Posted on 01/07/2002 2:31:04 PM PST by dennisw
Robert Kaplan also wrote this famous one!!
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The Coming Anarchy : Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War (Vintage) by Robert D. Kaplan (Paperback - February 2001) Avg. Customer Rating:  Usually ships in 24 hours  Other Editions: Hardcover | Paperback |
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Where does one get an understanding of men's passions? It seems that the Judeo-Christian ethos correctly explains much of man's passions as having been wraught by the fall of man. True pagans seem to have an idealized (i.e., unrealistic) view of man. It was the concept that man is fallen, out for his own selfish gain, that prompted John Locke to theorize that men therefore entered into a "social compact" to assure that the most powerful didn't overwhelm the others. Plus, the Founders' understanding of man's tendency to use and abuse power (due to man's fallen nature) placed within our government checks and balances to protect against raw abuse of power.
The Judeo-Christian view of mankind -- potentially noble, but nevertheless fallen with a strong tendency toward outlaw behavior -- is the only realistic view of man.
Well, if this is true, I am not buying this book.
Huh? Since when was Christian virtue a private affair?
Mr. Kaplan also argues that Judeo-Christian beliefs in proper behavior are "personal virtues" that should not have a primary role in creating foreign policy.
Oh, yeah, since the secularists banned it from public policy discussion.
Both of the greatest pagan political theorists, Plato and Aristotle, were often read in medieval Christian circles. The latter was even called "the Philosopher." During the Renaissance, Christians became slavishly devoted to mimicking the ancients, which provoked a backlash called the Reformation. But to anybody who is a partisan of neither Reformation teaching nor of Classical learning, such a dualism is hardly helpful.
What made America what it is because it is fair, and moral nation.
This story is ominously reminiscent of last year's satirical article "Neo-cons Convert en Masse to Roman Paganism."
"Know thyself." We have great power to get things done, to put all our energies into winning a war and winning it. But we aren't one of those aristocratic powers that can stoicly devote itself to maintaining a world empire. Neo-imperialists don't understand hat we aren't Romans or Victorian Britons. As a people we can achieve remarkable things when we have to, but we really aren't a nation of empire builders. Our would-be leaders should take a long look at who we are as a people and what our aspirations are, and not presume that we are other than we are or try to use us as fodder for their own dreams of world supremacy.
And in fact, part of our strength is that we are such a fun-loving, non-political, non-militaristic people. If we were what Kaplan wants us to be we would be hated more than we are or need to be.
I'm hesitant even to take the bait, because this book is so manifestly an attempt to gin up controversy and capitalize on neoconservative and neoliberal war fever. Yet somehow, I can't resist...
One might start by asking how, if the "pagan ethos" is such an irresistable military force, the most powerful and enduring pagan hegemony in the history of the world (yes, even more powerful than today's US) was, in fact, overtaken by humble Christians without an army. Then one might ask how Christian Byzantium managed to endure for another 1000 years against repeated assaults by larger and often more powerful enemies to her East, only to be fatally weakened by the then decidedly non-pagan forces of Western Europe.
Then of course there is the entire history of the world post-Byzantium, which was a nearly uninterrupted triumphal march of Christian forces around the entire Globe. At one point in the early 20th Century, Christian or nominally Christian forces controlled some 75% of the world's territory. The rest simply wasn't worth having.
Of coure the post-Christian (and arguably neo-pagan) era in the West has been another story altogether. Empires collapsing. Influence waning. Retrenchment on all fronts. Internecine conflicts against neo-pagan fascists in the European heartland. An abyssmal--in the truest sense of the word-- 60 years.
It seems to me that we need not reach quite so far back as paganism to reclaim the mantle of world leadership for the West.
Except, of course, for that nasty spell with the Saracens menacing Venice and the Moors pushing all the way to the Paris suburbs.
But then again, even the Moors and Saracens weren't really pagans, per se. Heathens, yes. Pagans, no.
So Pearl's wife may learn on Valentine's Day that her husband was murdered.
My (vanity) thoughts this morning:
Sheik Whatshisname says that Pearl is dead. Just got up (earlier than usual) and heard it on Fox. I've said before that I don't think America has what it takes so survive this Muslim assault. We could do now what would assure there wouldn't be another Pearl kidnapping. We would do it by speaking to these people from the world-view that THEY have, NOT from the one that we (we civilized Godly people) have. IMHO, if we continue to view these people through the prism of Western civlization, they will win and win and win again. Mercy, justice, compassion, negoiation, compromise---these concepts do not exist in these people's minds. But we don't GET that.
If you remember, Khadafi was acting out at will in the late 70's and early 80's. Finally, RWR had enough and bombed the Libyan home of the man, killing his son. For the next decade the world didn't hear a peep from Khadafi.
It is so alien to us to think of adopting the very pagan tactics we despise, but it gets back to multi-culti communication: the ONLY thing these people get---it's not niceness and kindness and empathy and sympathy---it's brute, relentless, merciless, take-no-prisoners, scorched-earth, violence.
I'm certainly not the first person to recommend pagan tactics be used against the pagans. We know where the wife and kids of this "Sheik" are, for example. We must make these people fear us. Do the math.
I'm certainly not the first person to recommend pagan tactics be used against the pagans. We know where the wife and kids of this "Sheik" are, for example. We must make these people fear us. Do the math.
I know EXACTLY what you are saying. Wipe out his smug little turd Sheik what's his name and a few of his family members. This is what paganistic scum understand. We have been living charmed and indulgent lives where we have had the luxury of not burdening our consciences by doing terrible things. But we will have no choice in doing so because we will be dead if we don't.
Also keep your eye on the Jihad of higher birthrates. This Jihad is participated in by every Muslim.
This is an undated photo of Sheik Omar Saeed, who is being hunted by police in Pakistan in connection with the kidnapping of US reporter Daniel Pearl, it was reported Wednesday Feb. 6, 2002, in The Times newspaper, London. Saeed, 27, a London-born former British public schoolboy was named by officials at the US State Department as a key figure in the kidnapping, according to the newspaper report. (AP Photo/PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES MAGAZINES OUT
Who's to blame?
Many critics have blamed America's intelligence agencies for failing to detect or prevent the September 11 attacks. But David Horowitz notes that many Democrats in Congress repeatedly voted to cut funding for those agencies.
Every year for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1993, Rep. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent (COMMUNIST), who caucuses with the Democrats, "introduced an amendment that required a minimum reduction in financial authorization for each individual intelligence agency of at least 10 percent," Mr. Horowitz writes in a new pamphlet, "How the Left Undermined America's Security."
"Irresponsible? Incomprehensible? Not to ... the Democrats in the House who voted in favor of the Sanders amendment over the years. Ninety-seven Democrats in all voted for the Sanders cuts," Mr. Horowitz writes.
"As the terrorist attacks on America intensified year by year during the 1990s, Sanders steadfastly reintroduced his amendment. In 1995, 1996 and 1997 [Rep.] Barney Frank [Massachusetts Democrat] introduced a similar amendment that would cut the intelligence funds by less, but cut them still. In 1997, 158 Democrats voted for the Frank amendment. That same year, a majority [of Democrats] voted for a modified Sanders amendment to cut intelligence funds by 5 percent."
The Roman Empire was replaced by the Holy Roman Empire. For nealy a thousand years the western world's greatest military and economic force was the Church of Rome. Perhaps the Church was holy, but it ruled not because it was holy, but because it was pragmatic.
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