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Thursday, August 31, 2006 Things improve, slowly. Keep
doing the stretches, take the pain killers to get a good night sleep, get up
and stretch every hour or so.
The column is up at
www.chaosmanorreviews.com and I will have next Monday's up on time. And
it's time to work on Inferno.
Subscriptions are coming in, not quite as fast as I would like, but they
are coming in, so this experiment will continue. I will start the daily
observations and essays again shortly. Thanks to all of you for patience. I
do have things to say other than observations about my problems.
The California State Legislature has lost its mind. Bills to finish off
what businesses remain in the state seem to flow out like effluvia from an
abscess.
The Partition of Mankind
Apparently the IDF military commanders wanted to finish the job in
Lebanon, and did not want the cease fire. Good on them. Unfortunately, their
political masters were not up to it. The IDF won all its tactical battles,
but Israel lost the war. If that sounds familiar, recall Viet Nam. Hizbollah
is already flowing back into the areas from which they were driven, the
missiles are flowing back in, and Hizbollah now has seasoned combat veterans
to become NCO's in their new expanded army. The cost to Israel for not
finishing the job will be a lot higher than anyone (except the IDF officer
corps) understands. As Joel Rosenberg says, quite often it sucks to be
right. I wish I weren't right about this.
And all this is small potatoes in the global war, which is a three-way
war for humanity: Islam, Christianity, and Atheist Humanism. One, and only
one, of those will prevail. Of the three, Christianity seems to have the
most tolerance for those not of its faith. It is only tolerance: the command
is to preach the Word to all peoples. But Islam is commanded to convert all
those not put under tribute; while Atheist Humanism appears to be the most
intolerant of the lot, insisting that in areas where it is in control there
shall not even be tolerance of unbelievers.
Liberalism is not really a contender here. The John Stuart Mill variety
of Liberalism is pretty close to what we today call Libertarianism, and its
triumph would be no bad thing at all; but it appears to be unstable. Modern
Liberalism is closer to Atheist Humanism and seems increasingly less
tolerant of deviation from its tenets. There will always be advocates of
"liberal democracy" (the political faith that Frances Fukuyama thought
already triumphant so that we could see the end of history) but liberal
democracy doesn't have passionate defenders. Few will give their lives for
it; and as it becomes increasingly intolerant (take that Cross off that
hillside! Its existence offends us!) it alienates those with real passions.
Yes. I know. There are intolerant Christians. Many of those, though, are
actually seeking to be left alone, and while they would welcome converts,
they mostly want to be able to raise their children without interference
from outsiders who seek to impose Atheist Humanism or one of its namby pamby
Liberal variants. As for the others, Niven's Law prevails: no cause is so
just that it will not attract fuggheads, and the fuggheads generally
get all the publicity and seem to be the spokespeople for the cause.
The US was founded on the notion of consent of the governed as the only
real legitimacy of government. That requires Federalism, and requires that
we respect each others' rights to be different. Really different. My example
is the Blue Belly Baptists who feel that you must paint your belly button
blue on Wednesday afternoons and seek laws requiring that those who appear
in public on Wednesday afternoons have a blue belly button. So long as they
have a restricted jurisdiction (and I don't think their doctrine will appeal
to many townships) I see no reason why they should not have their silly
laws. I won't live in their town, or if I do remain there, I will get some
Woad for Wednesdays. I may or may not mix in aconite. Alas, the modern
tendency will be to send in the National Guard to protect someone's right to
live in Blue Belly Village with an unadorned belly button.
In a contest for existence, those without passion usually lose to those
with passionate fervor for their cause. The Muslims are able to generate
such passions. Christians have been able to do so. One wonders what passions
the Atheist Humanists will be able to generate, and if those will be enough
to defend what used to be called Western Civilization.
==
Subject: Your partition of humanity
Jerry,
"And all this is small potatoes in the global
war, which is a three-way war for humanity: Islam, Christianity, and Atheist
Humanism. One, and only one, of those will prevail."
Where do China and India fall in this division? I
don't believe that either Christianity or Islam have much of a hold in those
countries. Their religious traditions are Hinduism and Buddhism, neither of
which seem to be as aggressive as Christianity or Islam when it comes to
converting the nonbeliever. Perhaps you consider China and India to be
mostly under the sway of Atheist Humanism? Any possibility that Athiest
Humanism with Eastern religious underpinnings is significantly different
(and more effective) than Atheist Humanism with Judeo-Christian
underpinnings?
CP, Connecticut
And your point is well made. I do appear to be overly Western-centric.
And yet.
It may be that Buddhism will prevail. We know that the Muslims had great
success in India, but something did stop the spread of Islam to all of
India. China is, officially, Atheist Humanist (Marxist) but that doesn't
entirely prevail throughout the country. I am not sufficiently acquainted
with the situation there to have an opinion. I do note that the government
seems afraid of missionaries.
Sikhs have an aggressive and passionate attachment to their religious
views, and have even won some converts in the west, but not very many. How
long the Sikh regions could hold out against a world aflame with chiliastic
zeal I don't know.
But I think the main theater of events will be in the West. If Islam
takes Europe, which no longer seems impossible, and remains immune to the
Western weapons of cultural mass destruction, who will prevail against them?
Hindu adherents are ardent, and we know they can fight: the Gurkha regiments
are Hindu in religion; but it does seem to me that Atheist Humanism is
making great strides among the educated and powerful in India. Perhaps
someone with more knowledge than I have will comment.
But I do believe the main theater of events is in the West, and in the
West we have Christian, Muslim, and Atheist Humanist as the real
protagonists; and the Atheist Humanists do not seem willing to die for their
faith although they will kill to impose it if the costs are not too high.
Thursday
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