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.
I hope every Christian realizes this.
The word "decultured" comes to mind. Most disingenuous about Mr. Goldberg's article is his representation that the Atlantic article makes the case for "envy" when in fact it does not. A quote:
What is truly evil and unacceptable is the domination of infidels over true believers. For true believers to rule misbelievers is proper and natural, since this provides for the maintenance of the holy law, and gives the misbelievers both the opportunity and the incentive to embrace the true faith. But for misbelievers to rule over true believers is blasphemous and unnatural, since it leads to the corruption of religion and morality in society, and to the flouting or even the abrogation of God's law.For certain forms of Islam, Jihad is a way to protect its culture from the seductive American Pimp, and restore true Islam to secularized or occupied areas of the Islamic world. There's no need to adduce questionable psychological motives, when one can more easily claim that these people are simply acting out of self-defense and self-conviction.