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| Victor Davis Hanson: "Feeding the Minotaur" |
| 2004-06-14 |
| Go read it all, of course. Much has been written about our problems with this postmodern war and why we find it so difficult to fully mobilize our formidable military and economic clout to crush the terrorists and their patrons. Of course, we have no identifiable conventional enemy such as Hitler’s Panzers; we are not battling a fearsome nation that defiantly declared war on us, such as Tojo’s Japan; and we are no longer a depression-era, disarmed, impoverished United States at risk for our very survival. But then, neither Hitler nor Mussolini nor Tojo nor Stalin ever reached Manhattan and Washington. So al Qaeda is both worse and not worse than the German Nazis: It is hardly the identifiable threat of Hitler’s Wehrmacht, but in this age of technology and weapons of mass destruction it is more able to kill more Americans inside the United States. Whereas we think our fascist enemies of old were logical and conniving, too many of us deem bin Laden’s new fascists unhinged — their fatwas, their mythology about strong and weak horses, and their babble about the Reconquista and the often evoked "holy shrines" are to us dreamlike. But I beg to differ somewhat. I think the Islamists and their supporters do not live in an alternate universe, but instead are no more crazy in their goals than Hitler was in thinking he could hijack the hallowed country of Beethoven and Goethe and turn it over to buffoons like Goering, prancing in a medieval castle in reindeer horns and babbling about mythical Aryans with flunkies like Goebbels and Rosenberg. Nor was Hitler’s fatwa — Mein Kampf — any more irrational than bin Laden’s 1998 screed and his subsequent grainy infomercials. Indeed, I think Islamofascism is brilliant in its reading of the postmodern West and precisely for that reason it is dangerous beyond all description — in the manner that a blood-sucking, stealthy, and nocturnal Dracula was always spookier than a massive, clunky Frankenstein. Like Hitler’s creed, bin Ladenism trumpets contempt for bourgeois Western society. If once we were a "mongrel" race of "cowboys" who could not take casualties against the supermen of the Third Reich, now we are indolent infidels, channel surfers who eat, screw, and talk too much amid worthless gadgetry, godless skyscrapers, and, of course, once again, the conniving Jews. Like Hitler, bin Ladenism has an agenda: the end of the liberal West. Its supposedly crackpot vision is actually a petrol-rich Middle East free of Jews, Christians, and Westerners, free to rekindle spiritual purity under Sharia. Bin Laden’s al Reich is a vast pan-Arabic, Taliban-like caliphate run out of Mecca by new prophets like him, metering out oil to a greedy West in order to purchase the weapons of its destruction; there is, after all, an Israel to be nuked, a Europe to be out-peopled and cowered, and an America to be bombed and terrorized into isolation. This time we are to lose not through blood and iron, but through terror and intimidation: televised beheadings, mass murders, occasional bombings, the disruption of commerce, travel, and the oil supply. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #11 Dave D. Right on everything -- loved all your posts --except about Fred Rogers. Sorry, but you shouldn't lump him in with the NY Sesame Street gang and Barney, okay? Moral disarmament is the critical component, and he can't be charged with that. jules 187--yeah. I think it will take something like that. For a long time people have heard that violence is wrong no matter what--and if others are being being violent, it's the victim's fault. I hate to think of what kind of wake-up call it's gonna take when the Towers weren't enough. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-06-14 8:39:16 PM |
| #10 "* When people began to accept the notion that violence... is never justified" Implanting that notion was the assigned task of Fred Rogers, Big Bird and Barney the Dinosaur. I'm not kidding: I mean it. I've really begun to suspect that much of the looniness of the left we've been seeing lately is from people who, deep down inside their little psyches, are just angry that the world didn't turn out to be the way it was shown on Sesame Street. Face it, kiddies: Big Bird LIED!!! |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-06-14 7:57:48 PM |
| #9 Doc: yes. And the purpose of that chipping away is simple: to cause moral disarmament (or induce moral anesthesia, if you prefer). And once we are fully disarmed/anesthetized and no longer able to make (or are too afraid to make) even the most simple of moral judgements, we will no longer have any basis for resisting them. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-06-14 7:49:29 PM |
| #8 TD - I'll posit that the wussification* of America is the core cause. Now that the loonies are "empowered" they employ screeching and hatred memes with imagined impunity - and in lieu of reason or acknowledgement of reality. The "new" kind of trolls we have resident on RB demonstrate this regularly - and even some of our otherwise reasoned voices conceal amazingly bizarre idiotarian views, such as Bush (shrub) is an illegal usurper and Gore is our actual President. Don't believe me? Tis true. There is a covert and insidious rot within which surfaces when you scratch deep enough. Regards the overt struggles today and ahead, it is, indeed, Islamofascism today. Assuming we survive that, which is not a given by any means, it will probably be the Chinese brand of bastardized commie-capitalism tomorrow. And the Soros-style MultiCulti-Socialism is the constant underlying whine you hear in those quiet moments between flurries. Just my $0.02. * When people began to accept the notion that violence (evolving to include disagreement, unless you're Left of Trotsky - then it's okay) is never justified, the loonies began voicing loonie-isms and demanding equal time - no matter the facts - and equating disagreement with Neanderthals and neocons and assorted evil conspiracy cabals. Loonie-ism is now treated as the equal of any logical and fact-based world view. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-06-14 7:32:50 PM |
| #7 Does anyone else think that postmodernism and the preaching on the "importance" of "diversity" and the constant chipping at what once was an unquestionable moral code via ultra-liberal professors and the teachings of one of the more selfish generations in history (can anyone say "the sixties?" I knew you could) has actually undermined us a lot more than capitalism ever could? (So the left claims, sometimes.) Is it self-interest, self-righteousness, and a post-modern belief that any idiot can make a claim because their opinion is "just as valid" as those who obviously know better that are all the the biggest enemies in our struggle against Islamic facism? |
| Posted by: The Doctor 2004-06-14 7:06:09 PM |
| #6 Dave D--Right on! Some people just don't get it. Understanding the "reasons" for the terrorists' actions provides little consolation to anyone watching the 1000 bits of their childrens' bodies floating down to Earth after a terrorist attack. Sadly, it is probably going to take a lot of personal loss in this arena to wake some people up to remember and fight for our remarkable ideals. |
| Posted by: jules 187 2004-06-14 12:42:22 PM |
| #5 Hanson's concern seems to be the same as mine: that as bad as the 9/11 attacks were, it now appears they may not have been sufficient to unite Americans in a prolonged, difficult struggle against Islamic totalitarianism. For many of us, it seems to be back to business as usual: squabbling over government handouts, and who has the right to claim pity-party status as the "Official Poor Helpless Victim" du jour. What the hell is it going to take to rouse us from our slumbers and our trivial pursuits-- a couple of nuked cities courtesy of al Qaeda or Hizbollah? Maybe a better question is, what will it take to get the Democratic Party leadership to shut the fuck up and start putting America's interests ahead of partisan politics? |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-06-14 12:12:43 PM |
| #4 Nobody "in their right mind" actually believed in Hitler and his so-called mad ravings BEFORE he amassed the power to conquer. Same thing now. Nevertheless, Hitler went on to do, and almost completed doing, exactly what he said he would do. Adolf Hitler wasn't some "larger than life" comic book super villian. He was a man--a commited, determined, evil little man, able to lie and manipulate to achieve his ends, and to amass support and weaponry in order to accomplish his "ascent" of Aryanism. "I think the Islamists and their supporters do not live in an alternate universe, but instead are no more crazy in their goals than Hitler was in thinking he could hijack the hallowed country of Beethoven and Goethe and turn it over to buffoons like Goering, prancing in a medieval castle in reindeer horns and babbling about mythical Aryans with flunkies like Goebbels and Rosenberg. Nor was Hitler’s fatwa — Mein Kampf — any more irrational than bin Laden’s 1998 screed and his subsequent grainy infomercials. Indeed, I think Islamofascism is brilliant in its reading of the postmodern West and precisely for that reason it is dangerous beyond all description . . ." I do too. I think it's time we pay attention. Beware Barbarians blubbering "nonsense." |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-06-14 12:10:08 PM |
| #3 Wow! Read it! |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2004-06-14 11:28:56 AM |
| #2 oops..here's the comment for my post above: "While all Westerners prefer the bounty of capitalism, the delights of personal freedom, and the security of modern technological progress, saying so and not apologizing for it — let alone defending it — is, well, asking a little too much from the hyper sophisticated and cynical. Such retrograde clarity could cost you, after all, a university deanship, a correspondent billet in Paris or London, a good book review, or an invitation to a Georgetown or Malibu A-list party." |
| Posted by: B 2004-06-14 11:04:51 AM |
| #1 Sadly, I think that this comment sums up nicely what it is that, we, as a nation, really fight: Individual greed and cowardice. It's fashionable to be anti-Bush and unfashionable to be proud of America and her president. Too many are afraid to speak out against those who are willing to sacrifice our country and our freedoms in order to be or feel accepted. |
| Posted by: B 2004-06-14 11:00:11 AM |