[PatrickHenry]

Bump

[SarahW]

Bump!

[AgThorn]

BUMP!!! Great truth in this article!!!

[TheFilter]

Thanks, this is a really good piece.

[PatrickHenry]

Another bump.

[Senator Pardek]

Islamic culture, politics, and religion — which are far more conjoined than they are in the West — cannot reconcile with the fact that the West, led by America, is the lead dog on the sled of humanity.

The demons claim that they are fighting "Western decadence".

Perhaps we should oblige them after the bombs fall, and not infect their sacred culture with such decadent, materialist items like bandages and antibiotics, created in the Sewer of Capitalism.

[Senator Pardek]

.

[Bob Burnett]

Excellent. Another bump

[Chuckster]

....the central source of animus from the Arab world is, quite simply, envy.

Yup. I've believed this for a long time. As one of the mechanics at the local Harley shop said, they hate us because "We're big, we're powerful, we're rich, we're good looking and we get all the girls"

It's the equivalent of the highschool freshman mascot slashing the tires of the varsity quarterback's car. That is, same motivation, just as childish but of course deadly.

[Dumb_Ox]

The Islamic world has a self-esteem problem... This is the sort of thing individuals and even whole societies do when they feel they aren't getting the respect they deserve.

What is this? Oprah does foreign affairs analysis?

Depicting the terrorist supporters in the Islamic world as children in need of self-esteem classes may make for good war propaganda in this therapeutic age, but we'd be fools to believe it.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

We also get to enjoy all those delicious pork products.

A decadent woof.

[x]

Supposedly the diners at a McDonald's in Lebanon cheered on the terrorists. I don't know if it's true, or just another wild rumor of war, but it should give Jonah something to think about.

We are a great country. Just between you and me, the Western Culture of today is better than the current Near Eastern culture and Christianity is better than Islam. But keep that under your hat for now. There's no point in needlessly antagonizing or embarassing people.

What troubles me about Jonah is the desire to reduce everything to sameness. Maybe it's not so evident in this particular piece, but it seems to be an undercurrent in his work and in the new National Review. Everything is to be levelled down and forced into the form of McDonald's, Star Trek and the Goldberg File. I find things to like about all three, but I certainly wouldn't like it if everyone had the same tastes, desires, or beliefs.

Just between you and me again: that world of mass consumption, mass culture and global corporations has as little use for Christian Middle America has it does for any minority that wants to preserve its own culture. That brave new world has already detached itself from roots in America or loyalty to it. The global market has become too big and too autonomous.

When people go to war to remake or reform or save the world, often it's not their own values that triumph, but rather those of the managerial apparatus or the elites that call the shots. Get the terrorists and make them pay. Make them suffer. But be wary of trying to remake the world. You may be surprised at what that will mean.

[Clinton's a rapist]

Bang on. Of course, envy makes the world go around. Envy accounts for almost everything. Any attempt to explain human relationships, society, morality and politics which fails to take that into account is doomed at the outset.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

I think the problem is that with the levelling of secular mass culture, PC ideology, liberalism, the hastening decline of Christianity, and near universal bad taste , many Americans have forgotten that there is a distinction between civilized Christians and pirates and barbarians. To get technical about it, Bill Clinton, Bill Maher, Geraldo, and the others are already in the barbaric dimension of that comparison.

All you have to do is look at the pictures of the hijackers. If you don't feel an immediate visceral aversion, well...

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

A great deal of the motivation of the terrorists and of the "jihad" Muslims in general is self-loathing. They know Western civilization is better, cleaner, more hygienic,more sophisticated, etc. They hate themselves and they hate us for making them see their inferiority and barbarism. It's a little in the order of a Mark David Chapman type, the John Lennon psycho-killer. He envied Lennon and hated that he could not be his pop ideal. So he lashed out at the source of his own problem - the image causing his self-loathing and discomfort. All of these guys were losers, most likely with homosexual tendencies, and deep personal anxiety.

[SkyPilot]

When I was shopping in the blast furnace called the UAE, I noticed a lot of people driving white Chevy Surburbans. I asked why, and a local man told me they have 2 Air Conditioners.

He said, "America makes these things, but they did it on the sweat of our backs!"

OK.

[mike2246]

thanks for your article i agree with the italian premier,look at any muslim country all you find is corruption poverty and poor treatment of women,mike

[Coyote]

The Islamic world has a self-esteem problem.

Man, DO they EVER.

While they have had a glorious and productive past, delivering wonderful science to the west 1000 years ago, their best invention for the last 100 years is largely strapping TNT all over themselves and blowing themselves up with the nearest person they have a quarrel with. THAT'LL show them!

And the lead sled dog analogy is perfect. The game of "king of the mountain" is an institutionalized part of the religion in the ME. And I think that's what this all boils down to. They just can't stand ANYONE else leading the global pack. Otherwise, they'd use all that cultural intellegence to partner in with us and take up their share of the world, rather than kill themselves just because they cant claw themselves to the lead of a 21st century world with a fifth century culture.

[Cultural Jihad]

A good find, and one that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for posting.

[madrussian]

An apropos joke.

First some background. There is an old Russian saying that an unwelcome guest is worse than a Tartar. The Tartars demanded a change, so the saying now should read "An unwelcome guest is better than a Tartar".