Victor Davis Hanson: The Postwest. A civilization that has become just a dream

NRO ^ | April 13, 2007 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

I recently had a dream that British marines fought back, like their forefathers of old, against criminals and pirates. When taken captive, they proved defiant in their silence. When released, they talked to the tabloids with restraint and dignity, and accepted no recompense.
 
I dreamed that a kindred German government, which best knew the wages of appeasement, cut-off all trade credits to the outlaw Iranian mullahs — even as the European Union joined the Americans in refusing commerce with this Holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic, and thuggish regime.

NATO countries would then warn Iran that their next unprovoked attack on a vessel of a member nation would incite the entire alliance against them in a response that truly would be of a “disproportionate” nature.

In this apparition of mine, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in Syria at the time, would lecture the Assad regime that there would be consequences to its serial murdering of democratic reformers in Lebanon, to fomenting war with Israel by means of its surrogates, and to sending terrorists to destroy the nascent constitutional government in Iraq.

She would add that the United States could never be friends with an illegitimate dictatorship that does its best to destroy the only three democracies in the region. And then our speaker would explain to Iran that a U.S. Congresswoman would never detour to Tehran to dialogue with a renegade government that had utterly ignored U.N. non-proliferation mandates and daily had the blood of Americans on its hands.

Fellow Democrats like John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, and Harry Reid would add that, as defenders of the liberal tradition of the West, they were not about to call a retreat before extremist killers who behead and kidnap, who blow up children and threaten female reformers and religious minorities, and who have begun using poison gas, all in an effort to annihilate voices of tolerance in Iraq.

These Democrats would reiterate that they had not authorized a war to remove the psychopathic Saddam Hussein only to allow the hopeful country to be hijacked by equally vicious killers. And they would warn the world that their differences with the Bush administration, whatever they might be, pale in comparison to the shared American opposition to the efforts of al Qaeda, the Taliban, Syria, and Iran to kill any who would advocate freedom of the individual.

Those in Congress would not deny that Congress itself had voted for a war against Saddam on 23 counts — the vast majority of which had to do with weapons of mass destruction and remain as valid today as when they were approved in 2002.

Congressional Democrats would make clear that, while in the interests of peace they might wish to talk to Iran, they had no idea how to approach a regime that subsidizes Holocaust denial, threatens to wipe out Israel, defies the world in seeking nuclear weapons, trains terrorists to kill Americans in Iraq, engages in piracy and hostage taking, and butchers or incarcerates any of its own who question the regime.

In this dream, I heard our ex-presidents add to this chorus of war-time solidarity. Jimmy Carter reminded Americans that radical Islam had started in earnest on his watch, out of an endemic hatred of all things Western. I imagined him explaining that America began being called the “Great Satan” during the presidential tenure of a liberal pacifist, not a Texan conservative.

Bill Clinton would likewise add that he bombed Iraq, and Afghanistan, and East Africa without congressional or U.N. approval because of the need for unilateral action against serial terrorism and the efforts of radicals to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

George Bush Sr. would in turn lecture the media that it was once as furious at him for not removing Saddam as it is now furious at his son for doing so; that it was once as critical of him for sending too many troops to the Middle East as it is now critical of his son for sending too few; that it was once as hostile to the dictates of his excessively large coalition as it is now disparaging of his son’s intolerably small alliance; that it was once as dismissive of his old concern about Iranian influence in Iraq as it is now aghast at his son’s naiveté about Tehran’s interest in absorbing southern Iraq; and that it was once as repulsed by his own cynical realism as it is now repulsed by his son’s blinkered idealism.

I also dreamed that the British government only laughed at calls to curtail studies of the Holocaust in deference to radical Muslims, and instead repeatedly aired a documentary on its sole Victoria Cross winner in Iraq. The British, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish foreign ministers would collectively warn the radical Islamic world that there would be no more concessions to the pre-rational primeval mind, no more backpeddling and equivocating on rioting and threats over cartoons or operas or papal statements. There would be no more apologies about how the West need make amends for a hallowed tradition that started 2,500 years ago with classical Athens, led to the Italian Republics of the Renaissance, and inspired the liberal democracies that defeated fascism, Japanese militarism, Nazism, and Communist totalitarianism, and now are likewise poised to end radical Islamic fascism.

Europeans would advise their own Muslim immigrants, from London to Berlin, that the West, founded on principles of the Hellenic and European Enlightenments, and enriched by the Sermon on the Mount, had nothing to apologize for, now or in the future. Newcomers would either accept this revered culture of tolerance, assimilation, and equality of religions and the sexes — or return home to live under its antithesis of seventh-century Sharia law.

Media critics of the ongoing war might deplore our tactics, take issue with the strategy, and lament the failure to articulate our goals and values. But they would not stoop to the lies of “no blood for oil” — not when Iraqi petroleum is now at last under transparent auspices and bid on by non-American companies, even as the price skyrockets and American ships protect the vulnerable sea-lanes, ensuring life-saving commerce for all importing nations.

I also dreamed that no columnist, no talking head, no pundit would level the charge of “We took our eye off bin Laden in Afghanistan” when they themselves had no answer on how to reach al Qaedists inside nuclear Pakistan, a country ruled by a triangulating dictator and just one bullet away from an Islamic theocracy.

…

And then I woke up, remembering that the West of old lives only in dreams. Yes, the new religion of the post-Westerner is neither the Enlightenment nor Christianity, but the gospel of the Path of Least Resistance — one that must lead inevitably to gratification rather than sacrifice.

Once one understands this new creed, then all the surreal present at last makes sense: life in the contemporary West is so good, so free, so undemanding, that we will pay, say, and suffer almost anything to enjoy its uninterrupted continuance — and accordingly avoid almost any principled act that might endanger it.

[CatoRenasci]

Brutal.

Delicious.

[sgtbono2002]

Send me the pillow this guy dreams on.
So darling I can dream on it too.

[krunkygirl]

save

[Louis Foxwell]

The West is engaged in a philosophical struggle between its ancient traditions and the nihilism of marxism and atheism. Promoted by self styled intellectuals, these 2 great evils seek to end morality and genuine intellectual discipline and elevate the ruling class to absolute authority.
It will require many more voices such as Hanson’s to reach the weak-minded who believe that appeasement, the politically correct (read Marxist), and separation of church (read morality) and government are desirable. They are not.
Voices of clarity that speak the truth are not listened to by those who believe they are smarter than the greatest minds of the ages. Theirs is a unique brand of stupidity, the product of 100 years of collectivist education aimed at denying the importance of anything that has gone before us.

[Suzy Quzy]

weak-minded and IGNORANT is a Horrible combination....and not sure we are worth saving.

[beebuster2000]

sad

[2001convSVT]

Good job, I sent a copy to everyone that I thought could understand what VDH means.

[Utilizer]

Brings a tear to My eye. If only!

[Utilizer]

I know what you mean...

[oldbrowser]

The old principles were about freedom and democracy, the new are about convenience and expediency.

[Fishrrman]

And then I woke up, remembering that the West of old lives only in dreams. Yes, the new religion of the post-Westerner is neither the Enlightenment nor Christianity, but the gospel of the Path of Least Resistance — one that must lead inevitably to gratification rather than sacrifice.

Once one understands this new creed, then all the surreal present at last makes sense: life in the contemporary West is so good, so free, so undemanding, that we will pay, say, and suffer almost anything to enjoy its uninterrupted continuance — and accordingly avoid almost any principled act that might endanger it.

This sounds like Mr. Hanson's obituary for The West.

I've been saying here on FR for some time, that I had doubts about the West's resolve to win the war it faces, which is nothing less than an existential struggle for survival.

And lately, from reports coming in from the front, and from Europe itself, it seems that that resolve is actually _weakening_, not growing.

Please point out to me the errors in my thinking.

- John

[Tolik]

I am an optimist. But I have to admit, on some days its hard to remain so...

[mtntop3]

The scenario Hanson describes was reality for America until the 1960’s and afterwards.

No persons know this better than the WWII veterans and others at that time - who, unfortunately, are leaving us at an-ever increasing rate. We miss them as bedrocks of truth.

[Blind Eye Jones]

Like Lennon’s song “nothing to kill and die for and no religion too,” everybody is “living for today.” In other words, there is nothing great from the past that needs saving and fighting for, no sacrifice as Hanson says. The past — struggle of good and evil — was all wrong and leads to wars. The present hippie idealism is that war is evil and talking will be the solution. But it never is. Everybody is too blinded by the beautiful present to remember important lessons from the past, they forget Neville Chamberlain, forget Nazi tyranny, forget the darkness of the soul.

[Paradox]

Boy, this one hurts..

[AU72]

In America’s future millions of womem will be required to wear Nancy’s scarf outside.

[PISANO]

...from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from great courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage." ....Alexander Tyler, 1750

It took us around 175 years to go from BONDAGE to ABUNDANCE [1776-1956] but only 50 from ABUNDANCE to APATHY.

How much time is left for us to be completely dependent and thereby once again a people in BONDAGE??

[gonzo]

Nailed it for sure! Thanks. I hope we follow-through on April 17th (new moon) ................ FRegards

[AZLiberty]

Now here's someone who deserves to be President, with or without "executive experience". Hanson knows what's right and what's wrong -- and why.

In my dream world, the Republican Party would be trying to draft Hanson.

[Night Hides Not]

Now here's someone who deserves to be President, with or without "executive experience". Hanson knows what's right and what's wrong -- and why.

Spot on, AZL. When I post this article on my alumni blog, the liberals will scream that VDH is giving Dubya a pass...and they will be right, at least in the context of this "dream".

With that one, minor exception, this is another classic VDH column.