A Pattern of Suicidality from the NYT (and the Left in general)
This time, about Avian Flu. A quote from an excellent and well-researched piece by Miller at TCS:
"It is not surprising, therefore, that commentaries about avian flu often miss the mark. For example, a New York Times editorial, “The Flu Moat,” decried wealthy countries’ “me, first” attitude toward a possible pandemic of H5N1 avian flu, because “[t]he best hope of stopping a pandemic, or at least buying time to respond, is to improve surveillance and health practices in East Africa and Asia, where one would probably begin.” "
Great idea. Let's get the US and the UN to reconstruct Asian civilization from the ground up, before we worry about the bird flu! No doubt our tender concern would be welcomed with open arms.
The NYT, echoing the societal-suicide themes of the Left, feels compelled to adopt a passive stance towards threats of all sorts. The Left wanted to stay out of WW2 until Germany invaded their precious totalitarian Russia. It was "Better Red than Dead" and "Ban the Bomb" during the Cold War. With crime, it was "root causes" not enforcement. With terror, we get the "root causes" thing again - good idea - let's offer Al Zarquawi free therapy. Do I hear "Better Islamic than Dead" yet? And guns in the house? Forget it - "guns go boom." With immigration, it's "don't enforce the law." With Al Quaida wiretaps, it's "Let's stop wiretapping terrorists." I could go on and on. And it always turns out to be wrong.
Perhaps Americans should all just do a Jim Jones deal, or march cheerfully into the gas chamber?
What is this remarkably consistent pattern of self-destructive passivity in the face of danger all about? People used to talk about "liberal guilt" (the psychotically grandiose and/or solipsistic notion that everything is ultimately our fault), and maybe it is that for some people. More commonly today, people talk about "liberal anger": an anger coming from God knows where which is self-directed. Some shrinks think it comes from a "fraidy cat" mentality. Our Maggie's Farm Analyst generously opines that it is about "denial." Others, like Horowitz (who ought to know) assert that the Left contains an anarchistic impulse, deriving from the fantasy that The Revolution will be more quickly born out of chaos than by the stepwise stealthy method that has been going on since the 1930s.
My feeling is that a society that doesn't have the confidence or the will to confront and address dangers to its well-being and traditions doesn't deserve to survive. But we do. I am in favor of walls, moats, guns - whatever it takes.
