Posted by
JDComments on Friday, January 26, 2007 12:55:52 PM
An
article on Spiegel Online scathingly indicts the Europeans,and to some degree the US, for essentially conceding defeat to the Muslim world in the war they are waging against tolerance and freedom. It is a harrowing recitation of the evidence of the weakness of the West, and points to its inevitable defeat by the Islamic extremists who understand well the nature of their enemy, and their propensity for appeasement and surrender.
In addtion to the usual comparisons with the negotiations in 1938 with Hitler, the author, Henryk M. Broder , documents how some European socialists are now trying to equate their philosophy with Islam in a perverse attempt to make the European abdication acceptable.
Considering how the Left in this country has more often compared Evangelical Christianity with Islam in order to disparage the former, it will be interesting to see if a "flip flop" occurs and they begin expounding the views of their European brethren anytime soon. Perhaps Rosie O'Donnell will begin hiding herself in a burkha [an idea which Ann Coulter feels may be the only saving grace of a victory by the Islamists].
This is a harrowing, depressing piece which is, unfortunately, all too accurate. The description of the willful blindeness of the Left as they try to survive against an opponent which they so obviously fear reads like a mass psychosis, which it basically is.
However, the question of why a culture which has dominated the world for over 500 years,and which has been battling Islam since Charlemagne's grandfather defeated their attempts to spread from Spain 1300 years ago, has now devolved into a whimpering, cloying weakling whose only recourse is to hope their defeat can be postponed, like a man on death row seeking a delay , is not really addressed.
The answer should be evident, and yet because it is so intertwined with European self identity , it cannot be accepted.
Simply put, the tolerance, multiculturalism, relativism, and atheism which Europeans so proudly claim as proof of their moral and intellectual superiority has also undercut their exceptionalism and ambition, resulting in a mindset which paralyzes itself with rationality and excuses when faced with a foe whose fervor and certainty of its destiny provides it with the energy to overcome all in its path.
Throughout history ,men have been motivated by faith, emotion, and visceral desires, those things which bypass the rational to tap the hidden, unconscious forces which truly change the world.
The greatest speakers in history, whether Pericles in classical Greece or Hitler, do not win over crowds with logic and reasoning, but by appealing to their patriotism, beliefs and feelings.
The Europeans have sterilized themselves into impotency by sacrificing all this to rationality and fairmindedness. As a result they no longer understand why they should fight,and so they do not.
The last bastion in the West still capable of believing in their exceptionalism is led by the US, along with Australia, Israel, and perhaps Britain.
If the Liberals there succeed in emasculating us as well, then it truly will be time to , as Broder says, turn on the answering machine announcing "we surrender". Perhaps we can use the French recording which they have been playing for decades.