Amateur Megalomania

I hate being a downer. This isn’t the best way to build a blog audience. People don’t keep coming back for a recurring litany of bad news or gloomy outlooks on the future.

But I can’t seem to help it.

We’re living in an age of rapid, unpredictable change, yet thematically, nothing much is changing. The details morph and mutate, but the fundamentals are as constant as the North Star.

And I can’t let go of my profound fears for the future.

I fear what we might not do. I fear what we might do. I fear what we might have missed. And I fear this larger groove, this rut, of our future that might not be mutable regardless of what we do or don’t do.

When I say fear, I’m not referring to the paralyzing grasp of inaction, but of the larger historical sense as a member of this species. My personal circumstance is largely irrelevant to the issues that concern me. Odds are – me and mine will survive, physically. My fear is directed at our greater future – the future of Western Civilization, the ideas of liberty, and the continued legacy of the Enlightenment.

This fear brings frustration. I carp, I point, I proclaim. But I have no idea what to do. I don’t know how to fix things. Anyone who gives you the impression they have the answers is operating under the warm blanket of self-delusion.

Americans, and the Western traditions, are ill-suited for the conflict. Our breeding, education and heritage are a liability, even as we strive to defend these elements that make us what we are. Can we cope with this paradox? Can we set aside the things we seek to defend and fight until we are free to pick them up again?

In an earlier post, I counted one and a half billion Muslims as potential enemies. Those words bothered me, even as I typed them. It runs counter to everything I believe – to paint an entire faith as an enemy. And certainly, it isn’t precisely true. There are uncounted Muslims who are interested in getting along. It is immoral to paint them all with the label of enemy. It is un-American (it at least goes against the higher ideas of America that we admire, even if we do not always observe them).

As a people, we embrace differences. We are the melting pot. We assimilate alien cultures and faiths, changing them even as they change us. The entire Western Heritage, if need be, could be summed up in ‘tolerance’.

But we are now confronted with the possibility that this tolerance could be the instrument of our undoing.

It disgusts me. Just as it disgusts me to realize that I MUST be suspicious of Islam as a whole. For the past several years, I have plumbed the resources on the net, reading, watching, seeking, trying to understand Islam from the perspective of those that embrace it, as well as those that denounce it. I can’t ignore the truth of the faith, and the fact that it breeds and inspires a religious hatred not seen since the height of the Dark Ages. So I have to approach Islam with the initial premise of distrust. The burden of proof is on the Muslim, to demonstrate their compatibility with modern values. And that is yet another idea contrary to American tradition.

But I won’t apologize for this.

I’m not the one sawing off heads, slaughtering children, and keeping entire cultures mired in the Dark Ages. I’m not the one preaching the hatred of the Imam on Fridays. I don’t put the words into the mouths of those sermons in the mosques.

Western traditions of tolerance and respect are built upon reciprocity. I think we have lost sight of that over the years. In the face of cultures that seek death and destruction, we cannot draw up an equivalence of perspective. We can’t honor the Islamic admonitions against the ‘pigs of Israel’ as a cultural quirk, such as the peyote of some Native American faiths. We can’t equate the bloodthirst of martyrdom with the zeal of a Jehovah’s Witness on your doorstep.

This isn’t an issue of Christian superiority, or Western arrogance. It isn’t arrogance to observe the need for human rights, dignity and freedom. A faith, creed, or ideology that dismisses these fundamentals cannot co-exist with the modern world. And so long as we pretend that these abridgments of the Enlightenment can safely be isolated and ignored, the sooner we descend into bloodshed that most of us can’t imagine.

We say we don’t seek a religious war. I agree. But the other side has already declared it as such. We must acknowledge the terms that they have set, and stop worrying about the perception of those that wish us to fall. We must not continue to apologize for our values. And we absolutely must stop them from using these values against us.

The concepts of the Enlightenment are embodied in the Social Contract, and a Contract must be entered into by both parties. When possible, a compassionate people will seek to apply this Contract to people who may not agree. We accord criminals the rights of citizens, we try to fight wars according to humane rules when possible, and we try to seed these ideas into other cultures, for the sake of everyone.

But this is not a requirement.

We do not stop being Americans when we recognize the futility and danger of this compassion.

Of course it is a fine line. Yes, it is a slippery slope. I’ll concede whatever cliché one prefers. But I’d rather flirt with a cliché than see the world descend into a second Dark Ages. America can either soil her values a bit, or cede the ability to preserve herself over the next half-century.

I don’t know what to do. But I think I have some ideas about what we must STOP doing.

Stop pretending that this isn’t a religious war. Stop pretending that Islam is intrinsically peaceful. Stop pretending that this conflict is limited, or not important. Stop being ashamed for your suspicions, and return the burden of civility upon those that shrug it aside. It is not our task to accommodate the barbarian.

And to you Muslims that are seething in rage at the injustice I’ve committed against you – I will be the first to stand at your side should you decide to stand up and erase the stain on your faith. Show me that you exist, and I will praise you. Deeds matter at this point, not words. As we know by a half-century of doublespeak out of the Middle East, words mean little in the land of the taqiyya and the concept of kitman. Reform your faith, because you are losing whatever goodwill might remain in the West.

There is a tangle of possible futures before us, and most of them are grim. Someone needs to find a good thread, soon.

Filed under: The War