40 Comments

1. Marcus Aurelius:

Remember too, Fortuyn was not murdered by a sharia bent islamist, but by an animal rights activist. Pim Fortuyn fit the caricature of leftist almost perfectly were it not for his notion that Islam was a danger to his lifestyle it would have been perfect.

Jan 23, 2009 - 2:13 pm 2. fred:

What can one expect from the European culture? They truly do not have the sense of liberty we have. They do have a sense of license, which is not the same thing as liberty. Under liberty, truth can thrive. License only gives you permission, from the State, to be able to buy drugs and prostitution in Amsterdam neighborhoods. Since the French Revolution and The Terror Europe has been obsessed with social engineering, not freedom and liberty.

Jan 23, 2009 - 2:22 pm 3. NahnCee:

Fortuyn was murdered by the same sort of “animal rights activist” as a rapist in Britain named Ali is described only as a “Romanian”. Fortuyn’s killer said in court that, “…he had murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims …”

Please, Mr. Aurelius, try not to change the subject or refocus the spotlight.

Jan 23, 2009 - 2:32 pm 4. Marcus Aurelius:

NahnCee,

I am doing no such thing. The name of Fortuyn’s killer is: Volkert van der Graaf. This actually reinforces Wretchard’s thesis not takes away from it:
What these four found themselves in the midst of was the greatest mass suicide event of the last 100 years: the repeal of the enlightenment; the murder of a culture.

That is, a society so blind to the danger Islamofascism presents itself it has to kill its own who do not conform to their blindness.

Jan 23, 2009 - 2:39 pm 5. Mongoose:

Well is that really true of the USA anymore? Does obama represent a sea change?

Certainly if he has his way, we will be little different than the EU in time.

Less time than we might imagine.

All depends on the reaction to this administration and congress.

Jan 23, 2009 - 2:43 pm 6. Bart Hall (Kansas, USA):

One interesting phenomenon of American agriculture is the progressive decline in the overall quality of its practitioners, beginning about 1873.

What happened is that the smartest, most innovative, most creative sons left for other careers, usually in the city. After at least five generations of self-selection — those with any ‘get-up-and-go’ … got up, and went — American agriculture is flaccid, dependent on government subsidies, and generally moribund.

Something similar has happened in Europe. My in-laws are European. Many of the best lit out for America at the first opportunity. Who remained behind?

Two brutal wars killed many of the most masculine and clear thinking men. Those not killed had it drummed out of them. Who was left behind?

Socialism militated against entrepreneurs, who abandoned their dream for a job in the bureaucracy. Who was left behind?

Three generations of academic pressure has weeded out the classic values of the Enlightenment. Who was left behind?

Modern militant Islam is opportunistic, like an invasion of weeds that flourish only in soil so exhausted little else will grow … which describes the essence of post-modern Europe.

Jan 23, 2009 - 2:53 pm 7. wretchard:

I think Marcus is onto something. For a certain section of the left, Muslims, animals, green grocery bags, etc are all the same; just values to substituted into the variables in their formula. The values themselves are unimportant. They could be about animal rights, vegetable rights or in defense of the precautionary principle. It’s the formula that is important. Fortuyn was being politically incorrect; he didn’t fit the formula. The poor guy actually thought things were about something. He didnt’ realize it was all about the formula.

That’s why any activity is either good or bad not in relation to its nature, but in relation to the current political line. If you shout down someone who wants to promote honor killings it’s “McCarthyism”. If you shout someone down who wants to criticize honor killings it’s “upholding tolerance”. Orwell caught it perfectly in 1984 when he described how something that was evil yesterday can be good today or vice versa. It doesn’t matter for so long as there are white hats and black hats. You can switch the hats to suit the fashion.

The Left genuinely likes Muslims about as much as they really cared for Cambodians, or Ukranians or the Chinese peasant. They’re just people to betray. Once they’ve served the purpose, Pol Pot can have them. A movement whose past is steeped in torture, concentration camps, genocides etc can style itself as the “defender of human rights” should convey their true feelings towards about the subject. A system which environmentally ravaged Eastern Europe, created the worst nuclear accidents in history can appoint itself the Guardian of the Earth. It won’t make sense until you realize what it is all about.

And that’s why relatively little people like Fortuyn, van Gogh, Ali and Wilders must be steamrollered flat. Not to defend the Muslims. The Left could give a rat’s ass about Muslims. It’s to keep the line. But the Four have shown the way. They’ve identified the verboten questions. It’s time to keep asking them we all know the answers.

Jan 23, 2009 - 2:56 pm 8. ricpic:

I still don’t understand the hatred unto death for the west on the part of many of its most pampered children. Thoughts?

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:06 pm 9. Eggplant:

Off topic: The link below is to an analysis of Obama’s inaugural speech. The author’s conclusion was that Obama doesn’t have a clue about what he’s doing and can only spout platitudes. I fear this analysis maybe correct.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/01/no_idea_what_hes_doing.html

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:07 pm 10. Peter Boston:

Perhaps it is time for a renewal of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy. The Glory of Rome was past although the barbarian who sat the throne still fancied himself as emperor. Nobody could imagine the Darkness that was yet to come.

What kind of world will it be when Achmed astrides the throne in Brussels and fancies himself the emperor of the European Union? How could he not have contempt for the subjugated people who who would not fight for their children’s future?

This is very difficult to understand.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:09 pm 11. Marcus Aurelius:

The left is generally not into religion anyway, so they don’t view anyone’s religion as a serious motivation. They think it is is just another set of stories one can swap interchangeably and all remains the same. They see the grievances of the Muslims in their society as being caused by marginalization, poverty, all the usual culprits. They deny that perhaps the Muslims feel marginalized is because they are not the ones ruling.

So, when one like Fortuyn clearly sees the danger of sharia-ization poses his colleagues can not sit idly by. Christopher Hitchens is the same sort of chap, a guy who sees the dangers.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:11 pm 12. ShrinkWrapped:

ricpic,
An excellent question that belongs to my line of work (Psychoanalysis.) My thesis is that our material wealth, health care, and psychological recoil post-WWII led to a generation (the baby boomers of whom I am one) who grew up with significant Narcissistic pathology. I will not further go into this on Richard’s site but if you are interested take a look at my post on “The Suicidal Pursuit of Perfection”. Narcissism always contains within its core, self-defeating and, often, suicidal impulses.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:23 pm 13. Peter Boston:

Shrink

What about the offspring of the Boomers? There is no indication that the younger generations are any more willing to assert their culture’s place in the world than their parents.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:29 pm 14. Mongoose:

Wretchard: What you are describing is similar to the rationalization process in personality disorders, particularly in malignant narcissism or borderline personality disorder.

Muslims and Left Wing ideologies viewed a ruminating thoughts? There is an idea. Perhaps the murders of these people who live outside the formula were due to collective narcissistic rage.

Is this what primitive collectivism looked like in prehistory. If so, how ironic that it happens in a time of unsurpassed wealth and liberty for the average human.

Seems to me that we must find a awy to overturn this. We had several near fatal brushes with it in the last century, now technology has seriously upped the anty. Civilization canot survive it.

The “formula” seems to resolve into complete annihilation of everything that is high or precious in the human. What is left is lower than the animal.

Mandness. Or possession.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:30 pm 15. Bart Hall (Kansas, USA):

Marcus:

The left is indeed very much *into* religion. It is the first apex of their Heiddegerian triangle.

a) Worship nature

b) Oppose technology

c) Denigrate western culture

Muslims fulfill the third element, therefore they’re just fine … until (of course) they slit your throat for worshipping nature.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:33 pm 16. ShrinkWrapped:

Peter,
Narcissistic parents tend to raise narcissistically damaged children. The discussion is well beyond a comment section. Send me an e-mail if you would like some posts otread about this.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:38 pm 17. Mongoose:

ShrinkWrapped: You beat me to it.

But how does that work as a group phenomena? How do evil people exploit it?

And how is this different than the political ideological catastrophes of the 20th century that predate the boomers (Fascism, Communism, etc.)?

These seem much closer to a personality disorder than older political ans social calamities in history, like, say, the wars of the Reformation . The modern experience seems more pathological, deprived of reasonable belief or common human longings.

Or put another way, at the collective level is there an historical element to it?

Do these also somehow form this as a collective phenomena?
Historically, it all seems to hinge on ww1. Something broke and allowed these sicknesses of the soul to come out.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:45 pm 18. Mongoose:

ShrinkWrapped: are you the owner of that site? If so, kudos. I have it in my Rss reader and often read the blog posts.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:49 pm 19. Mongoose:

mandess=madness. Story, typing in transit.

Jan 23, 2009 - 3:51 pm 20. Dave:

To all hands: The underlying problem is quite simply cowardice. To lash out at and
persecute/prosecute those who like Wilders
(a) mean no harm and (b) are fundamentally incapable of actually doing harm.

This is done in the vain and utter irrational hope that if you eat your fellow human beings, the crocodiles will not eat you.

Yes, I am calling Dutch authorities cowards.
Yes, I am calling those with BDS and PDS cowards.
Yes, I am calling the critics of Israel and the invasion of Gaza cowards.
Ad infinium, ad nauseum. Got a long list of cravens that need calling out.

And that especially includes those who refer to our current war and campaigns therein as
illegal, etc.

George W. Bush has not been as astute as I would have liked him to be. But he has been nothing is not resolute. He withstood the
howlings of the rabble as well as any man could. That is why they hate him. He is better than they are.

(A Texas precedent for Dubya would be J. W. Throckmorton who faced down both the Knights of the Golden Circle and carpetbaggers as well.)

This yellow streak permeates the Democrats.
It defines them although it falls short of dominating that party. If Old B. H. Whats-His-Face is to be other than a disaster, he will have to purge his own ranks. What he will actually do is one big question mark.

Does it define America? Will cowardice shape our future. Quien Sabe? However, indications are hopeful. Take a look at
the kind of reception Dubya and Laura got when they arrived in Midland. If the Obamaroids—-more aptly described as Gramscians, Fred——were shaping things like they have to, Midland would have been
been too timid to express OUR feelings.
We are in this fight for the duration.

Jan 23, 2009 - 4:04 pm 21. Voltimand:

I can buy the “cowardice” argument, but it has to be both expanded and refined. Think about “terrorism” for a few moments. That is, what does “terror” mean? It means being afraid, and particularly afraid because (1) there seems to be no coherent (read: intelligible to my thought categories) reason for it; (2) it does not give up; (3) the people doing it do another thing that is unthinkable to me: they are willing to die in order to kill me (therefore there is nothing I can give them to deter them (read: buy them off, frighten them); (4) they force me back on a system of belief which I don’t believe in any more, which is the same thing as saying that it forces me back on a foundation for thinking and acting that doesn’t exist; (5) it causes some people to sound the clarion call to defense, attack, kill the threat: all things that I can’t in my wildest dreams (which are not very wild anymore anyway) imagine myself doing (W said we must fight; that makes W the enemy also–how else explain the maniacal, hysterical attacks on W during the entire 8 years of his term?)
OK, that’s a start on “terrorism.” What is it’s purpose? Utter moral and psychological demoralization. There is no help for it: let them come and dominate me–I give up, I’ll be their slaves, and propagandize for them and stand by while they kill others.

What is this a description of? It is a description of the populations that Islam has been attacking and dominating since the 7th century. Western Europe a long time ago repelled them both at the eastern and western gates: but it took disciplined killers believing in an ideology they would die for and make the other guy die for attacking.

To be found in western Europe today? That’s what “terrorism” means.

Next question.

Jan 23, 2009 - 4:38 pm 22. dre:

Death Wish III coming soon to a world near you.

Jan 23, 2009 - 5:15 pm 23. outa my league:

@ Peter Boston: “What about the offspring of the Boomers? There is no indication that the younger generations are any more willing to assert their culture’s place in the world than their parents.”

Peter, the bum rap Boomers get largely stems from BDS, Boomer Derangement Sydrome. Never trust anyone over 46 years old, unless he is also over 62.

Jan 23, 2009 - 5:41 pm 24. whiskey:

Wretchard is on the right track, and sorry Shrinkwrapped but you are on the wrong one.

Parallels to the Inquisition of Galileo come to mind. It’s the same process.

The Catholic Church at the time wielded enormous power, and had a lot of money, all at risk if their monopoly of truth was discredited. The same is true of the PC monopoly.

Now, who is the PC monopoly? WHO has power and who has the most to lose if PC is discredited? The answer is elites in the media, law, finance, and other non-productive areas, and in particular the “Stuff White People Like” crowd (ala the website and book by Christian Lander). If social success and power were the result of actually … DOING SOMETHING like say Buzz Alrdin, rather than being a famous celeberity for being famous, like Kevin Federline, well then a lot of people who have nothing but correct opinions and the enforcement of the same, face ruin.

And those people, by and large, are women. If this were run by men, well you’d see a Putin-like approach. People with incorrect opinions being shot in elevators, in cars, falling out of windows. That sort of thing. Men are not subtle.

Women, prefer social oppression and consensus. Note the enormous array of social consensus like a super-group of “Mean Girls” making the life of the un-PC miserable.

Jan 23, 2009 - 6:23 pm 25. fred:

#23 Outa my league,

Excuse me, but I’m 54 years old (next Monday). I served my country, and I am now a conservative after being a Marxist from 1977-1987. I can be trusted. I actually think that maybe the majority of Boomers are NOT socialists and supporters of da ‘Bamster. I’m one of the younger Boomers who looked up to the older ones who DID serve their country in South Vietnam and later during the Cold War. My sojourn on the Left had nothing to do with hate for my country. Very complicated to explain, but I have an advantage over the Leftists having gone deeper into their ideas than any of those twits have done.

Want to know who tipped the election to Obama?

68% of young voters under the age of 30

75% of single, white female voters

90% of black Americans

Any questions?

Jan 23, 2009 - 7:13 pm 26. geoffb:

“They’re just people to betray. Once they’ve served the purpose, Pol Pot can have them”

Unfortunately, they have invited Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to come and live among them. The genocide will be on home turf, not some far away land.

Jan 23, 2009 - 7:43 pm 27. Dave:

@Eggplant #9: Yep, he is clueless. As far as that goes, so was McCain. Only difference is that the latter had the humilty to admit that his economic knowledge was lacking.

Obama showing humility? Sort of doubtful.

Jan 23, 2009 - 8:01 pm 28. Keelie:

All,

I just sit and wonder how on earth the folks in the various parts of Western Europe can make it clear to their respective governments that they simply detest what these governments are doing, and that they have to stop doing it. Now.

It looks as if revolution is the answer… But how to DO anything about it when all said countries have been utterly disarmed. The common folks can complain and grumble and talk, talk, talk, but obviously (to me) it makes not the slightest dent in the minds of the governing “elites,” because these elites have nothing whatsoever to fear from their fellow citizens.

Jan 23, 2009 - 8:26 pm 29. Charles:

MENDING WALL
Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.

Jan 23, 2009 - 9:34 pm 30. Marcus Aurelius:

Bart,

Is the left into religion. I think one can make the argument you make, but the godhead differs. The leftist concept of religiosity is one based on worship of the human intellect — more specifically their intellect. I don’t think they worship the environment, because what they preach is control of the environment to some ordained pristine state.

Religion based on an absolute truth (i.e. God, Allah, Odin, etc) is therefore verboten, therefore no distinction is made. While sensible Christians and Muslims can have worthy discussions and debates (believe me, I have had them in Dar es Islam) the Leftist sees them all as fool’s discussions. The trick the left can’t deal with is distinguishing between the harmless “silliness” and the harmful silliness. Allah commanding his followers to not have relations with infidels is the same as the command to judge cases impartially.

Our culture & society in its effort to “absorb” all has sorta led many to believe it is harmful to distinguish between the silliness of one silliness and the silliness of another silliness, therefore all silliness is just silliness and don’t worry about making distinctions. Unfortunately, this failure to distinguish harmful silliness from harmless silliness has real consequences. One of them is a vegan killing Pim Fortuyn because Pim is preaching that Muslims will REALLY prohibit buggery.

I recall one Reader’s Digest where a class was discussing cultural differences. One woman student claimed them to be just fictions another guy in the class then invited that woman to be his x+1st wife. She declined.

Jan 23, 2009 - 9:52 pm 31. Marcus Aurelius:

BTW Europe is developing a tank here are the detials: http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2005/03/another-european-war.html

Jan 23, 2009 - 9:55 pm 32. joe buzz:

Interesting that the home of “total football” turns out to be the epicenter of the massive cultural quake. Sometimes where things spin quickly they start to come apart. Some friends tell me that Heineken is much better from a tap than a bottle. From where I sit and type in slow to change Appalachia the trend is still quite fearful but then again, I was quite impressed with Johan Cruyff who was dangerous in his own way.

Jan 23, 2009 - 10:25 pm 33. Marcus Aurelius:

ricpic,

There is a dynamic that I have seen a number of times. I think it human nature. We often hear of survivors of some incident shaken to the core of their existence. The survivors espousing the firm belief they deserved death and the dead deserved life, that is, they are undeserving of what they have. The Bible informs us these events are unfathomable and not to read to much one way or the other into them. Still, we tend to do just that.

Many of us when sitting with someone with lesser means or station in life, I think get “survivor’s guilt”. A good buddy of mine hit me hard with the truth one day after Mass. A good friend Joe (what I would give to see or talk to him again), a Pinoy, who did grunt work for the UAE rebuked me once for wallowing in such guilt. He told me he didn’t hold my wealth or position against me, that it wasn’t where I started from it was where I ended that was important.

The West in general holds its wealth and situation as a rebuke against itself, as if it were all undeserved. To be honest some of that wealth is probably less than just, but not all, not even the majority. The left can’t get over that guilt that old saying about the left being unable to take its own side in a fight applies here.

The thing is though, the left often completely insulate themselves from all but their hoidy-toidy selves.

Jan 23, 2009 - 10:30 pm 34. Fletcher Christian:

Keelie, sorry but part of your post is nonsense. The will is lacking, not the means.

I have training in chemistry, and one of the little comments going around when I was in university was that anyone who couldn’t with a bit of prep time, reduce the building we were sitting in to rubble wasn’t much of a chemist.

Although, now, I’m not proud of it I managed to force evacuation of the entire chemistry department while still at school, by creation of what amounted to chemical weapons – non-lethal BTW.

The point is that, although guns are more efficient, improvised weapons such as crossbows and IEDs are actually quite easy to create for anyone of reasonable intelligence. Timing circuits and advice about placement of charges aren’t difficult either.

I recently read a near-future SF novel that featured, as a minor plot device, the British Liberation Front. It’s coming. I’d join it, if I was going to be an asset. Unfortunately my health and fitness are bad enough that I wouldn’t be.

Jan 24, 2009 - 2:52 am 35. Keelie:

Fletcher – I have training in Chemical Engineering and anyone who couldn’t reduce the pub we were sitting in (in Glasgow, Scotland) to rubble wasn’t much of an engineer…

I think both will and means are lacking. Crossbows and swords are great – although it sounds a little like a Monty Python scenario – but if even your will (your thoughts) are punishable by Hate Crimes Courts – what chance do you have for implementing anything. Hell, you can’t even talk about it. As for weapons – as far as I know, most European nations have punishments that are, to say the least, not “proportional” to the crime (of owning a weapon). Some exceptions are Switzerland and Sweden; at least they were exceptions some years ago.

Jan 24, 2009 - 10:14 am 36. Cannoneer No. 4:

ricpic — I was asked that question recently and found this answer.

Made sense to me.

Jan 24, 2009 - 1:21 pm 37. Storm-Rider:

Fred is right; the elite leaders of Europe do not value human liberty. Europe has had a paradigm shift from rightist monarchy to leftist dictatorship, but the same sort of elite class of Europeans continue to sit astride their lessers – their little peasants – just as Plato instructed. These European elites, the ruling Marxist/Socialist class, are now the European “Philosopher Kings”; and what does it matter if they are of rightist or leftist origin? I would say the leftist method of Karl Marx is more cunning and successful because it is guised in the clothing of economic equality (government forced, and of a low order) and Orwellian “social justice” i.e.: social injustice. Except for the relatively brief periods of the Greek and Roman Republics, and a brief post WWII period, Europe has been a continent of tyranny and injustice where, to turn a phrase, the mass of mankind has been born with saddles on their backs, with a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately.

“All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” Thomas Jefferson

“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.” Thomas Jefferson

The question now is whether the American Revolution is still alive, or are we in the process of reverting to the ways of Plato and Old Europe? Is the American Revolution over?

Jan 24, 2009 - 3:07 pm 38. djr:

#15 Bart, that’s a really interesting take!

Jan 24, 2009 - 7:42 pm 39. BL@KBIRD:

An excellent article but I can’t help but feel Islam has been minimized unfairly as the minor actor in this tale. Yes the left has it’s sickness and yes they champion poor little Islam but the left are not by nature pragmatic or as comparably dangerous as Islam is. It is clear what must be done….Islam must be undone and eliminated in order to save ourselves and free the Muslims from a millennium and a half of rapacious parasitism that has rendered one fifth of mankind ignorant, supremacist, and always potentially murderous Jackals.

The film clip is an apt analogy to spreading the dark message of Islam to it’s prey. It is as though some entity protects the spread of the black truth of Islam. And now it will likely be made against the law as so recently witnessed in Holland.

Jan 25, 2009 - 7:03 pm 40. Wake Up:

The REAL problem is this: the fundamental tenet of Islam is that anything that is not Islam is “OTHER” and thus of no significance. So, while we have these wonderful e-discussions (roughly the same as mediaeval monks arguning how many angels would fit on a pinhead), the Muslims just keep on a’coming… A

Assuming that we still have enough law left to work with at all, there is no doubt that all immigration laws applying to Muslims must immediately be reversed and become deportation/repatriation laws. Nothing less will work – and it’s probably too late anyway, civil war(s) will be inevitable.

Jan 27, 2009 - 8:11 pm

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