Personal Responsibility and the WOT

Annie

Diamond Member
Nov 22, 2003
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I like Horsefeathers, probably cause he writes really long pieces. Here is the conclusion of one:

http://doctor-horsefeathers.com/archives2/000471.php#000471


...Once long long ago, Liberalism was a fact based system of ideas which took into account reality and acknowledged human nature’s flaws and imperfections. Its aims were not utopian but pragmatic. Just as may occur to mature individuals, liberalism since the 1960’s has undergone a regression to childhood modes of thinking, and now constitutes a utopian ideology having more in common with totalitarian Islam than with the mature philosophy it once represented. It has an infantile quality, as anyone who reads Maureen Dowd can attest. Its rage is the rage of a frustrated young child, as any reader of the left’s websites knows. Its self flattery and compensatory scorn for its ‘stupid’ opponents is reminiscent of nothing so much as the behavior of children in a sandbox. It requires scapegoats for the failure of perfection, usually Jews or their functional equivalent—George Bush.

On Sept. 11, not just the WTC and the Pentagon were struck terrible blows; the whole structure of utopian liberal ideas---multiculturalism, political correctness, the UN, treaties of disarmament, transfer of wealth to poor countries, etc.---with their implicit benign assumptions about human nature---were also dealt body blows. The initial response of many was to awaken from dreams of sweet reason, realize war had been declared on us by totalitarian Islam, and strike back at the enemies who wanted to destroy us. Human nature however, does not change easily, and as time passed, the regressive impulses of liberalism began to show themselves again. The ceaseless efforts began to “understand” the grievances of our enemies. Political correctness made its comeback as psychological trauma services, scenting big federal grants, swung into action. Suddenly the attacks were about "feelngs", rather than about war and its imperatives. In truth all the psychological 'help' offered proved unnecessary. There was no epidemic of 'Post-Traumatic Stress Dsiorder'. This was just another self flattering effort to show our caring, empathic nature and that we would never, ever think of doing violent things to our enemies. Just look at the recent reaction by the Punditocracy to Congressman Tancredo’s remarks that if there’s a nuclear attack on America we might retaliate against Mecca and Medina, the symbols Islamo-fascists hold dearest. Why the uproar? After all, the great symbols of our culture were attacked on 9-11. A mature person would understand that dealing with conscienceless savages who target civilians might require the use of vigorous countermeasures. However, the MSM is full of wordsmith intellectuals, the hothouse flowers of our culture. These were the now grown up children, whose narcissism was endlessly flattered because they used words deftly. Teachers smiled and praised them. They did well on their verbal SAT’s. They studied literature and art, took few hard science courses, courses that didn't reward glib use of words. These were not the kids who used their fists to establish themselves when schoolyard bullies called them ‘****’. They were not the ones who led the way on the ballfield or who showed you how to take apart a car engine. Instead, they were the children who composed essays on what they felt when their goldfish died. They were the children who first waved their hands at the teacher when asked to read their deathless prose to the class. In sum, our future journalists were the first to leave the room when the fight began. And they still are.

The mainstream media, in the grip of a regressive longing to recapture the days of wordsmith glory, in an age where martial skills are needed more than phrasemaking, is hell bent on undermining the war effort. They are, in effect a Fifth column in our midst, but it is cowardice more than treachery that animates their efforts. Their fear leads to denial and that denial takes the form of creating a smog of forgetfulness combined with ‘blame it on Bush’ around the war launched on us. When is the last time you remember seeing actual video of the poor souls jumping from the WTC to their deaths? The MSM have decided they need to protect all of us, whom they imagine possess the same delicate sensibilities they do. Throughout World War II images of Pearl Harbor were shown in newsreels regularly. The scene of the USS Arizona listing and burning was seared into every moviegoers mind. 9-11 has been denatured and neutralized by the commissions whose investigations proceed on the assumption that our defects and deficiencies were the central cause. They have been trivialized by the MSM's focus on “feelings” of survivors, as if they were victims of a natural disaster, rather than targets of totalitarian savages. The kernel of truth in all the denial is that, yes, the Clinton administration did mimimize the first attack on the WTC, denying it was an act of war, and proceeded as if these were simply criminal matters. Crime of course is an annoyance, but no big deal. Nevertheless, we need daily reminders of what actually happened on 9-11, to counter the sleep state induced by the Mainstream media and their allies on the left.

The recent release of oral histories provided by immediate survivors of 9-11 is an opportunity for such a reminder and should be read by all, lest we forget. Here is one brief excerpt that contains some of the stubborn facts we need to recall:

"Somebody yelled something was falling. We didn't know if it was desks coming out. It turned out it was people coming out, and they started coming out one after the other ... we saw the jumpers coming. We didn't know what it was at first, but then the first body hit and then we knew what it was. And they were just like constant ... I was getting sick. I felt like I was intruding on a sacrament. They were choosing to die and I was watching them and shouldn't have been. So me and another guy turned away and looked at a wall and we could still hear them hit."
Firefighter Maureen McArdle-Schulman
All the interviews are available here.

We know very well, from our many years of clinical experience, that human nature will employ the mental defense mechanism of denial to avoid knowledge of the worst, to explain it away and recapture the sense of safety and security that existed before the horror. However, there are times when denial can cost too heavily. Neville Chamberlain learned that shortly before he died, but too late for Western Europe and the world. Let us hope we can stay the course, despite the childishness of the utopians in the media, universities and Democratic party.
Posted at 11:33 AM by Stephen
 

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