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The Art of Being a Happy Warrior
Sultan Knish | Nov 14, 2012 | Daniel Greenfield

Posted on 11/16/2012 4:46:06 AM PST by expat1000

When we celebrate Thanksgiving in a little over a week, after being thankful for family and friends, for health and comfort, for food and shelter; it may be time to be thankful for the left.

I have seen far too much despair and defeatism, too many comments that suggest there is no hope for America and the only thing left to do is pour a glass of wine and watch the sun go down. I understand the place of despair and pain that such words come from. But they also testify to how sheltered Americans are from the cold winds outside.

Eight years of Obama is bad, no doubt. But try sixty-nine years of Communism on for size. That's what generations of Russians had to live through. Ask some of the conservative activists in Europe who have never had any of the freedoms that we still take for granted whether they've given up hope. Ask people from countries where criticism of Islam can mean a jail sentence and homeschooling is illegal, whether they've given up hope.

There are countless tales of courage over the last century of men and women who did not stop fighting, who did not stop teaching their children so that they would not stop resisting. And those stories have not ended. They are taking place today in Europe. They are taking place in South America. And those people would envy the conditions under which we fight, where we can protest without being shot or sent to prison, where we can at least have a shot at winning elections if we try hard enough. Where we are, compared to 100 percent of the rest of the world, still free.

We face a hard fight, not only for our freedom, but the freedom of the world. The international left has made America its special project. It knows that if it can extinguish the hope of liberty in this land then it will drive the rest of those who hope for freedom across the ocean deeper into despair. And it wants your despair. It wants you to give up so that the rest of the world gives up too and bows under its chains.

And yet this fight is a glorious one. This fight is our birthright. And we should be thankful for the fight.

It would be more pleasant if there were no Obama or Axelord. If Alinsky had never been born and Marx had never been whelped. It would be nice if we lived in a world where red were just a color and the Democratic Party were a rural movement suspicious of the Federal government and dreaming of an agrarian utopia. But then so would never having to work for a living or getting up out of bed.

Life is challenge and we face all kinds of different challenges. We get up early out of bed in the morning and drive to work. We rise in the middle of the night when the baby cries and we go to the hospital when our loved ones need us there. We do dreary things and terrible things that seem so different from the life we imagined as children. And we do them not only because they are duty, but because these challenges make us who we are.

Besides these prosaic challenges, the daily routines and the occasional tragedies, there are uncommon challenges that we face when the foe comes to our gate and demands that we bow and become slaves. This is the challenge that we face as a society, a nation and a people. It calls to more of us and in that it also ennobles us. It makes us a great people and a great nation, rather than only another people who seek to live in comfort with no thought for anything else.

Good emerges in response to evil. We need our enemies to remind us of who we are and what we can do when our backs are against the wall. We need evil to remind us of the good that we are capable of. As a whetstone sharpens a sword, so evil sharpens us into a weapon against it. It makes us morally stronger and teaches us the stark truths that we cannot take refuge from evil; we must confront it.

If there were no left, would there be nearly as much patriotism among true Americans as there is now? And if there were no left, how many of us would really contemplate the core principles of freedom and free enterprise? If there were no left, how many of us would ponder what we truly believe and what compromises we are willing and unwilling to make? If there were no left, would we be the same people that we are today?

For those of us who believe in the Bible, the Lord created both darkness and light. And if it were not for the darkness, would the light be nearly as precious to us? Imagine a world without sunrise or sunset, where the sight of rays of light clearing away the darkness would have no meaning? And then remember that things are treasured to the extent that they can be taken away from us.

Would we value freedom as much if we did not have to defend it? Would we hold it as dear if we did not fear that it would be taken away? Would we even be aware of what freedom is and what a free people must be if not for the dark hand of those who wish to strip us of those freedoms?

It is the left's opposition that has added urgency to a hundred issues, from the national debt to the War on Terror to freedom of speech and of religion. It has made us think about those issues, to take them out of the back of our minds and hold them up to the light as a reminder of how important they are and what must be done about them.

The left's corruptions remind us of the need for purification. As it gathers the worst of all around it, we find ourselves called to be better than we are. As the left works to doom our country, and as we suffer defeat after defeat, these defeats only serve to remind us that we must be better, that we must do more, learn more and become more in order to save our country.

War is the great teacher and this is a political war, short on bodies and heavy on minds, it is a war in which casualties are not taken in the chest or the arm, but in the mind, in reason and emotion, and against these weaknesses, we can and will prevail.

As we fight the left, we become stronger, more dedicated and more purposeful. We become the men and women that we were meant to be.

As you sit around your tables, thinking of all that you have gained and lost this year, remember and be thankful for the left, for though the winter ice gives way to the summer sun and bitter defeat gives way to sweet victory, it is defeat and hardship that teaches better than comfort and ease. We can learn more from our defeats than we ever could from our victories. Our defeats teach us endurance and fortitude, they teach us that defeat can be borne and that its sting can be turned into the weapon that unseats the foe. And our foes make us who we are.

Their evil teaches us to find the good within ourselves. Their strength teaches us to find our own strength. And their plots against what we have teach us how many treasures we have, not least of these being the full value of our freedom and our happiness that they wish to take from us. Their war on America is teaching us to be better Americans.

It may not feel that way right now, but we are privileged to have this opportunity and this fight.

We should be thankful for the left, its assaults on us are teaching us how to fight and its plots against our freedom are teaching us how to be free.


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: danielgreenfield; sultanknish
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1 posted on 11/16/2012 4:46:10 AM PST by expat1000
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To: expat1000

We can’t fight with the current GOP, they want to surrender.


2 posted on 11/16/2012 4:48:27 AM PST by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: arasina; daisy mae for the usa; AdvisorB; wizardoz; free-in-nyc; Vendome; Louis Foxwell; ...


Sultan Knish/Daniel Greenfield Ping List (notification of new articles). FReepmail or drop me a comment to get on or off.
3 posted on 11/16/2012 4:52:22 AM PST by expat1000
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To: expat1000

I am not a warrior and I am not happy. I knew instinctively zeroland was an eventuality, and now it’s 8 YEARS of eventuality.

Just heard the psycho on talk radio 10 minutes ago saying those making over $250K don’t NEED the tax breaks the Bush tax cuts provide and won’t get them.

To each according to his NEEDS, from each.......


4 posted on 11/16/2012 5:13:16 AM PST by txhurl (Once you go Asian, you never miss an equation.)
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I like the idea of being a happy warrior. You don’t have to go into battle like a crazed, foaming at the mouth Berserker. Be as calm and as calculating as you can. Be wise where you give your charity and cut off supply lines (money) to the enemy wherever/whenever possible. That includes helping to dry up the resources of the GOP-e who seek to “win” by becoming the enemy. I think they’ve use and abused conservatives enough and it’s time for them be hit hard. The whole “lesser of two evils” thing has run its course.


5 posted on 11/16/2012 5:32:53 AM PST by Hayride
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To: expat1000

Or conservatives can detach themselves from the body politic and let it sink under its own weight of corrupting and conniving mismanagement, taking care of themselves and their families. That will be the end of the professional “conservatives” who make their living writing and broadcasting, but so be it.


6 posted on 11/16/2012 5:34:11 AM PST by txrefugee
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To: expat1000

Thank you for that.

Along with my morning coffee, it has helped me face my day.


7 posted on 11/16/2012 5:56:21 AM PST by left that other site (Worry is the Darkroom that Develops Negatives.)
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To: expat1000

It would seem to me that if we the people could shut down the current Federal Government today, through our elected representation of course (a little sarcasm there), we wouldn’t lose much of anything, other than the outrageous costs of the current Fed Gov. as the current Federal Government isn’t doing their job as outlined in the Constitution anyway. It’s simply a pit of confiscated money that self absorbed, self serving Political Whoopie Bird’s prey upon.

Our borders aren’t being protected against foreign intruders. Our Military of which the Federal Government is responsible is fumbling that in which they are engaged due political ineptness of the Federal Government. (NOT to confuse the efficiency of our military personnel themselves with the direction they must adhere from the Professional Political class.) The interstate commerce law is abused, operating with contrived powers not delegated to the Federal Government by the Constitution. The list goes on.

The Fed. Gov. is a far cry from its original intent.

It’s past time for the Pitchforks, Tar, feathers, and rails out of town. Removing the Left is only the first step of a major realignment.


8 posted on 11/16/2012 5:56:21 AM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will, they ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: Hayride

Reagan was the model of the Happy Warrior. He had to fight the Left and the GOP to get his message to the American People, which he managed to do without the Internet, as Rush pointed out. And he did it always with cheerfulness and good humor, even as he eviscerated his enemies with the truth. I sure wish we had even one leader like him.


9 posted on 11/16/2012 5:58:05 AM PST by madmominct
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To: expat1000

Thank you for this little ray of light. May it grow and grow.


10 posted on 11/16/2012 6:58:17 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: expat1000

Thank you for this little ray of light. May it grow and grow.


11 posted on 11/16/2012 6:59:28 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: expat1000
Wonderful piece through and through. Thanks again, Daniel Greenfield.

Link was omitted so here it is: The Art of Being A Happy Warrior

Side note: Something just happened here at my home that triggered a memory of my father and it made me smile and miss him as usual. I checked my pings and clicked on this one, then I went to the Sultan Knish website. The first thing that catches my eye is the photo of President Reagan whom my dad greatly admired. It's just one of those little things that gave me a message of hope.

12 posted on 11/16/2012 8:22:53 AM PST by arasina (Communism is EVIL. So there.)
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To: fortheDeclaration
Our defeats teach us endurance and fortitude, they teach us that defeat can be borne and that its sting can be turned into the weapon that unseats the foe. And our foes make us who we are.

Greenfield's calling on all of us to pick up the battle. His call isn't just to the GOP elite - it's to you forthedeclaration and to me and to all of us ...

It'll take a while for me to get on board but it'll happen. And he's right - it's our battle and it will define us...

13 posted on 11/16/2012 9:00:20 AM PST by GOPJ (Obama kept the FBI out of Benghazi - the FBI just might be the 'good guys' in this mess.)
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To: Fu-fu2

ping


14 posted on 11/16/2012 9:01:50 AM PST by GOPJ (Obama kept the FBI out of Benghazi - the FBI just might be the 'good guys' in this mess.)
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To: expat1000; Mrs. Don-o; Ezekiel
The left's corruptions remind us of the need for purification. As it gathers the worst of all around it, we find ourselves called to be better than we are.

I like this point. The left's program is rooted in envy; being aware of this reminds me to search for the roots of envy in my own heart and strive to eradicate them. The left wants to divide everyone into groups and turn them against each other; this reminds me to treat every person as an individual brother, not as a representative of a competing group. The left promises earthly rewards; this reminds me to seek after the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is the Lord.

15 posted on 11/16/2012 9:40:47 AM PST by Tax-chick (Are you getting ready for the Advent Kitteh?)
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To: cindy-true-supporter; ExTexasRedhead; 3D-JOY; EDINVA; Tolerance Sucks Rocks; ...

ping!


16 posted on 11/16/2012 10:42:23 AM PST by Albion Wilde ("Not only no, but HELL NO we will NOT moderate our stance."-- Jim Robinson)
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To: expat1000
Bad choice of title;something to appeal to the gentry I guess.
The time for all this "Happy Warrior" crap has passed. Face the facts - its 'go' time in America.
Put the 'happy faces' in the box and get a grim face on.
You want quotes? Try this one:

"Now remember, things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean.
I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win.
That's just the way it is."


Adapt, Improvise and overcome.
Stay safe.
17 posted on 11/16/2012 5:01:34 PM PST by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum -- "The Taliban is inside the building")
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To: expat1000
Actually THIS is the link to "The Art of Being a Happy Warrior" article. The previous link I provided was to the Sultan Knish blogspot in general.
18 posted on 11/16/2012 6:13:48 PM PST by arasina (Communism is EVIL. So there.)
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To: arasina; Jeremiah Jr; Tax-chick; Yehuda; 444Flyer

2 Chron 35

23. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Take me away; for I am badly wounded:

24. And his servants took him from that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers; And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah:

25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel; and, behold, they are written in the lamentations*:

26. And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the Torah of the Lord:

27. And his deeds, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah:

*Jerusalem = allegory for America

19 posted on 11/16/2012 6:22:43 PM PST by Ezekiel (The Obama-nation began with the Inauguration of Desolation.)
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To: GOPJ

For a political victory to occur it will need another Party, the GOP is simply a management Party, it will not do anything to turn back the Welfare State.


20 posted on 11/16/2012 7:24:31 PM PST by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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