Seven Short Stories

Seven Short Stories

There is no ''after the Cold War'' for me. So far from having ended, my cold war has increased in intensity, as sector after sector of American life has been ruthlessly corrupted by the liberal ethos. It is an ethos that aims simultaneously at political and social collectivism on the one hand, and moral anarchy on the other. It cannot win, but it can make us all losers. - Irving Kristol,  quoted in  The New Criterion — After the suicide of the West What are the stakes? The terrorist attacks of 9/11 gave us a vivid reminder - but one, alas, that seems to have faded from the attention of many Western commentators who seem more concerned about recreational facilities at Guantanamo Bay than the future of their towns and cities. For myself, ever since 9/11, when I think about threats to democracy, I recall a statement by one Hussein Massawi, a former Hezbollah leader, which I believe I first read in one of Mark Steyn's columns. ''We are not fighting,'' Mr. Massawi said, ''so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.'' We are now beginning to reap the fruit of that liberal experiment with multiculturalism. The chief existential symptom is moral paralysis, expressed, for example, in the inability to discriminate effectively between good and evil. The New York Times runs full-page advertisements, signed by all manner of eminent personages, that compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. Meanwhile, the pop singer Michael Jackson spends an unspecified number of millions to finance the construction of a mosque in Bahrain ''designated for learning the principles and teachings of Islam.'' Thanks, Michael. A couple of months ago, for example, I read in a London paper that ''Workers in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, were told to remove or cover up all pig-related items, including toys, porcelain figures, calendars and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet'' because the presence of images of our porcine friends offended Muslims. A councillor called Mahbubur Rahman told the paper that he backed the ban because it represented ''tolerance of people's beliefs.'' In other words, Piglet really did meet a Heffalump, and it turns out he was wearing a kaffiyeh. In fact, the situation is even grimmer than Mr. Massawi suggests. For our new enemies are not simply bent on our destruction: they are pleased to compass their own destruction as a collateral benefit. This is one of those things that makes Islamofascism a particularly toxic form of totalitarianism. At least most Communists had some rudimentary attachment to the principle of self-preservation. In the face of such death-embracing fanaticism our only option is unremitting combat. ... was François Revel right when he said that ''Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it''? The question is whether we believe anything with sufficient vigor to jettison the torpor of our barren self-satisfaction. There are signs that the answer is Yes, but you won't see them on CNN or read about them in The New York Times. The people presiding over such institutions would rather die than acknowledge that someone like James Burnham (to say nothing of George W. Bush) was right. It just may come to that. An answer would seem to be that  liberals ... the New York Times media, the Peoples for the American Way, the George Soros brigade -  they, who have taken us to the brink, and they, who practice their legerdemain,  must be removed.  Vaporized.  That is something  a relatively small, but determined band could accomplish, but to what end?  No, the answer is that the majority of us must conclude that they should be obliterated, and that message must be be clearly conveyed.  That warning should be enough.  The Pelosi's, Kennedy's, and Reid's must be made to understand that more than just  their seat in congress is at stake.  That's what  I think.  I encourage you to read the entire article from whence these snippets were borrowed - After the suicide of the West, by  Roger Kimball Note: Here is a very good compainion article: It's the Demography, Stupid, by Mark Steyn