Consider the response to 1973 Arab oil embargo

Submitted by Dave (United States), Nov 20, 2019 at 12:18

The 1973 Arab oil embargo blindsided our leaders and introduced a new element into American life that had been hitherto ignored. Suddenly, an obscure and culturally backward clique of desert sheikhs were able to cripple our economy, delivering a slap in the face to our superpower arrogance. There were several consequences stemming from that trauma.

One response was constructive and realistic in involving an emphasis on energy conservation and a search for energy independence. Another response was an attempt to defuse the animosity that had led to the embargo by "solving" the Arab-Israeli conflict. I believe that it was this pie-in-the-sky effort that ultimately led to today's obscene examples of Islamist appeasement.

It started with expedience, in crisis mode, but the people tasked with tackling the problem (ex. Jimmy Carter) had very little understanding of Islam, Arab culture, or the history of the conflict, so they were prey to simplistic explanations and wishful thinking. Add to that an underlying psychological component of fear: fear of economic collapse, fear of public rage over gas lines and fear of Islamic terrorism. Helping to further distort reality were the notions of cultural relativism and anti-Western sentiment prevalent on the Left and in academia ever since the radicalization of the Vietnam war in the 1960s.

It was a toxic mix that has become even more toxic with time. While the threat of an oil embargo has faded, we are stuck, by mental inertia, with the same ignorant notions and wishful thinking, only now it has become a large and growing component of establishment thinking, kept alive by the media, academia and other institutions.

I used to get a lot of letters published in the NY Times, but never if I directly criticized Islamic ideology. Ignorance has become synonymous with tolerance among the elite and the chic.

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