A melancholy story

Submitted by John W. McGinley (United States), Oct 3, 2010 at 08:55

I was too depressed to comment when I first read your article. The fact that it was accurate and insightful does not in any way lessen the deep melancholy of whole stituation. The issue is not Islam. The issue is the fate of Western Democracies and our precious Democracy. The words of Plato from "Statesman" have an eerie timeliness in this regard:

---- For those who are especially orderly are always ready to live the quiet life, carrying on their private business on their own by themselves. They both associate with everyone in their own city on this basis, and similarly with with with cities outside their own, BEING READY TO PRESERVE PEACE OF SOME SORT IN ANY WAY THEY CAN. As a result of this passion of theirs, which is less timely than it should be, when they do what they want nobody notices that they are being unwarlike and making young men the same, and they are constantly at the mercy of those who attack them. THE CONSEQUENCE IS THAT WITHIN A FEW YEARS THEY THEMSELVES, THEIR CHILDREN, AND THE WHOLE CITY TOGETHER BECOME SLAVES INSTEAD OF FREE MEN BEFORE THEY HAVE NOTICED IT.

Taken from the Rowe translation in Cooper, 1997. Emphases are mine. JWM

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".