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People are beautiful, the world stinks
townhall.com ^ | 4/20/04 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 04/19/2004 10:39:48 PM PDT by kattracks

If you love goodness and hate evil, this is a tough time to stay sane.
 
Israel has killed Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas terror leader, and almost every nation in the world and the nations' theoretical embodiment, the United Nations, have condemned Israel for doing so.

 World leaders and the world organization have said almost nothing about Communist China's ongoing destruction of one of the world's oldest civilizations, Tibet. World leaders have said almost nothing about the Arab enslavement and genocide of non-Arab blacks in Sudan. But they convene world conferences to label Israel, one of the most humane and decent democracies on earth, a pariah.

 In order to retain my sanity, I ask the reader's indulgence as I use this column to express personal thoughts.

 I have contempt for "the world." I cherish and admire countless individuals, but I have contempt for "the world" and "world opinion." "The world" has never cared about evils inflicted on human beings. The Communist genocides meant nothing to humanity. The Holocaust meant nothing. With almost no exception, the mass atrocities since World War II have likewise absorbed humanity less than the Olympics or the Miss World Contest.

 I have contempt for the United Nations. It is one of the great obstacles to goodness and decency on this planet. Its moral record -- outside of a few specialized agencies such as the World Health Organization -- is almost entirely supportive of evil and condemnatory of good. It is dominated by the most morally backward governments in the world -- those from the Arab and Muslim worlds, the Communists during their heyday and African despots. It appointed Libya, a despotic, primitive state, to head its Human Rights Commission, whose members include China, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Neither the United States nor Israel sits on the Commission.

 I regard the European Union with similar revulsion. With little opposition, Europe murdered nearly every Jewish man, woman and child in its midst, and a half-century later provides cover for those in the Middle East who seek to do to the Middle East's Jews exactly what the Nazis did to the European Jews. For the European Union to condemn Israel's killing of a Hamas leader, when Hamas's avowed aim is another Jewish genocide, is so loathsome as to board the incredible. For Germany and France (who, unlike America, have almost never shed blood for the liberty of others) to do everything they can to undermine America's attempt to liberate Iraq is similarly repugnant.

 As for the international news media and journalists, I regard most of them as aides to evil.

 This is not new. The 1932 Pulitzer Prize, American journalism's highest award, was given to Walter Duranty of the New York Times for reporting from the Soviet Union. In his reports, Duranty repeatedly denied Stalin's forced starvation of Ukrainians that led to the murder of more than 6 million of them. The same "newspaper of record" deliberately toned down reporting on the Nazi annihilation of Jews 10 years later so as not to appear "too Jewish."

 The Soviet decimation of Afghanistan was so little reported in the international media -- especially radio and television -- that when I talked about its scope and horror on my radio show in the 1980s, listeners kept wondering if I was telling the truth -- they had never heard anything about it.

 In the last years of the Saddam Hussein regime, according to John Burns of the New York Times, major news reporters refused to write stories about Iraqi mass murder and atrocities lest the Saddam regime remove their press credentials. For most journalists, and their newspapers and television stations, it was better to lie for Saddam and have a bureau in Baghdad than to tell the truth but have no Baghdad bureau.

 And not one international news organization calls Hamas or any of the other Palestinian terror organizations "terrorists."

 I love learning and revere the title of "professor," but with few exceptions, universities, too, merit contempt. The vast majority of professors who take positions on social issues are moral fools. They teach millions of students that America and Israel are villains and that the enemies of those decent societies are merely misunderstood victims who are often justified in their hatred. And they loathe the American Judeo-Christian value system that has made the United States the world's land of opportunity and beacon of liberty.

 In sum, I feel that I am living in a world that is morally sick. Good is called bad, and bad is called "militant," "victimized," "misunderstood" and "the product of hopelessness," but rarely bad. Only those who fight the bad are called bad.

 I am kept sane by the knowledge that there are hundreds of millions of individuals who can still tell the difference between good and evil; by the knowledge that there was never a time that humanity was particularly decent; and by a strong belief that a good God governs the universe even though He allows evil many triumphs. And I believe this God will judge Osama bin Laden and Jacques Chirac appropriately.

©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Contact Dennis Prager | Read Prager's biography



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dennisprager

1 posted on 04/19/2004 10:39:48 PM PDT by kattracks
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To: kattracks
EXCELLENT!! Thanks, lol.
2 posted on 04/19/2004 10:45:08 PM PDT by Flipyaforreal (Non sembra mai arduo cio che si fa volontariamente.)
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To: kattracks
That's exactly why I don't give a damn for elite opinion. I believe in God and see things in black and white. And I am a retrosexual. Its good to know I am among sane company and we are lucky to have the President Of The United States in our club.
3 posted on 04/19/2004 10:53:40 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: kattracks
He just read my mind. Lord, I love that man's brilliant commentary!
4 posted on 04/19/2004 11:03:41 PM PDT by Humidston (You heard it here - BUSH/RICE - 2004)
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To: kattracks
I have contempt for "the world."

Excellent and bump.

5 posted on 04/19/2004 11:29:24 PM PDT by MarMema
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To: Cronos
I have contempt for the United Nations. It is one of the great obstacles to goodness and decency on this planet
6 posted on 04/19/2004 11:29:57 PM PDT by MarMema
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To: kattracks
Great, great article.

Moral absolutes and the clear eyed recognition of the difference between good and evil are the foundation of real human civilization. We are witnessing the results of rejecting them.
7 posted on 04/19/2004 11:39:06 PM PDT by little jeremiah (...men of intemperate minds can not be free. Their passions forge their fetters.)
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To: MarMema
I don't get it. Russia has oil and military tech, Israel has military tech and skills, India has manpower, the US has skills and money. Why aren't we uniting to defeat the common enemy?
8 posted on 04/20/2004 12:20:23 AM PDT by Cronos (W2K4!)
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To: kattracks
world's oldest civilizations, Tibet

I wouldn't say that, it's only got a history dating from it's conversion to Buddhism (was it 300 AD?)
9 posted on 04/20/2004 12:21:56 AM PDT by Cronos (W2K4!)
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To: Cronos
Why aren't we uniting to defeat the common enemy?

You're being too sensible and logical?
I don't know. God help us if our failure to work together is one that causes our defeat.

I can't think of a time I enjoyed being on FR as much as the other evening, reading the threads about Rantisi and celebrating the courage of Israel.

10 posted on 04/20/2004 12:26:27 AM PDT by MarMema
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To: MarMema
TRue, it is sensible and logical. Why are we alienating Russia by retaining our cold war mentality (the Russians are also doing the same) and ditto for the Indians
11 posted on 04/20/2004 12:29:16 AM PDT by Cronos (W2K4!)
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To: kattracks
Earth sucks. It is time to start anew someplace else.
12 posted on 04/20/2004 1:09:00 AM PDT by eclectic
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To: Cronos
Good question.
13 posted on 04/20/2004 4:58:03 AM PDT by MEG33 (John Kerry's been AWOL for two decades on issues of National Security!)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
15 posted on 04/20/2004 5:43:25 AM PDT by SJackson (America...thru dissent and protest lost the ability to mobilize a will to win, Col Bui Tin, PAVN)
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