Oriana Fallaci: Rage and doubt of a threatened civilisation

The Sunday Times ^ | March 16, 2003 | Oriana Fallaci

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[wardaddy]

All it takes is one generation to change a culture.

Sorry, I disagree emphatically. One may coerce better behavior from a culture promptly but the culture as a whole could take nearly as long to completely change as it did to evolve in the first place. There are examples of this everywhere around us.

[wardaddy]

Yep....and Japan is still Japan.

Hobbled militarily but the old culture still exists and in fact thrives in certain ways. The same could be said for Germany.

One cannot change culture overnight..hardly. What one does is take the steps needed to break the will of those who wish to continue to impose their culture on us.

Are we ready for that? No. We simply wish to eliminate the military threats at this juncture. And, we have become so besotted with multicultural diversity appreciation that we are hardly in a position to practice cultural hegemony anymore.

Did anyone seriously after WWII, hesitate to believe that our victorious culture was not superior to our subdued foes?...LOL...hardly..we fought and died to preserve it, we had better think it was worth saving.

Regards.

[yianni]

bump

[Calpernia]

>>>I hope Fallaci lives to be 120

I would like that too. But, just FYI, she has cancer.

[wardaddy]

Thanks...culture supercedes everything..

I'm a hegemon on this.....Big Time!

Sadly, our culture's biggest foe is more insidious...they have breached the perimeter so to speak.

[ArneFufkin]

Vic, it all sounds great, but Oriana? Fallaci? Sounds kinda Spanish, kinda Italian ... who could ever trust one of those women? ;^)

[spodefly]

BTTT!

[MHGinTN]

She's definitely Italian.

[ArneFufkin]

Delsoullish.

[ArneFufkin]

My silly cyber-goal here is simple ... it ain't honesty, solemnity or truth. It's spewing flirtatious jibba jabba at Victoria Delsoul.

[MHGinTN]

You have good taste ... use it, please. She's a Lady.

[ArneFufkin]

She's a Lady.

Whoooa, whoooa whoooa she's a lady. Talkin' about the little lady?

[risk]

Sure she loves freedom, but ultimately she only loves it as an extension of her self love.

As an atheist, I'm uncomfortable with your doubt in Oriana's sincere love of freedom. Maybe Oriana's inconsistent sometimes, but you could be suggesting that atheists can't love freedom for the right reasons. Maybe you might argue that here at home, atheists can't be true patriots, either? I would disagree -- requiring Christianity for sincere love of liberty and country would be unamerican. Besides, it's more important what people do than why they say what they say, isn't it?

Oriana sends everyone in the west a wakeup call, not just Christians. And given the pleas for appeasement coming from the pulpit over the last few weeks in the face of Bush's force-backed diplomacy, I think many Christians need a wakeup call as much as the secular humanists: a clash of civilizations is upon us, regardless of what we believe.

By the way, I too was quite moved by our president's statement that liberty was God's gift to every human being. I took it to mean that liberty is the essence of what it means to be human, that love for freedom is universal among all of us who retain our humanity. It was powerful, and in no way made me feel less American for not being religious. What a great president he's turning out to be!

Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity. --President Bush, January 28, 2003

[Truthsearcher]

I am not saying all atheists can't love freedom for the right reasons. (By the way I am not a Christian, I am a deist.)

But I am skeptical of Orianna Fallaci's, let's not forget that she was ardently anti-US in the Vietnam War era, and she in this very article equates the Soviet's presense in Afghanistan with the US presence there today. Arguing that if the Afghans rejected the Soviet's attempt to "liberate" them, then they could reject ours as well. She is obviously a communist sympathizer if she thinks the Soviet Union has even "liberated" anyone.

Bottom line, I don't trust her. She is simply a leftist who perceives militant Islam as an greater enemy of socialism/communism than American capitalism. That's the only real difference between her and the other leftist who sees America and not Islam as the greater threat to their ideology. She may have stumbled onto some right positions, but it's for the wrong reasons.

[risk]

Now I understand your perspective, thanks!

But you raise yet another interesting issue: she's changed her mind. Maybe there are a lot of people around the world now who are changing their minds about America and what we've done for the world. We practically invented anti-americanism here with all of our self-examination, self-doubts and such. All good and healthy things for a growing republic. But now it's time to step back and realize that we've been one of the most important steps forward for democracy in the history of the human race.

I think Oriana has understood, finally. On FOX News Sunday, Brit Hume made the powerful observation that Europe is littered with the graves of American soldiers who were there to free the continent, not imperialize it. He pointed out that once the war was won, their comrades went home as soon as possible. I think the world, including Japan, is just starting to realize how incredible that was. Those men fought for freedom, not plunder.

I'll concede on the rest of your points :)

[Truthsearcher]

I think we are basically in agreemnt, there has never been a military power as dominant over the other nations as the US. A lot of people don't realize what a tremendous testament of our character is has been for the U.S. to be so restrained in our use of it.

In the end, I am convinced that most of the fear and resentment of America stems from what those people know deep in their hearts what they would do with that power if held it, that's what they are really afraid of, that despite all our declarations to the contrary, that underneath it all we are just like them. Luckily for them, we're not.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Sounds kinda Spanish, kinda Italian ... who could ever trust one of those women?

Hmmm, I wonder. I know what you mean, LOL!!!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks Marvin.