|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Daisy - my regards to your husbandReader comment on item: White House Nonchalance toward the Middle East Submitted by Tomas (Denmark), Mar 26, 2006 at 15:22 Hi Daisy,Ha, ha, I haven`t stopped laughing yet, and my girlfriend has had a tough time, since I read your remark about "listening before I leap." Please convey my regards to your husband, as we obviously have at least one thing i common. By the way, please accept my respect for yourself as well; a woman who willingly admit to have made a mistake - without partly blaiming her husband - is a rare phenomenon. Apology accepted, and thanks for the laugh. Well, now to something completely different. I`ve given your describtion of the US society a great deal of thought, and I agree on the fundamental difference between what lyes behind the multicultural thought over here and in the US. As before I speek as a Dane, because that`s what I am. I wholeheartedly despice the EU, that for me stands for the very essense of utopianism. As I`ve already mentioned, there`s a great historic devide between us. American identity is 230 years old, while Danish identity is 1000+ years old. Our flag - so the story goes - fell form the sky during a crusade in the Baltics in 1219. The medieval poem "Dolorosa Danica" from the mid 12. century, and "the Chronicals of the Deeds and accomplicements of the Danes" - Saxo Grammaticus in Latin - dating back to the same period, tells comprehensive stories of the deeds and reflections of our ancestors. You are quite right when you see a semantic problem, and I believe it to be a matter of the difference in religious tradition. In order to write without making constant disclaiming remarks, I`ll start by stating that what follows is my personal point of view, which I don`t want to force down upon anyone, but for which I won`t apologize on the other hand. I don`t care if people don`t respect my faith, and frankly I can`t be bothered if others take offence by it either. Politeness has become a curse, so please feel free to attack my views. No quarter given, none expected, and by the way, I won`t be reading your comments, and I`ll return to why. I`ve always regarded the Biblical story about the tower of Babylon as not mearly a story, but as a archetypical myth, thus making it even more true. It tells us that "peace among men" is a spiritual matter, connected to the Truth. The reallity that we must live in, is one of struggling to make ends meet, and never to succeed in the True meaning of the word, because the fallen World is flawed by nature. Succes has happend one time in history, where lateral Eternity crossed horizontal time; on the Cross. The truth is not a lesson to be learned, it`s not a moral concept, that we can own, thus making anyone visibly "holly". The truth is not a story told by Christ. The Truth IS Christ. If Christianity is reduced to be a matter of "nice" behaviour, we have essentially accepted the Muhammedanistic (saying Islam is really to respect Muhammed as a prophet, so I use the old Western term from now on, to show my blaitent lack of respect for the teachings of Muhammed) speech of Theocracy. The Truth cannot be owned by us, nor understood for that matter. Truth can set us free, because Christ IS the Truth, but we`re far out of line, if we create a god in our own image, by taking our own, personal and often enviously and selfrightious moralism, and issue God with those characteristics. That`s why I have no common ground with the followers of Muhammed. I don`t care if they follow some of the commandments in the Judaistic tradition, and don`t recoqnize any of the talk about the "sons of Abraham" as far as I`m conserned, they could be "Clingons". The old order hasn`t existed for 2000 years, and I`m not into mysticism, religious experiences or pentacostal ecstacy. The Truth is Christ, and his Kingdom is not of this World - period. The law hasn`t been spelled with a capital L, since Jesus asked "the one believing him self to be clean" to throw the first stone". Naturally our laws rest on the tradition of the Decalog, but it`s no longer holly, and thus we can neither claim God to be on our side, nor can we accept the Muhammedanians claim to have the support of the Omnipotens. Holly war is a blasphemous term. What we do is our own responsabillity as persons, and we owe our alligience to the "Emperor", in who`s name every war is waged. I`ve feasted my mind on Luther`s letters regarding how to wage war on the Turks. It`s so fantasticly realistic and stripped of all hipocracy. What a healthy period the European rennaisence was. Turning Christianity into moralism and thus effectively creating a christanism (no contradiction in the French language, which says a lot), has made us affraid to act, and has put us in a defencive position, where we have to explain our selves, and where the celebration of our own wish to be piased, may lead us to admiration of the muhamedanian regime of rigid rules. Such an admiration may blind us, so it appeares that the basic muhamedanism is a "proud religion". So Daisy, I don`t look down on either America, nor Europe. I`m simply just deeply sad, that we are so pre-occupied with discussing why we are right, and nurishing the illusion, that we can export our values and save the World. I don`t believe we will ever succeed, and I`m affraid that our idealism will be our own undoing, because our "nonsence on stillts" has become a manual, that our enemies can read, enabling them to say all the sweet words about the "brotherhood of man", that we so long to hear, because it reassures us that we are the good ones. I can understand why you talk about a difference in why the official America acts out multiculturalism, and why the Europeans do. As an American you want to see the American way as an honest idealistic way, and the European as a hipocritical act of show. I find your loyalty very sympathetic, and I`m not far from agreeing, but I don`t really think the background matters any more, because all that matters is the effect. I`m sorry if it offends you, but I think our culture has gone profoundly soft because of our idealism. A lot of ordinary people are not idealistic, and I hope that`ll save us from the muhammedanian menace, but I think the price will be dreadfull, because we have waited to long. On the other hand, that dreadfull showdown may finally be the end of utopism, and lead to the return of common sence and down to earth everyday life. Muhamedanism can`t win, because all societies will stagnate under that rule, the question is how strong we will let the Leviathan get, before we put our relativistic idealism away and realize that war is bloody, and that we will have to accept being guilty of the death of many innocent people, if we want our civilisation to survive. The trouble with human rights and the concept of religious freedom is, that these thoughts come from a Christian tradition, and was written down by people who never anticipated that the followers of Muhammed would ever be let into our sphere. It`s said about Immanuel Kant, that he was born in Koenigsberg, lived in Koenigsberg, and died in Koenigsberg, and therefore he could only test his teories by looking at a then solely Christian-Judaic reallity. We have painted our selves up into a corner, so to speak, and we cannot get out, unless we are willing to get paint on our foodsoles. We will have to admit, that a society that wishes to be open inwards, must protect this openness by being quite closed outwards, and selective in who`ll be allowed to join. The alternative is, that everybody will have to endure a substantial loss of freedom. The muhamedanians use this against us to claim the right to build mosques, get jobs in the civil service, and in our armed forces. They`ll never allow us to claim the same rights in there sphere of interest, and they realize how much we cling to our self-image. We are being played for fools, and that goes for America as well as for us over here in the old World. Thus we must stop being so affraid to be called biased. Bias is to choose side, and frankly I don`t trust someone, that will not choose sides. The so called objectivety is an idealistic Fata Morgana. When we state that all men is created equal, this is a religious point of view. Between humans as individuals, this does not apply, because if it did, it would meen that I would be able to love someone that I`ve never met before as much as I love my family, which is a ridiculeous idea per se. As you can imagine, my thoughts about the UN are not very high neither. It`s a gigantic puppetshow, where third world issues are being used as an excuse to futher the interest of the Muhamedanians. What ever, I`ve decided that this will be my last post on the internet, and that my latest newspaper-essay was really my last. A lot of people are now blowing the horn, so I`ve decided that it`s time for me to change my priorities, and maybe live a bit, instead of just existing. I`m 40 years old, and I`ve spend 20+ of them struggling against the suicidal political correctness. I`ve been called paranoid, insane, a fascist, a socialist, a Jew-hater, and a Jew-lover, depending on whether I was attacked by the far left, the idealisticly religious or the followers of Muhammed. I`ve grown numb, and I`ll have to agree with the saying that feeling nothing is the greatest pain. It`s not fair towards my family and my current girlfriend, so I`ve decided to give her a chance. Narcissism can also be the notion that one is doing a job, that can`t be replaced, and I`ve decided that I dont have the right to think so highly of my self. It has cost me the relationship with two long time girlfriends, with whom I would have loved to be married. I didn`t take the time to have children either, and my sports- and professional carrier has been keept on a mere survival basis. I`m tired, so deeply tired, so I`ll retire to my own little autistic world, where I`m going to indulge myself. There`s no reason for throwing more good time into this struggle. Either we wake up or we don`t. I can live with the fact that I`ve spend more than a quarter of my anticipated lifespand achieving absolutely no happiness for my self, but silver jubilee as a fool is enough. I`ll quit while I`m still reasonably sane. It`s a lot of fun being young, so I`ve been told, I wouldn`t know, so I hope being middle-aged can be reasonably fun too. God bless all Westeners, because our politicians are more keen on polishing their halo, and so are the majority of us ordinary people. Memoriam Mori - I just did! Read the history of the Peleponesean war, and the time that followed, and then read about WW1, but be sure to have your guns locked up while you do, so you`ll have time to cool down, before you act on impulse, and eat lead. Best regard to all true Occidentials Tomas 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". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (289) on this item
|
Latest Articles |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes (The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998. For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.) |