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.

[NZerFromHK]

Unfortunately I know in my heart this article will land straight into Mr Davis’s Recycle Bin in his office, or in the electronic version dealt by an immediate “Delete” button.

[NZerFromHK]

A scary thought is that Tyler meant this whole cycle to be 200 years in moving full circle. You guys are already 25 years overdue.

European countries: let’s have a look at Germany: only around 30 years if we count Weimar to WWII. And the current cycle, it is about 50 years from bondage to apathy.

Britain: it is about 300 years counting from the Glorious Revolution, but about 180 years counting from the 18th century liberals, and about 173 years if we count the Great Reform Act as the point of spiritual faith.

France: forget it (!).

[NZerFromHK]

Judging by the British non-response to VDH’s recent articles and comments on the British nation (it is not like they don’t know who he is - he has written guest editorials for the London Times), I’m not optimistic to Britain’s future.

[Billthedrill]

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 differences don't, in fact, pale in comparison. They are the product of of a complacency that truly believes that we can weather any non-Western challenge on the strength of military vikunteers held in contempt by their civilian leaders, on the strength of an economy those rulers intend to eviscerate in the name of "social justice," on the strength of a national solidarity that will be displaced by the god of Diversity, and on the strangth of belief that is displaced by cynicism and nihilism.

I remain optimistic that it won't happen to the degree necessary for the underlying society to fall in the face of a 7th-century tyranny. What is likely to happen is that the same precepts that continue to hold that Western culture is mutable in the face of every outside pressure will go the way of similarly overconfident Roman precepts that were written in the same hand. It does little good to hope to create a better society and hand one's children a bloody mess and a packetful of good intentions.

The ball is very much in the court of the Progressives, who either will conclude that social progress must proceed from a current baseline or continue to collude with those who would destroy it. If they decide the latter, and it looks very much as if the current Democratic party leadership has done so, then that baseline is likely to turn from what they now consider a paragon of social injustice to a fondly remembered, and regretted, Golden Age. It will be little comfort for conservatives, if any of us are left at that point, to remind them of what they gave up with both hands.

[tet68]

VDH Bump.

What else is there to say?

[happygrl]

This may be among the finest essays that VDH has written.

It should be put in the Congressional Record.

[happygrl]

Dean, you ole’ drunk...

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Book mark - V.D.H. Essay

[Tolik]

http://victorhanson.com/#Anchor-Angr-12734
Dear Dr. Hanson,

Having just read the latest piece on your website "The Post-west," I am terribly saddened by it. Your tone is startlingly different from that in your other work. Books like Carnage and Culture or Ripples of Battle — as well as most of your articles — have the power to change people's opinions because they derive from your central thesis of Western ascendancy, and are supported by the broad historical perspective that is your trademark. Western citizens are inspired by your work because it reminds them of the power and resilience that is their heritage. They realize that they can shake off the cloak of shame that the current academic climate foists on them, and are relieved to finally step into their own skin.

With all that as a backdrop, the present article is jarring because it seems resigned to eventual defeat. It creates an alternate world, the "Post-west," which is the antithesis of the strong West that is your norm. Your work typically has the prophetic quality of reassuring the reader that the West will wake from its current complacent slumber. This piece is more like an elegy for a dying friend, for a once-powerful human reduced to a final pathetic whimper.

Hugely effective stuff nonetheless.

Hanson: I am sorry if the tone was exclusively pessimistic; it was intended as minatory, a warning that we have a large segment of our population that has given up and wants to lose the war as some sort of corrective to the perceived evil of the United States. I should add that British forces in Basra are quite effective soldiers and would never have surrendered to anyone; likewise millions of Americans are angry at the war not over its supposed immorality but because we are not using our full resources to win an ethical conflict.

I guess what I am trying to say is that the power of the West remains untapped, even after 9/11. We squabble, indulge conspiracies, whitewash the enemy, consider our President worse than our enemies, and meanwhile at the same time we seem to think another 9/11 is inevitable. If you look at 1860, 1914, and 1941, the United States only commits its full resources when it feels its own existence is in peril. I thought 9/11 had done that, but our amazing economic recovery (the economy is 12.2% larger now than 5 years ago), our vigilance at home, and killing jihadists abroad has prevented another attack and with it the luxury of self-recrimination, politicking, and a false sense of security has returned. Don't worry, I am confident that the amazing resources of the West, if brought into play, will make short work of the 7th-century Islamists.

[Tolik]

See post 49 for a follow-up on the Post-West article: Hanson answers a reader's question that he has not become a defeatist...

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

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[Rummyfan]

The Democrat Party is LOST as an upholder of traditional Western liberal democratic traditions.

The Mainstream Media is LOST as an upholder of traditional Western liberal democratic traditions.

This is the reality.

[Tribune7]

ping

[Rummyfan]

Hey, I’ve got Jim Mor-on! Can’t get the b*st*rd out.....

[wizr]

IMHO, they are not waiting any longer. The murders at Virginia Tech were just the beginning. The only reason that the Islamists killing fields were not here already, was that we were keeping them busy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now, they will highten their attacks in the U.S. to draw our soldiers home for our own protection. There are suicidal plants all over this country, just as there are in the rest of the world. Each of them is just waiting for orders.

[L,TOWM]

I am confident that the amazing resources of the West, if brought into play

I fear that the "if" in that statement is larger than most really comprehend at this point. Force Correlation and capabilitiy has been revealed, in my own mind at least, as lower significance in military power calcualtions than WILL.

The smartest, nastiest warriors and best weapons ever seen mean little when there is no will to unleash their complete capabilities. I do not believe that a rediscovery of will is going to happen anytime soon for "the West".

[Chgogal]

Mandatory reading for some, a simply good read for others....((((PING))))!

“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.”

It is always good to remember that the US is single handedly responsible for the increased of living standard enjoyed the world over. It is the US who keeps the commodities flowing for ALL at OUR expense. We the US do that! One must never ever forget that.

[LS]

I like Vic, but the British were extremely picky in their fights. Recall that in the Barbary wars, Jefferson requested that a coalition of Britain, Austria, France, and a couple of other countries take on the pirates, and ALL, including England, refused.

The Brits simply perferred to pay a little money rather than fight, saving their fleet for the French and Spanish.

Likewise, when the Mahdi massacred thousands of Egyptian troops and British officers sent to train them; and threatened to destroy the populations of Cairo and Khartoum, the Brits, instead of sending an army, sent one guy---Chinese Gordon, who was killed. Only later did they grudgingly send an expeditionary force.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[dervish]

With our strength, will is the most important but uncertain variable. And the Islamists know it.