Gone With the War? : Ideas whose time has passed.

The National Review ^ | February 1, 2002 8:20 a.m | Victor Davis Hanson

[junta]

I tried to, but when I think I can write for a journal (perhaps delusional on my part) I know it is time to move on to greener and fresher intellectual pastures.

[FairWitness]

Great article. Says exactly what I would say if I knew how to say it so well.

[bassmaner]

The final victory at the Berlin Wall ensured Communism was ruined forever as a practical institution.

Sadly, that's not true. The Kremlin masters may be gone, but their spirit lives on, on American college campuses, in the leftist mainstream media, in Hollywood, and in the "progressive" wing of the modern Democratic Party. Many may deny it, but Communism is alive and well, and the main weapon that it's using to destroy our way of life from within is the poison of "political correctness".

[RobFromGa]

Great article.

The civilized work of creating a multiracial society under the aegis of one nation and culture is difficult, while the disintegration into multiculturalism is easy. The former requires men and women of genius and humanity, the latter little more than provocateurs and the half-educated.

Even in our own great country, we have these same "half-educated" provacateurs at work-- Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the Liberal Wing of the Democrat party, the Leadership of the DNC, the political hacks like Carville and Begala, striving mightily to cause exactly "the disintegration into multiculturalism" Hansen describes.

On the other side you have "men and women of genius and humanity" trying to get past the division and get all the oarsmen in the boat pulling together- Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, most other Black leaders, etc...

[aculeus]

Excellent article.

[Billthedrill]

A Victor Hanson bump.

[x]

He's right about the dangers of tribalism, multiculturalism and anti-Americanism, but it's not yet clear whether the changes we see now will be permanent or temporary. A prolonged war may mean an eventual falling out between the US and our allies. A long, challenging war means multiculturalism is on ice for a long time, but a short war may bring a return of multiculturalism in its wake, given the underlying demographics.

[neutrino]

for(int i = 0;i<1000000000;i++)
{
System.out.println("Bump!!!!");
}

[vannrox]

Let us hope perhaps...
that we can return to the honesty and realism of classical 19th-century Western liberalism,
which, for all its naiveté and self-centeredness,
still did not cause a fraction of the carnage
as did the utopian promises of our most murderous 20th century.

AWESOME!

[vannrox]

"...But we suspect that
should the United States withdraw from Afghanistan
and leave Europeans to deal with motley Taliban leftovers,
all their peacekeepers would leave Kabul tomorrow.


We — not the U.N.,
the EU,
NATO,
or any other alphabet-soup collective —
fought al Qaeda and will soon rid the world of Saddam Hussein.


Moderates in the region
(and Europeans)
would rather trade with,
than free, Iraq.


The pre-September 11 dogma argued that
well-meaning and often valuable international groups
like the Red Cross,
the United Nations,
Amnesty International,
and a host of other organizations headquartered in Brussels,
the Hague,
Geneva,
or London
were both intellectually superior to,
and far more moral than,
almost any American institution —
whether it be the U.S. Congress
or the Peace Corps.


But what we have seen instead from most of them
is either inaction at best
or abject hypocrisy at worst."

[KC_for_Freedom]

What, then, will replace the present bankrupt and amoral assumptions and ideologies? Let us hope perhaps that we can return to the honesty and realism of classical 19th-century Western liberalism, which, for all its naiveté and self-centeredness, still did not cause a fraction of the carnage as did the utopian promises of our most murderous 20th century.

Yes, lets hope that the idiology changes and that multiculturalism and political correctness die quickly. But the article stops short of a suggestion for the current situation. I suggest that nothing short of total defeat of the terrorists and their supporters is called for. And this will indeed mean more carnage.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the innumerable bumps and
John Robinson thanks you for your
not putting all of them into execution!!!!

LOL!!

[dighton]

First-rate.

[thucydides]

Hanson is a classics scholar. Nobody portrays the vicissitudes of war and human folly like Thucydides in his "Peloponnesian War," no one has illuminated the barbarous character of the middle east better than Xenophon in his "Anabasis" (the March Upcountry, in which a group of 10,000 disciplined greek infantry routinely defeated forces up to 40 times their size). Hanson's immersion in the classics gives him the perspective to see just how trivial all these ideas that have dominated our culture for the last 30 years really were.

[Orual]

A new word — "Islamophobia" — is needed to capture a spreading hatred toward those of Middle Eastern descent.

Americanophile

[Cultural Jihad]

... Communism is alive and well, and the main weapon that it's using to destroy our way of life from within is the poison of "political correctness".

We note your failure to mention the poison of drugs, pornography, promiscuity, perversion, prostitution, sodomy, homosexuality, and abortion.

[primeval patriot]

to the top

[primeval patriot]

one more time

[bassmaner]

We note your failure to mention the poison of drugs, pornography, promiscuity, perversion, prostitution, sodomy, homosexuality, and abortion.

All the things you mentioned are vices -- unfortunate components of human nature that have existed since time immemorial, and which civilized, responsible people avoid based on their own inherent morality. In a truly free society (such as our own republic once was), people would have the right to indulge in such self-destructive behavior as long as they only harm themselves, and have to personally deal with the consequences (including ostracism from civil society). Or, if they have a strong personal moral compass, they can choose to live a morally upright life as responsible members of the community, and eschew the aforementioned vices.

Alas, in today's world, it's not the case.

Self-appointed guardians of public morals (like yourself) advocate the imposition of society's most onerous sanction short of execution - incarceration - for anyone who doesn't eschew the vices. No choices, just brute-force coercion: "if you poor immoral slobs don't play by our rules, we'll throw you in a cage with really nasty people".

This is a tactic much loved and favored by Communists the world over. Stalin loaded his gulags with so-called "enemies of the people", whose only "crime" was the thinking of politically-incorrect thoughts. And it has taken root in America - starting early in the 20th century with the insane attempt to outlaw alcohol, and continuing with today's equally insane attempt to outlaw other politically-incorrect mind-altering substances.

Legislation of public morals sets the same paradigm as Communism. Just like Communism, it overwhelmingly affects citizens who are not sociopathic, but simply choose to follow a different drummer. Also, like Communism, it poisons civil society by empowering the real sociopaths among us that prey upon those who are morally weak. That's why I didn't mention those things.