[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.

[martin_fierro]

From today's Michelle Malkin Blog:

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.

[managusta]

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!

[decal]

"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.

[familyop]

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.

[Billthedrill]

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.

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.

[goldstategop]

The West's elites no longer believe in the virtues of their own civilization or that it is even worth fighting and dying for. And future generations are being raised to believe in nothing other other than their own advancement. That's the beauty of liberal argument - it frees you from moral honesty. We may sustain the battle can Islamofascism for the present but I doubt we will win the war against it unless we know who we are and what we are fighting for. We knew the answers to those questions during World War II. Today, we are at loss about ourselves and our moral confusion has led us to fail to understand our enemy. In short, we've lost our self-confidence and as Mark Steyn says, its hard to see how we'll recover it.

"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

[driftless2]

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.

[rlmorel]

[aculeus]

Thanks for posting.

[Earthdweller]

I usually like Mark Steyn. He is brilliant, but, I think he has been sipping at the French Whine cup with this one.

If the men in this country don't get some of what they used to have real soon and defeat this thing I have but two choices, hand over everything to the French or to the Islamics.

If I choose the French then I can live among girly men for an eternity and spend my days brushing up on intellectual warfare and nagging them like little poodles on a leash.

If I choose the Islamics I can plan on a brainless existence of simple reproduction.

It would be really nice to have a third choice....if you don't mind!

So for today Mark..your leash is on order. You can cancel it at anytime.

[Liberty Valance]

There's always been a market for self-loathing in free societies: after all, the most effectively anti-western idea of all was itself an invention of the West, cooked up by Karl Marx while sitting in the Reading Room of the British Library. The obvious defect in communism is that it's decrepit and joyless and therefore of limited appeal. Fascism, likewise, had many takers in those parts of the cultural West that were politically deficient--i.e., continental Europe--but it had minimal support in the heart of the political West--i.e., the English-speaking world. So the counter-tribalists came up with something subtler and suppler than communism and fascism--the slipperiest ism of all. The great strength of "multiculturalism" is not that it's an argument against the West but that it short-circuits the possibility of argument. If there's no difference between English Common Law and native healing circles and Tamil Tiger fundraisers and gay marriage and sharia, then what's to discuss? Even to want to debate the merits is to find oneself on the wrong side--for, if the core belief of multiculturalism is that there's nothing to discuss and everything's equally nice and fluffy, then to favour honest argument puts you, by definition, on the extremist side."

So well written that it needed to be repeated. Thanks Mr. Steyn.

[American in Israel]

big-shot analysts in Moscow and Beijing have concluded that...the broader jihad can be a useful (if unwitting) proxy for Russia and China.

So the Jihad rides a Red Horse. Russia is supplying a large industrial factory base for the mass production of nuclear weapons in Iran, and China is delivering its long range Balistic Missile systems to deliver the warheads to the West. Strange how close this is to an old prophecy:
Rev 6:3 When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come."
Rev 6:4 And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that {men} would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.

[Fury]

Depressing...

[S.O.L.]

How about this?
Aragorn: Hold your ground, hold your ground. Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! For all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

[dervish]

powerful article.

"The great strength of "multiculturalism" is not that it's an argument against the West but that it short-circuits the possibility of argument."

Well put. But the hypocrisy of the left is such that while it is okay for Hezbollah 'freedom fighters' to target civilians the West may not. While it is okay for the world of Islam to subjugate women and make homosexuality a crime with a death sentence, the left maintains that the West must be totally blind to any differences between the sexes and accord total and complete recognition and benefits to homosexuals.

So the left does not really apply a neutral standard at all.