We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Ideas are the force that drives history. If we aren’t willing to fight for what we believe, then we will lose to those who are. And make no mistake, we are not winning this war.
Yes. I've been thinking and saying this; or as Napoleon said "The moral is to the physical as is three to one.".
Those who do not have any spiritual beliefs, who negate morality and the standards of Western Civilization have lost their best and most powerful weapon against the enemies of ...Us. And the symbol, the avatar of the defense and stand against the advancing hordes of Islamic butchers is .... Barack Obama.
It is to laugh.
#1
John the River
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on
2015-09-02 00:28
(Reply)
I think we are losing the PR battle, not so much the war of ideas. I am still naive, believing that the latter will eventually assert its force.
#2
Assistant Village Idiot
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on
2015-09-02 09:13
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I am not sure we are losing the war of ideas. There just aren't any political parties to articulate opposing views and those points of view are being suppressed, but that doesn't mean they have gone away.
So will we lose the 'war of ideas'? I suppose it depends on your timeline.
The culture of the West is far more powerful than the forces of fundamentalism. The forces of modernity; secularism, plurality, libertinism; feed the violent reactions by conservative factions in many societies. While they can cause significant harm to individuals, they can't stop the cultural hegemony of the West.
http://www.armstrong.edu/images/history_journal/kfc4.jpg
Those are "conservative factions" rioting in our cities and increasing the violent crime in Europe? Religious monoculturalists are the oppressors in China?
What you wrote isn't fully wrong, but your definitions are pretty elastic.
#4.1
Assistant Village Idiot
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on
2015-09-04 15:49
(Reply)
Assistant Village Idiot: Those are "conservative factions" rioting in our cities and increasing the violent crime in Europe?
Don't understand your point.
The question was whether the ideas of fundamentalist Islam were an existential threat to the West. In fact, the culture of the West is overwhelming, and this has resulted in a reaction within conservative Muslim communities.
While we were slogging through life a fundamental change has taken place. Probably starting 40-50 years ago the schools stopped teaching relevant history. About 30-40 years ago people started to tune out of what was happening around them and tune into music, computer games, the TV wasteland, etc. And of course there was/is drugs sex and rock & roll. The average 20 something of today knows more about some obscure game I never heard of or some band or rapper I never heard of and almost nothing about their country's history and current events. We are Rome 2.0, we are in decline and the barbarians are at the gate, in our country, stealing our tax dollars and buying up our assets. If we are lucky some black swan event, some terrible disaster or collapse will occur and wake everyone up before all is lost.