Posted on 05/20/2006 6:10:27 PM PDT by lancer
We're going to get deep and serious here, and I'm going to ask you to reflect on a number of previous articles. We're not going to fulminate against George Bush, illegal immigrant-hiring businesses and the whores in the Senate they pay off, Democrats who see every illegal alien as a potential welfare recipient who will vote for them, or even Reconquista Mexicans attempting to recapture the American Southwest.
No, we're going to get to the heart of the matter and figure out the fundamental cause of the problem. The problem that lies at the heart not just of the immigration crisis, but of so much else, from the destruction of American education and culture to the war with Islamic terrorism.
Let's begin with an experience I had in a small country restaurant in France.
It was just outside of Aix-en-Provence. With me were my wife and our then six year-old son. It was late afternoon and we were about the only customers. The restaurant owner had a Doberman pinscher that approached us seeking a handout. I brusquely shooed him away and he threateningly barked and bared his teeth.
Instantly, I jumped up, grabbed a knife, and went after the dog. I was ready to kill it on the spot, without hesitation. Just as instantly, the snarling, menacing dog metamorphosed into a whimpering critter that quickly scuttled away with its tail literally between its legs.
When a predator smells weakness, he demands submission to his threats. The dog was used to intimidating customers - after all, he was a Doberman - and getting the handouts he wanted. Its owner - with whom I expected to have an argument - laughed instead, and congratulated me on being the first customer he could recall to stand up to it.
I want you to think of that Doberman whenever you see Jihadists and Iranian mullahs smelling the weakness of the West, Palestinian terrorists smelling the weakness of Israel, Marxist university professors smelling the weakness of their students, the fascists of political correctness and multiculturalism smelling the weakness of our culture, Democrats smelling the weakness of Republicans, immigration "activists" smelling the weakness of America itself.
And what is it that causes the odor of such weakness? Fear. Fear of intimidation and physical threat, yes, like with the Doberman. But far, far more often, with people it is fear of something else: fear of the evil eye of envy.
As we discussed in Rejecting The Evil Eye, fear of the envy of others is one of mankind's most deeply primal and pervasive terrors. Thus envy-avoidance is one of the most basic and primary motivators of human behavior. It is the primitive superstitious fear of envious Black Magic, the Evil Eye.
As we discussed in Why Liberals Are Incapable of Defending America, liberals are dominated by this fear. They are defined by a compulsion to appease the envious.
All the great barbarisms of modern times - Nazism, Communism, Moslem Terrorism, are pathologies of envy. All the dime-store pathologies are as well. Such human Dobermans as eco-fascist environmentalists, feminazis, PETA animal rights fanatics, homosexual marriage promoters, race hustlers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, gangsta-rappers, all get their strength from the liberals' fear of their Evil Eyes.
But the immigration crisis brings a terrible truth into focus. Fear of the Evil Eye of Envy is not confined to liberals. It is infecting vast numbers of otherwise normal Americans. It has infected the President of the United States.
Thus the current nostalgia experienced by those of us not so infected for a previous president, Teddy Roosevelt.
There is a quote of TR's making the email rounds that you may have seen. It claims to be dated 1907 when he was still president. Actually, it is taken from a letter TR wrote dated January 3, 1919, just before his passing:
In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here does in good faith become an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with every one else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American...
We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.
And in a speech TR gave on February 1, 1916 to the National Americanization Committee, he declared:
Let us say to the immigrant not that we hope he will learn English, but that he has got to learn it. Let the immigrant who does not learn it go back. He has got to consider the interest of the United States or he should not stay here. He must be made to see that his opportunities in this country depend upon his knowing English and observing American standards.
Of course, TR was talking about legal immigrants. One can only imagine his contempt for the weakness of permitting an illegal invasion into America.
I have a special fondness for TR because my grandfather, Lucien C. Wheeler, was Chief of the Secret Service Bodyguard during his presidency. There is a picture of Lucien protecting TR in Chavez in Chile.
But the affection so many Americans have for TR is not just for him personally, and the popularity of these quotes is not just for their truth. It is a longing for those days a century ago when America had no fear of the evil eye.
That's the root desire of conservatives: A self-confident America with a fearless pride and confidence in its values and cultural worth.
In the America of a century ago, if our culture and existence as a nation was hated by some, and the question asked, "Why do they hate us?", the response of most Americans would have been a shrug. "Who cares?" would have been the question in response.
If Columbus was denounced and Western Civilization condemned, it would have been dismissed as pathetic and freakish.
If Mohammedan (yes, that's what they were called then) pirates attacked Americans, they would be hunted down and shot without remorse.
And if Mexico invaded our borders, armed US soldiers would put an end to it (as Black Jack Pershing did with Pancho Villa).
It is no use bemoaning that George Bush is not another Teddy Roosevelt, because America today has a fear of envy it did not have 100 years ago.
If America did not have this fear of envy, it would have the confidence - it would have a president with the confidence - to have Delta Force teams hunt down the "coyotes" smuggling Mexican illegals across our border and shoot them.
It would have the confidence to enforce the laws already enacted making it a crime to hire illegals, allowing police to arrest them and courts to speedily deport them, and denying illegals welfare or educational entitlements.
It would have the confidence, in response to Mexico's complaints, to question Mexico's sanity in making such complaints, and tell Mexico to grow up, get over its inferiority complex, and start becoming a decent honest country.
It would have the confidence to tell Saudi Arabia to stop funding Wahhabi mosques in our country - or else allow Christian churches and missionaries in theirs.
It would have the confidence to effect regime change in Iran and Syria, and see that Hugo Chavez was tragically demised in a plane crash.
It would have the confidence to tell China, Japan, and South Korea that they will extend the same free trade laws to our exports that we extend to their imports.
And most of all, it would have the confidence to regard liberals demanding submission to multiculturalism and political correctness as no different from radical Moslems demanding submission to Sharia Islamic law.
Islam is one big Doberman, one big intimidation trip, nothing but a demand for submission - for that is what it means: "Islam" in Arabic means "submission," the submission of infidels to Moslems, the submission of the entire human race to their god.
And isn't this the same demand of submission the fascists of the left make, that we all bow down to their PC god and beg forgiveness for the sins of America and Western Civilization?
How did we get in such a state? For the crazed irony is that America today should have more moral confidence, not less. 100 years ago women couldn't even vote. America enormously expanded women's rights and rid itself of its hideous Jim Crow laws.
American's have every right to be proud of their country's moral achievements. We need make no apologies to the world. Yet no matter what we do, it is never enough appeasement for the moral Dobermans of the Left.
The story of how we got in this state of envy-appeasement is told in Aeschylus and America. It is this essay that will give you the greatest understanding and perspective on why we no longer have the confidence of a Teddy Roosevelt's America.
The bottom line is that we can regain it. The revolt of grass-roots America against the invasion of Mexican illegals is evidence. We still have the capacity for cultural and national confidence we once had.
The key is the rejection of envy. It is time to say enough: no more fear of evil eyes. It is time for an Oath of Moral Allegiance to America:
"I am proud to be an American. I make no apology, have no shame, feel no embarrassment for America and Western Civilization for its culture, its history, its existence. America is not perfect as it is human, yet its contributions to human freedom and betterment infinitely outweigh its flaws. It is an honor and privilege to be a citizen of such a moral and humanely noble country as America."
Americans of Teddy Roosevelt's day would have been happy to make such a statement. When Americans can do so once again, the root cause of so many of our ills will have been cured.
[Note to dog lovers: The first three years of my life were spent with my grandmother's two Dobermans, Hugo and Frela. They were my protectors and constant companions. They were taught and trained to be respectful and loving. If they had not been, they would be like the one in Aix. Just like people. And for you Doberman aficionados: they don't dock their tails in France.]
Read this masterpiece and take the pledge!
Covetness or envy was the first sin and the root of all others.
ping for tomorrow
Great post!
With Latino immigration it's not fear so much as greed. Greed for money on the part of big business and greed on the part of votes for Democrats. The national heritage of this country has been found less worth having than money. And everything which happens from that point on is pretty much inevitable.
The root cause is very simple and can be summed up in one word: politicians.
/s for the sarcasm impaired!
Instantly, I jumped up, grabbed a knife, and went after the dog. I was ready to kill it on the spot, without hesitation. Just as instantly, the snarling, menacing dog metamorphosed into a whimpering critter that quickly scuttled away with its tail literally between its legs.
This surrendering dog probably had some French Poodle in its bloodline.
The people who would willingly take this pledge are not the problem. Some of us (including me) live by it. The problem is the sheer number of those who don't. I swear they get more numerous every year. And they can't be convinced they wrong--reason is foreign to them. I don't know what the solution is, but I suspect it won't be pretty or civilized.
I will probably get flamed for this, but I also think the root cause of our problems is giving women the vote. There are many good women out there, but they are driven by emotion not logic. How else do you explain Oprah? Politics since 1960 have catered to these women and it explains everything.
BTTT
ping
"I will probably get flamed for this, but I also think the root cause of our problems is giving women the vote."
You're exactly right. Although there are many exceptions, the rule holds:
Women = emotion
Men = reason.
Sorry if that offends, but that's the way God made us.
America did not survive the 19th amendment.
Excellent, thanks for the post.
It is not the "fear of envy" that led to the illegal immigration status quo. It is the "fear of envy" vis a vis our own native-born poor that did it. Those people in large numbers don't work, yet they can subsist, sometimes very well, off of crime and welfare. Because they don't work, that created a vacuum that the generally hard-working immigrant, legal or illegal, fills.
Without women voters, Democrats would only have won one or two presidential elections in the 20th century. Ann Coulter pointed this out in a column once. Then she was labeled a woman-hater by her critics.
"Politics since 1960 have catered to these women and it explains everything."
No, we've been guilted out of our reason just like the West.
If politicians stood for principle instead of sucking after votes, the female vote wouldn't matter. The fact that politicians will do anything to stay in power is the flaw in our system, not women voters.
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