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defeatism the 4th -ismReader comment on item: The Rushdie Rules, 25 Years Later Submitted by myth (Germany), Nov 12, 2014 at 14:28 Let me add defeatism as the fourth -ism to finish the lineup up multiculturalism, left-fascism and islamism. Defeatism is the belief that whatever islamism does against Western civilization we cannot actually do anything. Our hands are tied, for we are dealing with a religion, we cannot fight ideology and so on. I connect this shell-shock of Western civilization to another rather passive attitude. That attitude concerns the economy. It is the belief that the "free markets" need to be left untouched for one would only make matters worse if one intervened. It would be Adam Smith's Invisible Hand that would produce a favourable outcome all by itself. The mechanics of this connection started in the early eighties. This is when Mrs Thatcher and others told the public they would no longer be citizens but from now on they would be consumers and entrepreneurs. The reaction of the financial markets would substitute for any judgement based on virtue. With the degradation of the citizen, devaluation of Western society as an idea followed. Can we expect Westerners to oppose islamism out of individual economic interest? Don't we need old-fashioned citizens? The opposite does occur. Economic interest are used as tool to shut up critics of islam. Geert Wilders is experiencing this regularly. The government tells him on occasions to behave and shut up for his criticism damages Dutch trade relations with muslim countries. Islamists would agree with what I say. From their perspective, the West reduces people to individual materialistic machines without a soul. Rather than believing in an Invisibile Hand, they believe in a quite outspoken god. Islamists are not passive either. They believe, they are compelled to intervene in every possible way to bring about god's rule. It seems to me, the islamists teach the West a lesson.
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