From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Fri Dec 01 2006 - 14:39:36 EST
Dogan, Do we have to take ruling politics as a mirror of what is going on in civil society? Yes and no - often it is only a distorted mirror, and in some respects not a mirror at all. In contemporary conservative ideology, a recurrent theme is that modern society (especially in Europe) is turning people into weaklings, incapable of making their own lives or confident that they can. Thus, a "decline of civilisation" is occurring. Men are no longer manly, women are no longer feminine, children are no longer real children and so on. In the end, people are too moddycoddled even to kill when they are fighting a war, but what else is a war about if not killing? That is the drift of the argument. Usually the conclusion is that we need to return to moral absolutes, such as can be found in cherished traditional values, where there is definitely Right and Wrong, and Black and White. The Right often exults the rich, the powerful and the strong, and blames the Left for glorifying the poor and the weak - the argument is that we need an ideology and culture of strength, to halt the decline of civilisation. And we have to oppose foreigners "polluting" our culture. Of course, there are many different variants of this type of argument and obviously any successful political movement has to orient to strengths (this is why the Marxist left usually fails - it tries to convince people that failures are successes). Nevertheless there's a pattern of values in right-wing arguments. Here's a recent example: Jerusalem Post Nov. 14, 2006 A devastating thesis By DANIEL PIPES Mark Steyn, political columnist and cultural critic, has written a remarkable book, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It. He combines several virtues uncommonly found together - humor, accurate reportage and deep thinking - then applies these to what is arguably the most consequential issue of our time: the Islamist threat to the West. Steyn offers a devastating thesis, but presents it in bits and pieces, so I shall pull it together here. He begins with the legacy of two totalitarianisms. Traumatized by the electoral appeal of fascism, post-World War II European states were constructed in a top-down manner "so as to insulate almost entirely the political class from populist pressures." As a result, the establishment has "come to regard the electorate as children." Second, the Soviet menace during the Cold War prompted American leaders, impatient with Europe's (and Canada's) weak responses, effectively to take over their defense. This benign and farsighted policy led to victory by 1991, but it also had the unintended and less salutary side-effect of freeing up Europe's funds to build a welfare state. This welfare state had several malign implications. - The nanny state infantilized Europeans, making them worry about such pseudo-issues as climate change, while feminizing the males. - It also neutered them, annexing "most of the core functions of adulthood," starting with the instinct to breed. From about 1980 birth rates plummeted, leaving an inadequate base for today's workers to receive their pensions. - Structured on a pay-as-you-go basis, it amounted to an inter-generational Ponzi scheme, where today's workers depend on their children for their pensions. - The demographic collapse meant that the indigenous peoples of countries like Russia, Italy and Spain are at the start of a population death spiral. - It led to a collapse of confidence that, in turn, bred "civilizational exhaustion," leaving Europeans unprepared to fight for their ways. To keep the economic machine running meant accepting foreign workers. Rather than execute a long-term plan to prepare for the many millions of immigrants needed, Europe's elites punted, welcoming almost anyone who turned up. By virtue of geographic proximity, demographic overdrive and a crisis-prone environment, "Islam is now the principal supplier of new Europeans." Arriving at a time of demographic, political and cultural weakness, Muslims are profoundly changing Europe. "Islam has youth and will, Europe has age and welfare." Put differently, "Pre-modern Islam beats post-modern Christianity." Much of the Western world, Steyn flat-out predicts, "will not survive the 21st century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many, if not most, European countries." With even more drama, he adds that "it's the end of the world as we know it." Complete story: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1162378399363&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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