Sunday, June 4, 2017

The London attacks

Less than two weeks after the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, jihadists deliberately plow a car into a crowd of pedestrians on the London Bridge, and then get out and start stabbing people - with twelve-inch knives -  in nearby bars and restaurants.

The back-and-forth in the aftermath has been s predictable that the danger of becoming inured is great. I know I've been tempted to say, "All the same parties making all the same cases . . . lefties calling for tolerance . . . righties calling for an end to multiculturalism . . . libertarians pointing out that it's still more likely that one will get killed by a lightning strike, blah blah blah . . . "

The one result we can count on if that attitude comes to prevail is yet more of an increase in the momentum of this kind of horror.

Beyond creating conditions that will get more of us killed, there are some other real dangers inherent in the "tolerance" argument.

A Disciples of Christ congregation in my city has a sign on its lawn that reads "We stand with local Muslims."

I'm sorry, but what does that have to do with anything? If there is an incident or two that has spurred such a gesture, I submit that the fact that anyone knows about it is because our local school administrations are so eager to find instances of focused-upon demographics being harassed that taunts that ought to be of fleeting significants to individuals with properly resilient senses of self-worth rise to the status of major controversies.

There's more than a little guilt implicit in the message as well: "As members of the ethnically and religiously most prevalent group in our society, we understand that you Muslims might have a reflexive skittishness about maneuvering among us, and so we're compelled to reassure you that you're welcome to be here."

Conversely, this mindset is in denial of a very real pattern. The London attackers shouted "This is for Allah." They always - proudly - make known their Muslim identity. It is the Western-security manifestation of a general leftist denial of reality. On the sexuality front, it manifests itself as the denial of the finality of DNA is determining gender. On the global-climate front, it manifests itself in fudged data at East Anglia and NASA, and television spots featuring polar bears dropping out of the sky.

One of the biggest dangers is that the call for multiculturalism, diversity and tolerance comes at the precise moment when there is an active campaign within Western civilization to get its inhabitants to lose sight of what it means to be a Westerner. You can get an English degree at several major universities without ever taking a class in Shakespeare. Per a 2015 American Council of Trustees and Alumni survey, a mere 18 percent of the nation's colleges and universities require graduates to take even a survey course in American history or government.

You aren't compelled to defend that which you don't give a diddly about.

And this gets us back to a point I discussed in the previous post. If our major institutions - corporations, universities, NGOs, media outlets - are mish-mashes of gender fluidity and various world views, some of which are inimical to the foundations of Western society, peopled by "individuals" who basically live to stare into their phones and take best-practices and service-learning meetings, who will be roused to defend that which is clearly under assault?

Some reports about the London attacks point out with a gasp that those under attack were defending themselves with chairs. Isn't the obvious rejoinder to that, "Where were their guns?"

The British government's "Run. Hide. Tell" campaign pretty much says it all.

And finally, this perennially limp response to the unending stream of jihadist attacks softens us up for the more general danger. Along with jihad, we face a mortal threat in North Korea's nuclear-weapon-missile-and-satellite program, a soon-to-be-mortal threat from the Iranian program of a similar nature, and the deliberate thwarting of Western efforts to bring more stability to the world from an adversarially poised Russia and China.

It's a rough world, and enemies of righteousness abound. When they see a lack of will on the part of those who, it would seem to any reasonable observer, ought to be defending that righteousness, the damage they do to lives and our way of life cannot but increase.


13 comments:

  1. "Not on Topic", on the encouraging side of the news this week end, seems space x made space flight a lot cheaper?SpaceX chalks up successful launch, landing after two-day delay



    SpaceX chalks up successful launch, landing after two-day delay

    CBS News · 22 hours ago

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  2. Get tough, I guess. Since we were so weak before. All I know is it is discomfiting to ride the American geopolitical see saw. And a lot of people here stateside and all over the globe hate Donald J. Trump.

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  3. Droppin' Donnie, in a yawning display of strength and courage tweets that this has gone on long enough. Head for the hills!

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  4. We have to actually stop it. The notion that this is the new normal, a backdrop to Western life that we'll just have to get used to, is unacceptable.

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  5. What have we all been doing since it started but try to stop it?

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  6. Droppin' Donnie is most definitely not the guy the Brits will listen to. He's already blown that.

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  7. I guess we'll find out how really really tough and strong we are from the Asshole in Chief pleasing his base with all he does, the rest of us be damned.

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  8. Let's just hope he heeds the best minds out there that are applying themselves to the issue of the jihadist threat.

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  9. When haven't the best minds been consulted? Saturation bombing ain't gonna do it. It's not like we haven't been fighting terrorists for 40 years.

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  11. But I really can't blame folks for thinking a coaching change might turn us into winners. The heinous terrorists know we will tear each other apart. Kids my grandchildren's ages were their targets at the concert.

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  12. I very much enjoyed the article. Without argument the stability of nations diminish. Are nations ever stable over time? Does it effect us all if in a microcosm of terrorism whether by inner city violence, or by a singular villain with a so called cause finds it's way into our news?
    Myself I am happy be an American rather than something else.

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