Posted on 09/25/2006 11:18:13 PM PDT by NZerFromHK
a civilization's overwhelming military dominance, economic dominance and technological dominance count for naught if it's ideologically insecure. The issue is self-defence. If you're a genuine cultural relativist--if you really believe our society is no better or worse than any other--you're about to get the opportunity not just to talk the talk but to walk the walk. Good luck.
Most of the libertarians I know in New Zealand tend to be self-loathing leftists except when it comes to economics. Many of them are out-and-out cultural relativists. Take heed the words of Steyn, these libertarians.
Ping!
Meanwhile, their fellow travelers in Britain turned out for an anti-war pow-wow. Moonbat Media was there to capture the keffiyehs and peace signs and stickers like this one. Look closely:
It says "Stop Dictatorship Now. Support A Caliphate." I'm not kidding. They're quite popular.
bump or later read
Great piece by Steyn. He nails it. I especially like the final sentences.
Et Dona Ferentes - Rudyard Kipling
In extended observation of the ways and works of man,
From the Four-mile Radius roughly to the Plains of Hindustan:I have drunk with mixed assemblies, seen the racial ruction rise,And the men of half Creation damning half Creation's eyes.
I have watched them in their tantrums, all that Pentecostal crew,French, Italian, Arab, Spaniard, Dutch and Greek, and Russ and Jew,Celt and savage, buff and ochre, cream and yellow, mauve and white,But it never really mattered till the English grew polite;
Till the men with polished toppers, till the men in long frock-coats,Till the men who do not duel, till the men who war with votes,Till the breed that take their pleasures as Saint Lawrence took his grid,Began to "beg your pardon" and-the knowing croupier hid.
Then the bandsmen with their fiddles, and the girls that bring the beer,Felt the psychological moment, left the lit Casino clear;But the uninstructed alien, from the Teuton to the Gaul,Was entrapped, once more, my country, by that suave, deceptive drawl.
As it was in ancient Suez or 'neath wilder, milder skies,
I "observe with apprehension" how the racial ructions rise;
And with keener apprehension, if I read the times aright,
Hear the old Casino order: "Watch your man, but be polite.
“Keep your temper. Never answer (that was why they spat and swore).Don't hit first, but move together (there's no hurry) to the door.Back to back, and facing outward while the linguist tells 'em how -`Nous sommes allong ar notre batteau, nous ne voulong pas un row.'"
So the hard, pent rage ate inward, till some idiot went too far..."Let 'em have it!" and they had it, and the same was merry war - Fist, umbrella, cane, decanter, lamp and beer-mug, chair and boot - Till behind the fleeing legions rose the long, hoarse yell for loot.
Then the oil-cloth with its numbers, like a banner fluttered free;Then the grand piano cantered, on three castors, down the quay;White, and breathing through their nostrils, silent, systematic, swift - They removed, effaced, abolished all that man could heave or lift.
Oh, my country, bless the training that from cot to castle runs - The pitfall of the stranger but the bulwark of thy sons -Measured speech and ordered action, sluggish soul and un - perturbed,Till we wake our Island-Devil-nowise cool for being curbed!
When the heir of all the ages "has the honour to remain,"
When he will not hear an insult, though men make it ne'er so plain,When his lips are schooled to meekness, when his back is bowed to blows -Well the keen aas-vogels know it-well the waiting jackal knows.
Build on the flanks of Etna where the sullen smoke-puffs float - Or bathe in tropic waters where the lean fin dogs the boat - Cock the gun that is not loaded, cook the frozen dynamite - But oh, beware my Country, when my Country grows polite!
"Which brings me back to where we came in: are we gonna win or lose? I'd say right now the best bet for much of the world is a slow ongoing incremental defeat, the kind most folks don't notice until it's too late. That's to say, in 20 years' time many relatively pleasant parts of the planet are going to be a lot less pleasant..."
I find some comfort in this (not much, to be sure): "most folks" don't ever notice, anyway, so they don't matter. So long as the US, Canada, Australia, Poland, Japan, and a few others notice, at least those areas will be safe. The UK always finds a way to muddle through somehow, and if Sweden can turn rightwards like it did last week, there's hope for almost anyplace.
As for the rest, well, nothing's forever, especially not something as aggressively primitive as fascistic Mohammedanism.
People from some cultures get along much better with western culture than people from other cultures. And people of one culture aren't getting along well with any of the others.
Most New Zealand conservatives (and those US conservatives/libertarians fond og NZ) will stab me for saying this, but I believe all the achievements of market reforms will come to a nought if we no longer feel what we stand is the right one, and we are willing to defend it, and the importance of morals as society's fabric.
New Zealand may well score high on economic freedom, but its pacifism and social liberalism will be the cancer that kills it in the long term.
I do believe I've heard that before. Steyn is hardly what I'd categorize as a defeatist but this stuff was common currency during the darker days of the Cold War. It was with considerable resentment that its purveyors in France, for example, woke up one day to find the "inevitable" victors in ruins, and they've never really forgiven the real victors for it.
I don't think they're going to be given the luxury of riding this one out as they did the last one. That they were able to ride it out is the principal reason that multiculturalism has managed to gain cultural dominance essentially unopposed. That is the ideology of the intellectually lazy, a refusal to make a judgment, to take a stand, because they didn't have to before and why now? Well, because this isn't that and now isn't then, and it's time to drop the pretense and make some hard decisions. But why trouble to decide when one never had to before? Because now one must. And that's not going to be an easy sell.
"Then up spoke brave Horatius
the Captain of the Gate
'To every man upon this Earth
death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
than facing fearful odds
for the ashes of his Fathers
and the Temples of his Gods'."
From "Lays of Ancient Rome" by Lord Thomas B. MacCauley
Not much of this sentiment in the West today.
Until it becomes painful NOT to take a stand, many of our citizens won't. It is very easy to simply immerse yourself in your job and family. Many people probably don't REALLY believe that America, as a whole, is vulnerable at all. After all, we've been on top a long time.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Steyn is, as always, correct. We face two huge enemies: the Islamo-fascists and the leftists. Both take turns, in their own inimitable destructive ways, to undermine and ultimately kill western civilization.
Isn't that a DeadHead button? If only the Islamists would listen to Jerry, they'd get straightened out (and start smoking more).
"In our time, the greatest sin one can be guilty of is not saying the right thing but taking a stand at all in the first place."
That's true. Yeats': "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
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