute lies in the psychological dysfunction of the Arabs themselves.
Just as in a clinical case of mass hysteria (which it resembles), Arabs as a group have closed off their rational, thinking minds; and with the encouragement and justification of the most medieval aspects of their religion are operating on the basis of the most primitive and dysfunctional of unconscious needs and feelings.
They are indulging in group projection and paranoia--deliberately developed and encouraged by their dysfunctional leaders--in order to maintain their dysfunctional identity, as well as their dysfunctional political and pseudo-religous agenda.
There doesn't seem to be any limit to the self-delusion that is rampant in the middle east.
Psychologically, it is very difficult to abandon a delusion, particularly when that delusion serves the purpose of accounting for an unacceptable status quo. For too long the so-called leaders in the Middle East have --in a manner similar to Jim Jones--been quenching the thirst of their people with poisoned Kool Aid. They have made it easy to believe that all their problems and troubles are caused by the Jews (or America or the West). Maintaining the delusional system and nourishing it regularly is crucial to their identity as individuals and as nations--otherwise it would be necessary to look inside their own hearts and souls for the underlying causes of their political, economic and spiritual stagnation.
SC&A wrote:
As Siggy points out in his remarkably astute post, the behavior of the Arab world is not really about pride...indeed, what do they have to be proud of? They have perverted beyond all recognition a religion that once upon a time could compete head-to-head with Christianity and Judaism in what it contributed to the whole of humanity. They long ago abandoned the ability to create, and now only possess the capacity to destroy. Their people live in poverty and oppression, controlled only by the belief that their situation is the fault of "the Jews" or America.
This is the legacy of psychological projection and paranoia. The unacceptable thoughts or feelings are denied ("not owned") by the person or group experiencing them, and instead are projected onto another individual or--as in this case--a group (racism, anti-semitism etc. are all projections). Thus, the person who originally had the offensive thought or feeling becomes the helpless victim of the evil "other" and they do not have to cope with the fact that the evil lies wholly within themselves.
Projection as a psychological defense mechanism can eventually lead to full-blown paranoia, where--even to the most casual of observers--the delusion (or projection) is completely out of touch with reality. And, there is plenty of paranoia to go around in that part of the world. Recently we have even been able to witness how the paranoia and hate are eagerly passed on to the next generation, thus preserving the externalization of blame and preventing any real growth or maturity as a people and ensuring the continuation of the pathology that is destroying any ability to build a functioning society.
Not that long ago, the paranoid leaders of Iran are held a "scientific" Holocaust conference in Tehran, intent on proving that the Holocaust has been foisted on the world in order to justify siezing Palestinian lands to create the state of Israel. And to prove how "scholarly they are in that part of the world, they tipped the scales of research to make sure they get the conclusion they desire by banning anyone with a dissenting voice from the deliberations. One can only conclude the organizers wanted to put all their "scientific" and "scholarly" ducks in a row before they wipe Israel off the map. This is a story about the vision and the protocols worthy of these "elders of Tehran"--except, it is not fiction but fact.
We can assume that this conference, too, was not for any creative purpose, but only to justify more destruction and more wanton killing and genocide, all of which has become the hallmark of Arab/Islamic decivilization; and which is psychologically inevitable when a group resorts to paranoia and psychological projection to defend against reality.
Despair.com has a "motivational" poster that suitably captures the essence of the Arab/Islamic world :
UPDATE: Siggy has put up a fascinating article , "A World Without Israel" by Josef Joffe. I urge you to read it, especially the comment trolls (of course, that will make them definitely decide NOT to read it because why would they want to think? There's no advantage in it for them.
Recently, the Syrian government press has been directing harsh criticism against some Arab countries, claiming that they are helping the U.S. implement its plans at the expense of the Arabs. The columnists have also condemned the Arabs for rejecting the policy of resistance - which they said had proven its effectiveness in Lebanon - and for normalizing relations with Israel. The writers used harsh terms to describe certain elements within the Arab countries, calling them "Judas Iscariot," Arab "neo-cons," "forces of evil,"and "Jews within [the Arab world]."
You have to read all the excerpts to get the full effect, but the the quoted sections exemplify how the Arab world always seems to externalize blame for all the problems of their society.
One typical excerpt:
"The Lebanese Judas Iscariot is the individual or group that rejects national unity and attempts to keep [Lebanon as a fragmented] federation of ethnic cantons, based on the advice of the Elders of Zion...
Some time back, Lisa Beyer wrote about the "big lie" of the Middle East:
...the pan-Arabism that once made the Palestinian cause the region's cause is long dead, and the Arab countries have their own worries aplenty. In a decade of reporting in the region, I found it rarely took more than the arching of an eyebrow to get the most candid of Arab thinkers to acknowledge that the tears shed for the Palestinians today outside the West Bank and Gaza are of the crocodile variety. Palestinians know this best of all.
To promote the canard that the troubles of the Arab world are rooted in the Palestinians' misfortune does great harm. It encourages the Arabs to continue to avoid addressing their colossal societal and political ills by hiding behind their Great Excuse: it's all Israel's fault. Certainly, Israel has at times been an obnoxious neighbor, but God help the Arab leaders, propagandists and apologists if a day ever comes when the Arab-Israeli mess is unraveled. One wonders how they would then explain why in Egypt 4 of every 10 people are illiterate; Saudi Arabian Shi'ites (not to mention women) are second-class citizens; 11% of Syrians live below subsistence level; and Jordan's King can unilaterally dissolve Parliament, as he did in 2001. Or why no Middle Eastern government but Israel's and to some extent Lebanon's tolerates freedom of assembly or speech, or democratic institutions like a robust press or civic organizations with independence and clout--let alone unfettered competitive elections.
Indeed, if Israel did not exist, the Arab world would have to invent it, because without Israel to blame all their problems on (and, of course, America), the nations of the middle east would not be able to go on.
David Frum suggested in an article titled, "Why is it Always About Israel?" that:
Might it not be closer to the truth to say that Arab radicalism is the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute--not the result of it? There is no peace because Israel's neighbours--and too many of the world's Muslims--cannot accept the right of a non-Arab, non-Muslim minority to live unsubjugated in the Middle East. That is the true "core" of the dispute, and it cannot be fixed by negotiation.
Frum was correct in suggesting that the problem cannot be fixed by negotiation, but he is off the mark about the source of the problem. While it is true that Arab radicalism deliberately promotes the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and continually disrupts any possibility of resolving it, the cause of that dispute lies in the psychological dysfunction of the Arabs themselves.
Just as in a clinical case of mass hysteria (which it resembles), Arabs as a group have closed off their rational, thinking minds; and with the encouragement and justification of the most medieval aspects of their religion are operating on the basis of the most primitive and dysfunctional of unconscious needs and feelings.
They are indulging in group projection and paranoia--deliberately developed and encouraged by their dysfunctional leaders--in order to maintain their dysfunctional identity, as well as their dysfunctional political and pseudo-religous agenda.
There doesn't seem to be any limit to the self-delusion that is rampant in the middle east.
Psychologically, it is very difficult to abandon a delusion, particularly when that delusion serves the purpose of accounting for an unacceptable status quo. For too long the so-called leaders in the Middle East have --in a manner similar to Jim Jones--been quenching the thirst of their people with poisoned Kool Aid. They have made it easy to believe that all their problems and troubles are caused by the Jews (or America or the West). Maintaining the delusional system and nourishing it regularly is crucial to their identity as individuals and as nations--otherwise it would be necessary to look inside their own hearts and souls for the underlying causes of their political, economic and spiritual stagnation.
SC&A wrote:
Many in the Arab world defiantly declare their ‘Arab pride,’ but of course, that really isn’t true. That is a kind of projection. If there really was Arab pride, they would be digging holes for the foundation of schools and factories, and not digging holes to bury IED’s. If the Palestinians wanted to reflect Arab pride, they would build hospitals and not rockets and missiles.
The Arab world is not fighting for freedom and democracy. They are fighting to retain the values of oppression, tyranny and dysfunction. There is so much self hatred of what they have come to stand for, that they are willing to blow themselves up in the process. Subconsciously, they must know what they are fighting to preserve and how they are fighting, is repulsive to any decent, civilized and religious adherent of any faith.
In truth, the Arab world cannot be proud of itself. The Islamic and Arab cultures that contributed mightily to the progress of mankind, have willingly become the poster children for religious intolerance, hate, violence and even genocide. There is very little the Arab world has to be proud of- and pointing to past glory only serves to highlight how far they have fallen. All the phony ‘Arab pride’ in the world has not motivated them to build. All they have done is destroy- and that destruction is a symptom of self hatred. People who hate themselves, destroy everything around them. People that believe in their higher selves, build. The same is true for nations. Nations, societies and cultures are not remembered for what they destroy. They are remembered for what they have built.
As Siggy points out in his remarkably astute post, the behavior of the Arab world is not really about pride...indeed, what do they have to be proud of? They have perverted beyond all recognition a religion that once upon a time could compete head-to-head with Christianity and Judaism in what it contributed to the whole of humanity. They long ago abandoned the ability to create, and now only possess the capacity to destroy. Their people live in poverty and oppression, controlled only by the belief that their situation is the fault of "the Jews" or America.
This is the legacy of psychological projection and paranoia. The unacceptable thoughts or feelings are denied ("not owned") by the person or group experiencing them, and instead are projected onto another individual or--as in this case--a group (racism, anti-semitism etc. are all projections). Thus, the person who originally had the offensive thought or feeling becomes the helpless victim of the evil "other" and they do not have to cope with the fact that the evil lies wholly within themselves.
Projection as a psychological defense mechanism can eventually lead to full-blown paranoia, where--even to the most casual of observers--the delusion (or projection) is completely out of touch with reality. And, there is plenty of paranoia to go around in that part of the world. Recently we have even been able to witness how the paranoia and hate are eagerly passed on to the next generation, thus preserving the externalization of blame and preventing any real growth or maturity as a people and ensuring the continuation of the pathology that is destroying any ability to build a functioning society.
Not that long ago, the paranoid leaders of Iran are held a "scientific" Holocaust conference in Tehran, intent on proving that the Holocaust has been foisted on the world in order to justify siezing Palestinian lands to create the state of Israel. And to prove how "scholarly they are in that part of the world, they tipped the scales of research to make sure they get the conclusion they desire by banning anyone with a dissenting voice from the deliberations. One can only conclude the organizers wanted to put all their "scientific" and "scholarly" ducks in a row before they wipe Israel off the map. This is a story about the vision and the protocols worthy of these "elders of Tehran"--except, it is not fiction but fact.
We can assume that this conference, too, was not for any creative purpose, but only to justify more destruction and more wanton killing and genocide, all of which has become the hallmark of Arab/Islamic decivilization; and which is psychologically inevitable when a group resorts to paranoia and psychological projection to defend against reality.
Despair.com has a "motivational" poster that suitably captures the essence of the Arab/Islamic world :
UPDATE: Siggy has put up a fascinating article , "A World Without Israel" by Josef Joffe. I urge you to read it, especially the comment trolls (of course, that will make them definitely decide NOT to read it because why would they want to think? There's no advantage in it for them.
THE RING OF POWER
In a post that discusses why Osama Bin Laden chose to attack the U.S. on September 11th instead of either Russia or China, when both these nations have been campaigning against Muslims for centuries, Wretchard has this astute observation:
Indeed, the minions of the left have demonstrated that they are a potent "force multiplier" for the fanaticism of Islam, helping them to defeat America in Iraq and giving very little thought to the consequences of their behavior except to revel in their self-righteousness.
In thinking about how to clarify exactly what it about the left's ideology that effectively blinds its adherents to the real world and puts them into a persistent vegetative state of psychological denial, I was fortunate to have a someone leave a comment just the other day onan older post of mine that I think captures the essence of the problem and exemplifies the sort of delusion and denial the left prides itself on:
The author of the above comment is reacting to this quote from the piece:
I'm sure that "dave" believes he is patriotic. Moreover, I sure that he is convinced that his unrepentant hatred for America and its hypocrisy (by his standards) is noble and good; and that in saying the things he is saying he is "speaking truth to power" and standing up to the real evil in the world--an evil that tortures and kills people at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, makes unnecessary wars and kills millions.
He may even have further deluded himself into somehow believing that he actually "supports" the troops by wanting to bring them home; but that supportive attitude toward the military clearly alternates with demonizing them as murdering imperialist tools.
In short, I'm completely sure that "dave" really believes in his heart of hearts that the ideology he spews so passionately truly "speaks to the human soul", as he says.
I agree with "dave" on this point; but would add that it speaks in a manner that "dave" and others on the left are unwilling to face-- or even imagine, for that matter.
He and his ideology do indeed represent the human soul if you are talking about souls like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pol, Hitler, Saddam and others of his ilk in the Middle East; along with all the other dysfuntional despots and tyrants of history who assumed power supposedly for "the greater good".
All of the above examples represent a part of the human soul; but it is a part which should make any decent human being shiver with dread. Because, when such souls are in ascendence, it means that once again, the darkest side of human nature has been unleashed. And the horrible devastation, death, and misery that originates from that side of the human soul taking control over others is historical fact as well as present reality.
It is precisely that side of human soul that "dave's" leftist ideology has been encouraging and unleashing for decades now, even as it chips away at the foundations of all that is good in humanity.
In The Narcissistic Synthesis, I wrote:
The ideology of today's left is nothing more or less than the same utopian ideology born out of the dysfunctional narcissistic idealism that I discuss in that post and in this one. I have pointed out multiple times on this blog that the childish minions that make up most of the political (like "dave") left have embraced this unrestrained and undiluted narcissism, and then disguised it as something good and noble and morally superior.
If they were to ever unflinchingly look at the results of their presumed moral superiority in the real world, they might grow up. But, they prefer to live in the la-la land of some abstract utopian ideal than in the real world; and thus they are willing to sacrifice untold millions of real human being on the altar of their utopian narcissism.
This utopian/totalitarian mindset appeals to the dark side of human nature; i.e., the side of the soul that thrives on envy, greed, desire for power over others; and personal gratification at any price. It is the side that destroys true benevolence and tolerance and triggers the barbarism and uncivilized behavior of which we are all capable. But now that behavior has the sanction of the society.
That is why "dave's" ideology can only result in death, misery and enslavement; even as it touts some abstract ideal of "universal peace, justice and brotherhood". Beneath the peace, justice and brotherhood rhetoric is a profoundly totalitarian mindset that intends to force you to submit to its will-- for your own good, of course-- but you will submit, or else.
Read dave's comment again. The fantasy is breathtaking. He sees the left in this country as being "arrested, killed, beaten, spied on, and basically make our life a living hell" and you've got to wonder what the hell he is talking about and what planet (let alone what country) does this guy live in?
Clearly, dave does not dwell in the real world. These accusations are just the sort of make-believe that have always been more real than reality itself for those on the political left. Reality to them is simply an ugly and unnatural aberration from all their beautiful ideas and grand utopias; and from their image of themselves as heroic and "speaking truth to power".
They dream of utopias where there is no crime and no criminals; where health care is free--or better yet, there is no disease at all. These utopias exist in universal peace and brotherhood and are paragons of the sort of "social justice" the left is are always talking about; and which will only come into being when they have complete control over all aspects of your life.
Controlling you is far easier (and much safer) than fighting in the real world against disease, injustice, intolerance and hate.
And it is this sort of thinking, disguised as loving concern and compassion, that make the "daves" of the world so terribly dangerous, and suceptible to using a "Ring of Power."
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,: One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them...
The historical confluence of socialism, communism, and Islamic fascism has resulted in the force multiplication of all three utopian ideologies. Consciously or unconsciously, in our world today, the three work almost seamlessly together to achieve their separate dreams of world domination. (Of course, in the end, only one totalitarian ideology will rule--but each thinks theirs will be the one to triumph over the other).
This Ring of Power can only be destroyed by unmasking the false assumptions and psychological denial of its wearers. That is why it is so important to confront today's left on its moral and intellecutal bankruptcy and to continually highlight how they have enabled and encouraged exactly the opposite of what they say they stand for. In their zeal for domination over us all, they have been willing to embrace an even greater evil.
The rise of Islamofascism over the last half century directly correlates with the rise of the left's multicultural and PC dogmas, both of which have given the fascists of Islam space to expand and act out their homicidal fantasies. We fight the fanatics of Islam on the battlefield; and every day it becomes clearer that the ideology of the left is prepared to give those fanatics a victory because they believe it will strengthen their own power over others.
But if we also focus on the destructively narcissistic dogma of the left; and on the delusional "daves" out there; confronting them and expose their ideology for the fraud it truly is; then the seemingly unsurmountable power of the One Ring will be drastically weakened.
Otherwise, the darkness they are encouraging will destroy all human values; all human decency and all human civilization.
Attack Beijing or Moscow? Any Chinese or Russian response to a Bin Laden attack would have gone as unreported as the Chinese reprisals of 1997 -- the year incidentally that Hongkong was returned to its motherland -- no need to raise any jitters about that. War by al-Qaeda against China or Russia would have been just kinetic war. One in which radical Islam would lose 100 men, women and children for every Chinese or Russian it killed. That was a losing proposition. What Osama needed was information war, one which would allow him to dish out propaganda instead of take losses, and that could only be started by attacking the United States of America. Western politics would do the rest....
There are times when I am tempted to think that the Western Left is radical Islam's Ring of Power. And the brilliance of al-Qaeda's reliance on it as a force-multiplier is that the defeat of radical Islam must consequently come at the price of altering the structure of post-war Western politics itself. In a sense the Western Left has become a hostage to the current world crisis, and perhaps the only part of the Left that understands this are the signatories of the Euston Manifesto, who realized that al-Qaeda had already claimed its political soul: that unconciously, almost imperceptibly, the Left in uncritical embrace of any foe of America had come to align itself with the most brutal, obscurantist, repressive theocrats on the planet. And would conceivably share its fate with them.
But al-Qaeda's allies can only control events up to a point. Elemental forces are ranged against it. Chief among which is the sheer, simple brutality of countries like Putin's Russia and China. If a snapping point is reached, even the Left may not forever restrain the West. The end point of debasing the coin of information is absolute bankruptcy.
Indeed, the minions of the left have demonstrated that they are a potent "force multiplier" for the fanaticism of Islam, helping them to defeat America in Iraq and giving very little thought to the consequences of their behavior except to revel in their self-righteousness.
In thinking about how to clarify exactly what it about the left's ideology that effectively blinds its adherents to the real world and puts them into a persistent vegetative state of psychological denial, I was fortunate to have a someone leave a comment just the other day onan older post of mine that I think captures the essence of the problem and exemplifies the sort of delusion and denial the left prides itself on:
The greatest most noble country in the history of the world? Yikes! You really believe that? What's so great about incarcerating more humans than any other nation on the planet? What's so noble about leaving a third of the nation without adequate health care? And what's so noble about leaving hundreds of thousands of veterans out on the street without a roof over their head? What's so great about a nation that has killed nearly a million people in an unprovoked and illegal war? A nation that justifies the same torture techniques used by the Nazis? A nation that has democratic institutions and forms but no democratic outcome? Yeah I would stop apologizing because it looks foolish to the rest of the world. Europeans look upon us as the biggest threat to world peace--not Iran. In the real world we are not the greatest nation; we are the greatest imperialist power and people resent that. As for defeating the Left, you've been trying to do that for years. You have us arrested, killed, beaten, spied on, and basically make our life a living hell, but you can't beat us. A people united will never be defeated. You can win battles, but you'll never defeat us because the ideas we represent speak to the human soul.
-dave
The author of the above comment is reacting to this quote from the piece:
Let us stop apologizing for being the greatest, most noble country in the history of the world. Let us stop apologizing for being the most productive and free people in historical memory; a people who willingly, generously and honorably shoulder the burdens and problems of the world-- and get little or no thanks for doing so; on the contrary, they are heaped with scorn and are the objects of unceasing malevolence.It is time to go on the rhetorical and political offensive against the political left, before their strategies succeed in destroying the soul and will of our country, leaving us even more vulnerable to the Islamofascist enemy who--if they cannot possess or enslave our soul--intend to wipe us off the map.
I'm sure that "dave" believes he is patriotic. Moreover, I sure that he is convinced that his unrepentant hatred for America and its hypocrisy (by his standards) is noble and good; and that in saying the things he is saying he is "speaking truth to power" and standing up to the real evil in the world--an evil that tortures and kills people at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, makes unnecessary wars and kills millions.
He may even have further deluded himself into somehow believing that he actually "supports" the troops by wanting to bring them home; but that supportive attitude toward the military clearly alternates with demonizing them as murdering imperialist tools.
In short, I'm completely sure that "dave" really believes in his heart of hearts that the ideology he spews so passionately truly "speaks to the human soul", as he says.
I agree with "dave" on this point; but would add that it speaks in a manner that "dave" and others on the left are unwilling to face-- or even imagine, for that matter.
He and his ideology do indeed represent the human soul if you are talking about souls like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pol, Hitler, Saddam and others of his ilk in the Middle East; along with all the other dysfuntional despots and tyrants of history who assumed power supposedly for "the greater good".
All of the above examples represent a part of the human soul; but it is a part which should make any decent human being shiver with dread. Because, when such souls are in ascendence, it means that once again, the darkest side of human nature has been unleashed. And the horrible devastation, death, and misery that originates from that side of the human soul taking control over others is historical fact as well as present reality.
It is precisely that side of human soul that "dave's" leftist ideology has been encouraging and unleashing for decades now, even as it chips away at the foundations of all that is good in humanity.
In The Narcissistic Synthesis, I wrote:
When the grandiose self is out of control; the fragments self of the individual(s) will manipulate, control, subjugate, hurt and in extreme cases even kill others. This happens because without a cohesive self, other people are not seen as separate from the self, or even necessarily human. Those in the thrall of the grandiose self are not capable of real human empathy.
We see stories of this kind of thing happening all the time on the news, and frequently exclaim in astonishment, "How could someone do that?" Examples are the ex-boyfriend who cannot accept that the woman he loved has dared to withdraw her love from him and so must kill her (and often himself); the serial killer who does not experience others as really human; the pedophile who abuses then murders his child victim; and every petty criminal who believes implicitly that his feelings and desires are paramount and justify his behavior.
The second type problem for society at large is an evil that is far more subtle, but even more destructive; and it originates from the idealized object developmental line . Individuals with this particular narcissistic defect (as likewise described for the grandiose self) also do not see other people as separate individuals; and instead see them only as fodder for the expression of an IDEAL or as pawns for an Omnipotent Object (e.g., a dictator).
For all the lip service given to compassion and caring for others, the individual in the throes of narcissistic idealism also completely reject the needs of the individual and enslave him or her to their IDEAL. Eventually, the enslavement--whether religious or secular--snuffs out human ambition, confidence, energy and self-esteem. These "do-gooders" cause considerable human misery and their ideologies can lead to genocidal practices and unbelievable atrocities on a grand scale, all in the name of the IDEAL or GOD. Appropriate benevolence and compassion toward others can only occur when there is a cohesive self in residence; who accepts that other people are separate from him, with thoughts, desires, wishes and beliefs that may not coincide with his own--and that those others have a right to be so.
C.S. Lewis wrote:"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Many people never completely resolve all the tension between the two poles of narcissistic development; thereby never reaching a fully integrated and cohesive self. While most would not meet specific criteria for a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, such people have extremely dysfunctional narcissistic traits that continually interfere with their own and other's lives.
The ideology of today's left is nothing more or less than the same utopian ideology born out of the dysfunctional narcissistic idealism that I discuss in that post and in this one. I have pointed out multiple times on this blog that the childish minions that make up most of the political (like "dave") left have embraced this unrestrained and undiluted narcissism, and then disguised it as something good and noble and morally superior.
If they were to ever unflinchingly look at the results of their presumed moral superiority in the real world, they might grow up. But, they prefer to live in the la-la land of some abstract utopian ideal than in the real world; and thus they are willing to sacrifice untold millions of real human being on the altar of their utopian narcissism.
This utopian/totalitarian mindset appeals to the dark side of human nature; i.e., the side of the soul that thrives on envy, greed, desire for power over others; and personal gratification at any price. It is the side that destroys true benevolence and tolerance and triggers the barbarism and uncivilized behavior of which we are all capable. But now that behavior has the sanction of the society.
That is why "dave's" ideology can only result in death, misery and enslavement; even as it touts some abstract ideal of "universal peace, justice and brotherhood". Beneath the peace, justice and brotherhood rhetoric is a profoundly totalitarian mindset that intends to force you to submit to its will-- for your own good, of course-- but you will submit, or else.
Read dave's comment again. The fantasy is breathtaking. He sees the left in this country as being "arrested, killed, beaten, spied on, and basically make our life a living hell" and you've got to wonder what the hell he is talking about and what planet (let alone what country) does this guy live in?
Clearly, dave does not dwell in the real world. These accusations are just the sort of make-believe that have always been more real than reality itself for those on the political left. Reality to them is simply an ugly and unnatural aberration from all their beautiful ideas and grand utopias; and from their image of themselves as heroic and "speaking truth to power".
They dream of utopias where there is no crime and no criminals; where health care is free--or better yet, there is no disease at all. These utopias exist in universal peace and brotherhood and are paragons of the sort of "social justice" the left is are always talking about; and which will only come into being when they have complete control over all aspects of your life.
Controlling you is far easier (and much safer) than fighting in the real world against disease, injustice, intolerance and hate.
And it is this sort of thinking, disguised as loving concern and compassion, that make the "daves" of the world so terribly dangerous, and suceptible to using a "Ring of Power."
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,: One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them...
The historical confluence of socialism, communism, and Islamic fascism has resulted in the force multiplication of all three utopian ideologies. Consciously or unconsciously, in our world today, the three work almost seamlessly together to achieve their separate dreams of world domination. (Of course, in the end, only one totalitarian ideology will rule--but each thinks theirs will be the one to triumph over the other).
This Ring of Power can only be destroyed by unmasking the false assumptions and psychological denial of its wearers. That is why it is so important to confront today's left on its moral and intellecutal bankruptcy and to continually highlight how they have enabled and encouraged exactly the opposite of what they say they stand for. In their zeal for domination over us all, they have been willing to embrace an even greater evil.
The rise of Islamofascism over the last half century directly correlates with the rise of the left's multicultural and PC dogmas, both of which have given the fascists of Islam space to expand and act out their homicidal fantasies. We fight the fanatics of Islam on the battlefield; and every day it becomes clearer that the ideology of the left is prepared to give those fanatics a victory because they believe it will strengthen their own power over others.
But if we also focus on the destructively narcissistic dogma of the left; and on the delusional "daves" out there; confronting them and expose their ideology for the fraud it truly is; then the seemingly unsurmountable power of the One Ring will be drastically weakened.
Otherwise, the darkness they are encouraging will destroy all human values; all human decency and all human civilization.
Monday, July 23, 2007
A DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS
I wrote the following post in late 2005, but it remains applicable today. I found the cartoon at the end today, which is what prompted me to repost it:
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Since I put up the post "IN DENIAL" the other day, I have had a number of emails asking me how one goes about dealing with people in denial. Here is a typical email on the subject:
In therapy, this can work because people are (hopefully) motivated to change--but not always. It is always very hard to give up a cherished belief for anyone. It rarely happens the first or second or twentieth time that they are confronted with the truth. But because there are long-term consequences of denial, it is worth the effort of trying to intervene.
In discussing and pointing out the facts over and over again; trying to make it as obvious as possible what the real situation is, there is a strong liklihood that those who are not motivated to change, will not alter their system of denial--until and unless those consequences come to pass. As an example, you can look around the blogsphere at all the people who were happily moving along in Leftist circles when 9/11 happened. This was a transforming event for many because for the first time they saw the concretization of their abstract principles. It forced them to rethink and reconsider some of the cherished positions they had held.
But it is important to remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. If 9/11 was not a big enough wake-up call, then one wonders what will shake some people out of their extreme denial about Islam and Islamofascism.
I think Bush et al have done a good job initially confronting the reality of the threat; but there was always bound to be a certain amount of rage and hysteria by those who remain firmly in denial. Bush and his administration were certainly damned because they reacted in a healthy manner to the threat; but they would have been damned even more if they had done nothing. Let me say to the trolls who inhabit my comment section and who believe that I "worship" Bush, that they are mistaken.
Bush is only human. He and others in his administration and in the military have made mistakes. But what else does one expect in the real world? Nothing is perfect--either in human thought or human action. What matters is that we do what we need to do--and what is right-- and fight on, despite our mistakes. Our hope is that we will achieve a victory for our side before being taken down by the gods of remorse, recrimination and obsessive perfection.
With a MSM so clearly determined to undermine the war effort and turn it into a repeat of Vietnam, anything Bush, Cheney, Generals, etc. say has been distorted and trivialized. Every action they have taken has been met with fierce opposition, much of which is motivated by denial and its attendant psychological convoy--projection and paranoia (and the links are relatively mild examples--in the latter example, I am still waiting breathlessly for the dire predictions of an imminent "Bush theocracy" to be implemented). These latter defenses are almost always present when denial is in the neighborhood, since denial often leads to other psychologically primitive and/or neurotic responses in the determined user.
That doesn't mean I don't think the Bush Administration should confront it more frequently; or that I am not happy with the most recent efforts on the part of the White House to make the public more aware of what is really happening. They should do it often. As for the mistakes they have made--I believe they have made good faith efforts to remedy what errors they can while still moving forward in a complex and historically new type of war that the enemy has brought to us.
It is simply that they have had their hands tied behind their back for several years and have only recently actively tried to break out of this political conundrum of denial, projection, and paranoia that motivates much of the opposition. And that observation about the opposition is a kind thing to say on my part--since many are also motivated by sheer malevolence, hatred of America, combined with an untrammelled desire for power.
But I am not trying to reach people in that latter group. They are beyond psychological help and will never willingly face the consequences of their actions. For them, it will always be someone else's fault when their intellectual and moral positions bear bitter fruit. Sadly, it is often the case that many innocent people will be dragged down along with them when the consequences hit.
Reality is the ultimate cure for those in denial. Either they deal with the real world; or they face the consequences eventually -- sort of like the deer standing frozen in the headlights of an oncoming car.
[other cartoons by Paul Nowak here)
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Since I put up the post "IN DENIAL" the other day, I have had a number of emails asking me how one goes about dealing with people in denial. Here is a typical email on the subject:
Great post, but can you be a little more specific about who can relieve these people of their denial and how to do it? Shouldn't President Bush be doing more, and more often?As I mentioned in the post, making people aware of what they are doing is actually the only way to deal with denial. By doing so, you make their denial a completely conscious action, instead of a partially conscious (or less) behavior. Then they face a clear-cut choice: either to continue to deny (but now it is conscious) or they can face reality and do what needs to be done.
In therapy, this can work because people are (hopefully) motivated to change--but not always. It is always very hard to give up a cherished belief for anyone. It rarely happens the first or second or twentieth time that they are confronted with the truth. But because there are long-term consequences of denial, it is worth the effort of trying to intervene.
In discussing and pointing out the facts over and over again; trying to make it as obvious as possible what the real situation is, there is a strong liklihood that those who are not motivated to change, will not alter their system of denial--until and unless those consequences come to pass. As an example, you can look around the blogsphere at all the people who were happily moving along in Leftist circles when 9/11 happened. This was a transforming event for many because for the first time they saw the concretization of their abstract principles. It forced them to rethink and reconsider some of the cherished positions they had held.
But it is important to remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. If 9/11 was not a big enough wake-up call, then one wonders what will shake some people out of their extreme denial about Islam and Islamofascism.
I think Bush et al have done a good job initially confronting the reality of the threat; but there was always bound to be a certain amount of rage and hysteria by those who remain firmly in denial. Bush and his administration were certainly damned because they reacted in a healthy manner to the threat; but they would have been damned even more if they had done nothing. Let me say to the trolls who inhabit my comment section and who believe that I "worship" Bush, that they are mistaken.
Bush is only human. He and others in his administration and in the military have made mistakes. But what else does one expect in the real world? Nothing is perfect--either in human thought or human action. What matters is that we do what we need to do--and what is right-- and fight on, despite our mistakes. Our hope is that we will achieve a victory for our side before being taken down by the gods of remorse, recrimination and obsessive perfection.
With a MSM so clearly determined to undermine the war effort and turn it into a repeat of Vietnam, anything Bush, Cheney, Generals, etc. say has been distorted and trivialized. Every action they have taken has been met with fierce opposition, much of which is motivated by denial and its attendant psychological convoy--projection and paranoia (and the links are relatively mild examples--in the latter example, I am still waiting breathlessly for the dire predictions of an imminent "Bush theocracy" to be implemented). These latter defenses are almost always present when denial is in the neighborhood, since denial often leads to other psychologically primitive and/or neurotic responses in the determined user.
That doesn't mean I don't think the Bush Administration should confront it more frequently; or that I am not happy with the most recent efforts on the part of the White House to make the public more aware of what is really happening. They should do it often. As for the mistakes they have made--I believe they have made good faith efforts to remedy what errors they can while still moving forward in a complex and historically new type of war that the enemy has brought to us.
It is simply that they have had their hands tied behind their back for several years and have only recently actively tried to break out of this political conundrum of denial, projection, and paranoia that motivates much of the opposition. And that observation about the opposition is a kind thing to say on my part--since many are also motivated by sheer malevolence, hatred of America, combined with an untrammelled desire for power.
But I am not trying to reach people in that latter group. They are beyond psychological help and will never willingly face the consequences of their actions. For them, it will always be someone else's fault when their intellectual and moral positions bear bitter fruit. Sadly, it is often the case that many innocent people will be dragged down along with them when the consequences hit.
Reality is the ultimate cure for those in denial. Either they deal with the real world; or they face the consequences eventually -- sort of like the deer standing frozen in the headlights of an oncoming car.
[other cartoons by Paul Nowak here)
HARRY POTTER REID AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX WEASEL
By the way, here is a good review of the final Harry Potter book. Check it out.
Having just read the book, I see many parallels from it in events of our own muggle world.
Question of the day: is it possible that when the communism was defeated in the second half of the last century, that a pieces of its soul were transferred into today's lunatic left, as well as into the lunatic fanatics of Islam, thus making both horcruxes that keep the totalitarian dreams of
How many other horcruxes are there out there that have pieces of the power-hungry soul of that anti-human ideology, responsible for so much death and misery in the last century?
Sunday, July 22, 2007
CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES
Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.Send all entries for next week's carnival to Dr. Sanity by 8 pm ET on Saturday for Sunday's Carnival. Only one post entry weekly per blogger, please. And you might read this before submitting an entry.
**NOTE: I am now getting many more submissions than I can possibly include in the weekly Carnival. Please don't be offended if your submission is not used (oh, okay, be as offended as you like) as it only means that for a variety of reasons I wasn't able to fit it into the "flow" as I put together each Carnival.
REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!
1. The world's stupidest fatwas. One of the world's stupidest conspiracy theories. More stupid conspicay theories ... can you spell P.A.R.A.N.O.I.A ?
2. OMG OMG, you can't mean to say they would LIE to us? But at least the Dems will believe everything they say.
3. CAIR vs TNOYF. CAIR vs reality. Yeah, the irony of it all is pretty remarkable. You just have to forget about killer bees and martyrdom mice. Not to mention the spying squirrels.
4. Is the sky blue? Who cares what her politics actually are? ..She gets it.
5. Harry Reid and the Chamber of Idiots. Maybe they inhabit an alternate universe? Where getting worked up about dogs is more important than getting worked up about people? Kerry lied, people died...again.
6. Meanwhile, Ted Kennedy has the sheer gall to cast stones on anyone else's indiscretions? The family reunions have taken an odd turn....
7. Some modest suggestions for the acting president. Oh good, we'll get to find out what she actually thinks she's accomplished. I'm sure it will be a pageturner!
8. "You don't really think I behave more like a man, do you?"
9. Another amazingly obvious sex study. The differences between the genders at a glance.
10. Thanks for the distinction, AP! The MSM is always so helpful and impartial. Tilting at windmills. But technology has the answer!
11. Our long national nightmare is over. But the other one is still going, sadly. Weep, weep for the poor, poor Wilsons. Such a darn pity how they've managed to parlay wealth and notoriety from their personal jihad. Maybe she'll even make CIA Director in a Clinton administration. My how they've all suffered.
12. Dear lord, to what do we deserve this horror?
13. Scarf it up...it was pretty stupid no matter what it was called. Another case of "full-belly" revolutionaries.
14. Can’t we all make money, blog about it and get along? That's my modest utopian dream also. I want to be like these guys!
15. Neither fish nor fowl nor flesh....And where's the beef??
16. Revenge of the veggies.
17. Can human-style citizenship be far behind? Also for the giant, man-eating weasels?
18. One of those "Oh Shit" moments.
19. Something pretty amazing is happening in France.... No "youth" riots recently, either.
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Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.
If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on "Word of Blog" below the button to obtain the html code:
Saturday, July 21, 2007
MORE IMPORTANT THAN BLOGGING
I'm going to be extremely busy most of the day and won't be blogging.
Unless you live on another planet, you probably know that today is the release date of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series. I have been waiting patiently for many years now to find out how it all comes out.
Blogging will return to normal when I finish the book.
By the way, you can still enjoy the Harry Potter books if you haven't kept up with the series. As Tom Robbins has written, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood...."
Click on the links below to catch up (the most recent books in the series are listed first) :
UPDATE: Just finished the book. And all I have to say is "Wow!". Rowling has done a masterful job and I couldn't be more satisfied at how it all turned out. If you have not read this series, then you are missing out on something very special. Like The Lord of the Rings , this is a story that resonates with the difficult times we live in today; where good and evil continue to be in conflict; and where our choices will determine whether the forces of good will ultimately triumph over the forces of evil.
The cynical among us will scoff at that last sentence; but I believe that is what all art and literature--from the most lofty and sublime, to even the simplest children's stories --are meant to do--i.e., to emotionally and psychologically help us to do what is right, rather than what is easy; to choose to stand up for the good; and to fight evil in the world.
Unless you live on another planet, you probably know that today is the release date of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series. I have been waiting patiently for many years now to find out how it all comes out.
Blogging will return to normal when I finish the book.
By the way, you can still enjoy the Harry Potter books if you haven't kept up with the series. As Tom Robbins has written, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood...."
Click on the links below to catch up (the most recent books in the series are listed first) :
UPDATE: Just finished the book. And all I have to say is "Wow!". Rowling has done a masterful job and I couldn't be more satisfied at how it all turned out. If you have not read this series, then you are missing out on something very special. Like The Lord of the Rings , this is a story that resonates with the difficult times we live in today; where good and evil continue to be in conflict; and where our choices will determine whether the forces of good will ultimately triumph over the forces of evil.
The cynical among us will scoff at that last sentence; but I believe that is what all art and literature--from the most lofty and sublime, to even the simplest children's stories --are meant to do--i.e., to emotionally and psychologically help us to do what is right, rather than what is easy; to choose to stand up for the good; and to fight evil in the world.
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