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To: zzeeman
Say, my friend - what did you think of Quigley's take on what he calls The Pakistani-Peruvian axis? One of the best insights of the entire 1300+ pages of Tragedy and Hope, in my opinion. I have never seen such a penetrating enalysis of the mindset of our enemies, nor have I ever see nthe virtues of our Western civilizations summed up in such a moving and elegant fashion:

The ethical sides of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam sought to counteract harshness, egocentricity, tribalism, cruelty, scorn of work and of one’s fellow creatures, but these efforts, on the whole, have met with little success throughout the length of the Pakistani-Peruvian axis. Of the three, Christianity, possibly because it set the highest standards of the three, has fallen furthest from achieving its aims. Love, humility, brotherhood, cooperation, the sanctity of work, the fellowship of community, the image of man as a fellow creature made in the image of God, respect for women as personalities and partners of men, mutual helpmates on the road to spiritual salvation, and the vision of our universe, with all of its diversity, complexity, and multitude of creatures, as a reflection of the power and goodness of God – these basic aspects of Christ’s teachings are almost totally lacking throughout the Pakistani-Peruvian axis and most notably absent on the “Christian” portion of that axis from Sicily, or even the Aegean Sea, westward to Baja California and Tierra del Fuego. Throughout the whole axis, human actions are not motivated by these “Christian virtues,” but by the more ancient Arabic personality traits, which become vices and sins in the Christian outlook: harshness, envy, lust, greed, selfishness, cruelty, and hatred.

Brilliant.

37 posted on 12/16/2011 2:53:49 PM PST by Noumenon ("I tell you, gentlemen, we have a problem on our hands." Col. Nicholson-The Bridge on the River Qwai)
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To: Noumenon
Hi Ward, thanks for the ping! I haven't been on FR too much of late (for a number of reasons) and was just working my way back through pings and saw this one from you. To be frank, I don't recall the "Pakistani-Peruvian axis" at all. There was simply so MUCH material (most of it new to me!) that I could not absorb it all in one pass, this is yet another example! I'll follow your link here and see if I can locate it in the T&H text and let you know.

Wishing you & yours a belated Merry Christmas!

38 posted on 12/26/2011 4:44:46 PM PST by zzeeman ("We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.")
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