Barry Goldwater and the Ground Zero Mosque
As the Soviet Union was collapsing, National Public Radio interviewed Barry Goldwater about the dramatic rupture of the Soviet socio-political system during the winter of 1989-1990. As a statesman who spent most of his political life fighting the evils of communism abroad and “statism” at home, NPR expected Goldwater to be unrestrained in his joy over the event.
He wasn’t.
Instead, Goldwater dismayed his interviewer and no doubt large segments of the liberal NPR audience by what he had to say. He spoke of the end of the Soviet Union as leaving a society without heroes and without symbols. He saw this aspect, although certainly not the collapse itself, as a tragedy, especially for the younger generation coming of political age. Every society needs heroes and symbols, Goldwater noted; it is part of the continuity and integration of a culture.
In this observation, Goldwater was echoing the sentiments of the celebrated Renaissance historian Jacob Burckhardt, whose The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy spoke to the use of public art to create political symbols in order to advance claims to legitimacy.
If there is one politico-religious movement that understands the use of symbols to advance its claims, it is Islam. No, I am not speaking of radical Islam. I am speaking of Islam.
The Ground Zero mosque is the manipulation of symbols. The very name “Cordoba Initiative” is an insult to the people of Spain, a reminder of their conquest by Islam and the creation of a society organized through the sharia concept of dhimmitude, a society that puts non-Muslims in the role of second-class citizens. The tolerant society of Islam’s Andalusia was as tolerant as Mississippi under the doctrine of “separate but equal.”
From the time of its inception, Islam has celebrated its victories by building mosques on the holy sites of the people it conquered. The al-Aqsa mosque looks down on the Wailing Wall of Israel’s sacred Temple. The insult is underscored by the denial of the existence of the Temple. The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was converted into a mosque, and the original Cordoba mosque was built over the site of a Christian cathedral. The Koran (018.021) exhorts Muslims to build mosques on the places of worship of the people they conquer so as to symbolically affirm Islam’s victory.
If the Ground Zero mosque were indeed an attempt at creating reconciliation, the developers of the mosque would be willing to sit down with New York Governor David Paterson and discuss alternative sites. No alternative site will do because no alternative site will symbolize the destruction of the World Trade Center as a victory of Islam. No alternative site will cast a shadow over the tragedy of Ground Zero and transform it into a propaganda victory for Islam. The recent revelation that the Ground Zero mosque developers won’t rule out accepting Saudi and Iranian money underscores the true intentions of the developers.
Points are well taken, but one minor quibble: St. Sophia was not torn down. The alter and the pews were torn out, Christian symbols were scrapped in favor of Islamic mosaics (although not entirely, strange though that may seem), minarets were added, and the cathedral was turned into the Ayasofya mosque. Today, the original structure still stands–with minarets and minus a cross on top of the dome–as the Hagia Sophia museum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia
“The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was converted into a mosque”
The very first mosque, the infamous kaaba, was also expropriated from a conquered people, the pagans of the Arabian peninsula. This was the act that established humiliation of defeated non-Islamic peoples as an expression of Islamic morality.
A sickening concept, and extra sickening to think this is still happening 1,400 years later.
~ The Infidel Alliance
America Made its choice in 1971 when it dedicated its Dollar to the world Petroleum Industry and created the Petro-Dollar system to underpin the US economy. Tracking the Value of the US dollar since 1910, 90% of its value was lost from 1973 onward. This occurred immediately after enslaving the American Economy to Oil Kingdoms of the Middle East, which Saudi Arabia is the largest player.
The United States was forced to make its decisions based on what is good for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 1971, upset to petroleum industry will upset the American Economy.
We have placed ourselves at the mercy of Middle East petroleum kingdoms, whether we acknowledge it or not. When the day comes that majority of petroleum is sold in rubles, Euros and Chinese dollars, then the collapse of the American Economy will occur.
The Mosque in New York will be built as long as house of Saud supports it, or will not be built if house of Saud rejects it. We no longer control our destiny, but must accept the will of families that control the sale of petroleum, which determines value of the US Dollar. This is the hard Economic fact that controls Politics of our Nation.
Point of fact: Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was not torn down. It was converted from a cathedral to a mosque. In 1934 it was converted to a museum. Conversely, the Great Mosque in Cordoba, Spain was also not torn down when the Reconquista recovered Cordoba in 1236. It was turned into a cathedral…
That just makes the insult worse.
Adding even more insult to injury, they inscribed in the walls an aya from the Quaran that says, “There is no god but Allah and Allah has no son.” They did this in a building once dedicated to the worship of the only one true and Triune God. True, it is only a building, but nothing says “boot on YOUR neck” than desecrating one’s place of worship and inscribing blasphemies on its walls.
Though the observations made here are not original, pulling them together in this way is a great service to Pajamas Media’s readers. Far too many persons insist on seeing the Ground Zero Mosque issue as a matter of freedom of speech. Whether they’re unacquainted with the history and symbological manipulations of Islam, or have been cowed into accepting the politically correct view, their need for enlightenment is great.
When a Swiss plebiscite banned minarets by constitutional amendment, much of Europe — all of its “political class” — was aghast. They should have known better. The minaret is the ultimate symbol of Islamic triumphalism, a proclamation of conquest whose significance goes all the way back to Constantinople. Suggestions of “religious dialogue” are merely a smokescreen to Muslims; Islam’s averred intention, commanded both by the Qur’an and many of Muhammad’s recorded ahadith, is the subjugation of the entire world.
Muslims resident in Switzerland should have known better, too. To thrust a minaret into the faces of the Swiss was the ultimate insult; that’s one nation that’s never been bashful about defending itself. America could learn from Switzerland’s example.
Excellent article. However, Saint Sophia’s in Istanbul, the largest Christian church in the world, the jewel of the Byzantine Empire, was NOT torn down. It stands today. Minarets were added around the exterior of the church and all of the interior decorations were plastered over and the interior space converted to a mosque. Since the fall of the Ottomans, the chuch has been converted to a museum rather than a mosque, and recent work in the church has begun to reveal some of the original beauty of the place, but it has never been returned to the Christians from whom it was stolen.
“Hagia Sophia,” whose name is often translated into English as “Saint Sophia,” is a Greek name, and it means “Holy Wisdom.” It was built under the Emperor Justinian, I believe. The domed roof is an enlarged version of the Pantheon in Rome. Mosques all over are built in its form.
“We are governed by elites who value the symbols of other cultures but not our own.”
This one sentence encapsulates it all — it, by itself, ought to go viral — be repeated and repeated and repeated until it is understood in all that it means.
You are right, it is an eloquent summation of the diseased minds of our ruling classes; that’s why I argue they are not liberals, real liberals can and do stand up for liberalism (you think Harry Truman was paralyzed by self-doubt as to the greatness and significance of the American culture?), even to the point of fighting strenuously on its behalf. But these soft nihilists stand up for nothing and everything, Alan Bloom called them “soul’s without longing,” Elliot called them the “Hollow men,” but Nietzsche really had their number: “Last Men,” the cowardly, decedent, attenuated end of the line of a dead culture. The Republic, books VIII and IX, to see what kind of men now run our great Republic and where we are headed.
“If the Ground Zero mosque were indeed an attempt at creating reconciliation, the developers of the mosque would be willing to sit down with New York Governor David Paterson and discuss alternative sites. No alternative site will do because no alternative site will symbolize the destruction of the World Trade Center as a victory of Islam. No alternative site will cast a shadow over the tragedy of Ground Zero and transform it into a propaganda victory for Islam. The recent revelation that the Ground Zero mosque developers won’t rule out accepting Saudi and Iranian money underscores the true intentions of the developers.”
Islam is NOT a religion of peace. It is about subjugation. The goal of the religion is to control the world and those who do not agree with it are called “infidels.” And why is this mosque so very important at THAT location when there are so many other mosques in New York City? Why can’t one of the other mosques in the city be expanded? Why do they need a huge new one right there, especially when Muslims make up only a fraction of the total population in New York City? Does anything more really need to be said?
And for this imam not to deny funds coming from radical Islamic states like Saudia Arabia, where Sharia law is all the rage, I’m surprised far-left liberal loons out there aren’t screaming that this guy should be investigated by the FBI. That is, of course, unless the far left does not tolerate anything that has to do with Christianity, but allows Muslims to do anything, including embracing those horrific Sharia laws, and simply write that off as “multiculturalism.” What a pathetic lot liberals are.
Just one little correction to this article: The basilica in Istanbul was called “Hagia Sophia”. That doesn’t mean “St. Sophia’s” after a person, but “Holy Wisdom”. Sophia means “wisdom” in this case.
I don’t know alot about some aspects of Christianity, but is the Pistus Sophia connected to this Haggia Sophia? Just seriously wondering.
Can’t folks peruse the preceding comments? This one is the fourth to solemnly instruct us on details of Hagia Sophia. Enough already, we know that. Bring us something new.
Why don’t they substitute the SUV of the failed Times Square bomber as their symbol of reconciliation?
In fact, they could start a museum with the underwear of the Xmas Day bomber and the shoe from the shoe bomber.
And Bill Ayres could include the plans of when his friends accidentally blew themselves up as the Weatherman years ago.
Many of our leaders of this country (Obama, Bloomberg, Pelosi, Reid, Dean) are evil for the lies and mistruths they have perpetrated against this once free country.
Nov. 2, 2010…Our Independence Day.
It never ceases to amaze me that Americans are shocked, SHOCKED! that some of their fellow countrymen are anti-American. My guess is that about 20% of Americans really do hate this country and would embrace the complete destruction of the capitalist free-enterprise system and the revocation of the US Constitution. What type of system they would then impose upon us is debatable but I guarentee it wouldn’t be fun for the 80% who like the current system.
Obama plays well to this anti-American group; he is one of them.
DaveidMac wrote “My guess is that about 20% of Americans really do hate this country”. Rasmussen shows that Obama has the strong support of around 26% of the likely voters, so I guess we have a specific percentage of those Americans that hate America.
Mr. Miller,
Whereas Christian volunteers, workers in Muslim majority nations continue to be savagely beaten, sexually assaulted and murdered in some instances due to ‘infidels attempts to further Christianity’ – the proposal of this grotesque mosque being built at a 9/11 damaged bulding for ‘religious rights and reason’ – is a kidney punch.
~ 9 months ago a Muslim school in Northern Virginia asked to expand its campus a great deal.. it was given the green light.
The same property owned by a Christian group in the 80′s, 90′s wished to do the very same thing with the property. It was handed a resounding ‘No’.
Obama, Pelosi, Bloomberg & Co. will NEVER provide their true reason why the mosque ‘needs’ to be built near Ground Zero.
This barbaric religion is given a pass to divide and conquer while a Christian, nation building one such as ours which does not force its religious institutions elsewhere is questioned each and every turn.
Recall then Secretary of State Colin Powell speaking in Switzerland in 2003. He being asked by former Archbishop Carey of the U.S.’ use/misuse of ‘hard’ and/or ‘soft power’.
Powell’s response:
“We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.”
Yet, our own ‘Leaders’ are steamrolling over their constituents OF THEIR/OUR OWN SOIL to appease these folks? If that’s not dhimmitude..
“I have a hunch that the Arabs will use their oil billions not to modernize their countries but to redress the balance between the Christian West and the Islamic East.” Eric Hoffer, 11/30/74
Thank you for finding this Eric Hoffer quote. It is most interesting.
You are welcome. It is from his book, “Before the Sabbath”.
I confess that it wasn’t until some time after 9-11 that I realized that Istanbul was the city formerly known as Constantinople.
there’s no radical islam. all muslims read the same quran and sunnah, and all schools of fiqh mandate aggressive war against the infidel until religion is only for allah. the ahmadis are not radical but according to all other muslims, they arent muslim either.
Excellent point Frank!
ALL Muslims also have one other point of commonality: They ALL revere ‘the holy prophet’ Muhammed.
But in truth, Muhammed was about as far from ‘holy’ as a man can be. As recorded in their own Islamic texts, Muhammed was a murderer, a savage torturer, an amputator, a serial decapitator, a slaver and human trafficker, a rapist and sex slaver, a looting stealing thief, kidnapper, a sexual deviant whose favorite ‘wife’ was a little 6 year old girl whom he raped when she was just 9, a perfidious liar, a vicious warlord, a hypersensitive egomaniacal narcissist, a genocidal maniac and a self proclaimed terrorist.
Muhammed was in every sense of the word, physically, morally, ethically and spiritually an Anti-Christ. Personally, I think he was THE Anti-Christ.
Muhammed was, by account of their own records, one of the most vile humans to have ever lived. He was simply a successful 7th century desert Charles Manson.
Muhammed should have been incarcerated, not venerated. Muhammed should be reviled, not revered.
Muhammed is the man singularly responsible for the death and misery of more human beings than any other man in the pantheon of human history.
Muhammed is Islam’s Achilles heel. His savagery, barbarity and repulsive immorality needs to be shouted again and again and again from the highest mountain until we all know the truth.
~ The Infidel Alliance
Without postulating some kind of spiritual or demonic hypothesis, I will never understand how otherwise enlightened leftists could happily jettison all vestiges of Christianity on the pretense that it is restrictive (when, scripturally, it’s really about the ultimate freedom), yet silently tolerate Muslims who – consistent with Islamic history – openly plan to give these enlightened ones the choice of conversion, submission or death. I’ve pondered it for years but, seriously, do still not get it.
huxley – You HAVE to take a listen to the musical group, ‘The Four Lads’ and their song, ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ sometime. Though I prefer the up-tempo cover by, ‘They Might Be Giants’ best.
Frank – Good point.
Are we to assume peaceful Muslims will ‘nurture’ the extremists in their circle?
For the non-violent haven’t done jack squat for 13– + years to bring about order IN THEIR OWN LAND – these same folks abroad (i.e. here and other Western nations) are going to bring about ‘global peace’. Riiiiight.
“No alternative site will do” because 45-47 Park Place is the ONLY building to have survived a direct hit on 9/11, from landing gear debris from United Airlines Flight 175 after it hit WTC Tower 2. FEMA rendering of debris hits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_Trade_Center,_NY_-_2001-09-11_-_Debris_Impact_Areas.svg
“…The plane penetrated through the tower, and part of the plane’s landing gear and fuselage came out the north side of the tower and crashed through the roof of 45–47 Park Place, and through two of its floors. The plane parts destroyed three floor beams, and severely compromised the building’s internal structure.
…
The specific location of the planned facility, so close to the World Trade Center “where a piece of the wreckage fell,” was a primary selling point for the Muslims who bought the building. …”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordoba_House includes links to published citations as well as the most comprehensive coverage of ALL aspects of the Park51/Cordoba House project.
Correction to my last message. I’d meant ’13 + Centuries’..!
Let’s not forget the new monument to the glory of the subversives:
IRAN gone nuclear !
Another great success of the CHIMERA (the alliance of marxists, jihadists and secret societies).
Actually we tremendously weakened our ability to remain independent when F.D.R. and his fellow Demoncrats made industrial hemp illegal in the U.S. Industrial hemp could create millions of jobs in thousands of home grown industries, but our government blindly refuses to even consider the errors of it’s ways. That is why the new American Revolution is spreading across the land, and as in other revolutions it comes from the people who have finally had enough of the liars, whores, and thieves. Hope and Change, all you idiots who bought into that empty slogan it is your fault because you did not think for yourselves, and now we all suffer, but in the end we will triumph. A capitalist country can not be run by socialists Obamanomics has proven that.
Two theoretical points I’d like to discuss:
FIRST) “the self-proclaimed progressives” are in fact a “most reactionary force” too.
They believe themselves to be inspired by “progressive” ideologies because they see the world upside-down, but the horrors committed by the lefties worldwide in the last one hundred years leave no space for doubts: massacres, concentration camps, mass deportations are the common ground of all the leftist movements.
Their same ideological formation, based on the marxist ideology AS COOKED by the stalinist ideologues of the USSR, is a joke, a monster of history.[This detail would require a very long discussion.]
SECOND) We should reject the principle that “social movements are unified by hate”. Hate moves the subversives, no doubt, but there have been “social movements” enlightened by the quest for higher values (the American Revolution).
FEAR unifies social movements also.
And sometimes it is a rational fear.
We must diagnose the evil of the western subversion of the West with precision, if we want to free the future generations from the subversive brainwashing.
Otherwise excellent column, thank you.
WHAT IF REV. WRIGHT BUILT A CHURCH ON THE GROUND ZERO SITE?
Google ApolloSpeaks at townhall.com for the article.
Mr Miller is very much on top of all things happening in the world. He is a great writer and thank him for all his imput….
from #9 above….
Nov. 2, 2010…Our Independence Day.
Have gun, will travel.
Ayn Rand long ago (July, 1971) wrote a brilliant essay (reprinted in “Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution”) that perfectly captures the essence of the post-modern Left towards America and the dominant emotion that motivates them: hatred of the good, for being the good — which means, as she put it:
“…Hatred of that which one regards as good by one’s own (conscious or subconscious) judgment. It means hatred of a person for possessing a value or virtue one regards as desirable.”
She elaborated (heavily abbreviated here),
“…this type of hatred is heavily enmeshed in rationalizations. The most common one is: ‘I don’t hate him for his intelligence, but for his conceit!’ More often than not, if one asks the speaker to name the evidence of the victim’s conceit, he exhausts such generalities as: ‘he’s insolent… he’s stubborn… he’s selfish,’…”
“…the haters seem unable to differentiate conceptually between ‘conceit’ and a deserved *pride*…”
“…Its clearest manifestation is the attitude of a person who characteristically resents someone’s success, happiness, achievement or good fortune — and experiences pleasure at someone’s failure, unhappiness or misfortune. …if you have seen it, you have seen the naked face of evil.”
“…Envy is part of this creature’s feeling, but only the superficial, semi-respectible part… because it seems to imply a desire for material possessions… but deep down, the creature has no such desire: it does not want to be rich, it wants the human being to be poor. …it does not desire [any] value: it desires [any] value’s destruction. ”
“What endows such a creature with a quality of abysmal evil is the fact that it has an awareness of values and is able to recognize them in people…”
“Consider the full meaning of this attitude… Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action, and the successful pursuit of values is a precondition of remaining alive… What is the nature of a creature in which the sight of a value arouses hatred and the desire to destroy? …such a creature is a killer… not an enemy of *your* values, but of *all* values, it is an enemy of anything that enables men to survive…”
“The greatest danger in this issue is men’s inability — or worse: unwillingness — fully to identify it.”
Rand’s point is crucially important to anyone today who wants to preserve this country from the destruction it now faces:
“…The profiteers are men with a vested interest in mankind’s psychological devastation, who burrow their way into positions of moral-intellectual leadership. They provide the haters with unlimited means of rationalization, dissimulation, excuse and camouflage, including ways of passing vices off as virtues. They slander, confuse and disarm the victims. Their vested interest is power-lust. Their stock in trade is any system of thought or of belief aimed at keeping men small…”
Have you ever wondered why the powers-that-be expended every effort possible to keep the Twin Towers from being rebuilt, but they are four-square in lockstep support of a 13 story **mosque**??
“…historically, philosophically and psychologically… altruism is an inexhaustible source of rationalizations for the most evil motives, the most inhuman actions, the most loathsome emotions… the tenet that *the good is an object of sacrifice*…”
“If anyone ever believed (or tried to believe) that the motive of altruism is compassion, that’s its goal is the relief of human suffering and the elimination of poverty, the state of today’s culture now deprives him of any foothold of self-deception. Today, altruism is running amuck, shedding its tattered rationalizations and displaying its soul. Altruists are no longer concerned with material wealth, not even with its ‘redistribution’, only with its destruction. But even this is merely a means to an end. Their savage fury is aimed at the destruction of intelligence — of ability, ambition, thought, purpose, justice… the destruction of values qua values.”
Rand addresses the deeper intellectual movement behind modern altruists:
“…The last fig leaf of academic pretentiousness is the tag used to disguise this movement: egalitarianism.”
“Egalitarianism means the belief in the equality of all men… but this is not the meaning that the altruists ascribe to the word… they turn the word into an anti-concept… to mean, not *political* but *metaphysical* equality… regardless of natural endowments or individual choice, performance and character…”
“…It is not equality before the law that they seek, but *inequality*: the establishment of an inverted social pyramid, with a new aristocracy on the top — the aristocracy of non-value.”
“Observe the various methods used to accomplish this goal… [she cites various examples]… it is ‘unfair’, they cry, that only the rich can obtain the best medical care — or the best education — or the best housing — or any commodity in short supply, which should be rationed, not competed for… ”
I believe we just heard those arguments recently.
“Egalitarians abolish the system of grades based on the objective value of a student’s scholastic achievement and substitute… grading on a curve… thus a studen may get an A or an F … according to whether he happens to be in a class of morons or child prodigies. No better way could be devised to endow a young man with a vested interest in the inferiority of others and with fear and hatred of their superiority.”
This is one way you create a culture of “progressives” — ie, collectivists — among the young.
“…Weakness of any sort… is today’s standard of value, criterion of rights and claim to privileges…. the same collectivists who once upheld the vicous doctrine of unlimited majority rule, now deny to the majority — in any given issue — the special privileges they grant to any group that claims to be a minority.”
“Racism is an evil and primitive form of collectivism. [But] today, racism is regarded as a crime if practiced by a majority …[and] an inalienable right if practiced by a minority… In relation to any given minority, we are told, it is the duty of all others, ie, the majority, to tolerate and understand the minority’s values and customs — while the minority … will continue hurling racist epithets (or worse) at the majority’s faces.”
“Nobody can pretend any longer that the goal of such policies is the elimination of racism — particularly when one observes that the real victims are the better members of these privileged minorities. ”
“Of greater importance to the egalitarians than mere numerical weakness is … its cultural weakness. It is primitive cultures that we are asked to study, to appreciate and to respect — any sort of culture except our own. [We are told]… an oxcart is an achievement — an airplane is not… Stonehenge is an achievement — the Empire State Building is not.”
“…Why is Western civilization admonished to admire primitive cultures? Because they are *not* admirable.”
“…It is not for her flaws that the United States of America is hated, but **for her virtues** — not for her weaknesses, but *for her achievements* — not for her failures, but *for her success* — her magnificent, shining, life-giving success.”
“If there were such a thing as a passion for equality… it would be obvious to its exponents that there are only two ways to achieve it: either by raising all men to the mountaintop — **or by razing the mountains**. The first method is impossible… but the nearest approach to it was demonstrated by the United States and capitalism, which protected the freedom, the rewards and the incentives for every individual’s achievement… the second method is impossible because… mankind… would not be able to survive… yet it is the second method the altruist-egalitarians are pursuing.”
“The greater the evidence of their policy’s consequences, ie, the greater the spread of misery, of injustice, of vicious inequality throughout the world, the more frantic their pursuit–which is one demonstration of the fact that there is no such thing as a benevolent passion for equality, and…it is only a rationalization to cover a passionate hatred of the good for being the good.”
Rand goes on to discuss the psychological roots of such people, and concludes (heavily abbreviated):
“…The haters are in control of our culture and in the open. … Their G.H.Q. is in the field of education, which they control. ‘Progressive’ schools are manufacturing haters wholesale…”
Again, remember: this was written in 1971. How much might these people have “progressed” since then?
“As long as men believe that they are facing ‘misguided idealists’… self-defense is impossible… It is necessary fully to understand the nature of the enemy and his mentality. There is no giant behind the devastation of the world — only a shriveled creature with the wizened face of a child who is out to blow up the kitchen because he cannot steal his cookies and eat them, too.”
For anyone harboring the notion that altruism is something benevolent and to be upheld as an ideal, that it doesn’t really express itself as a hatred of the good — before you aid your own destroyers, read a quote from Rand’s character of Ellsworth Toohey, in her novel “The Fountainhead” (1943), which perfectly captures the kind of person now destroying us (who is much more prevalent than the creature now in the White House):
” …You make me sick,” said Toohey. “God, how you make me sick, all you hypocritical sentimentalists! You go along with me, you spout what I teach you, you profit by it–but you haven’t the grace to admit to yourself what you’re doing.”
This is the beginning of a soliloquy by Toohey, which I commented on at length in my own essay “Good Night, America” (http://robbservations.blogspot.com/2009/06/good-night-america.html). Toohey reveals himself when a pretentious mediocrity par excellance, Peter Keating, asks why Toohey wants to destroy architect Howard Roark, who represents the independent, thinking man:
“I don’t want to kill him. I want him in jail. You understand? In jail. In a cell. Behind bars. Locked, stopped, strapped–and alive. He’ll get up when they tell him to. He’ll eat what they give him. He’ll move when he’s told to move and stop when he’s told. He’ll walk to the jute mill, when he’s told, and he’ll work as he’s told. They’ll push him, if he doesn’t move fast enough, and they’ll slap his face when they feel like it, and they’ll beat him with rubber hose if he doesn’t obey. And he’ll obey. He’ll take orders. He’ll take orders!”
As I remarked in my own essay, remember that what follows was written in the 1930′s — over thirty years before her 1971 essay, showing the full progression of the progressives from then till now:
“What do you…want…Ellsworth?”
“Power, Petey.” …Toohey was smiling, almost indifferently.
“You…always said…” Keating began thickly, and stopped.
“I’ve always said just that. Clearly, precisely and openly. It’s not my fault if you couldn’t hear. …Enjoyment is not my destiny. I shall find such satisfaction as my capacity permits. I shall rule.”
“…”Want to know how it’s done? …Make man feel small. Make him feel guilty. …Kill his aspiration and his integrity. …preach selflessness. Tell man that he must live for others. Tell men that altruism is the ideal. Not a single one of them has ever achieved it and not a single one ever will. His every living instinct screams against it.”
“…Kill his capacity to recognize greatness or to achieve it. Great men can’t be ruled. …Set up standards of achievement open to all, to the least, to the most inept–and you stop … all incentive to improvement, to excellence, to perfection. …Don’t set out to raze all shrines–you’ll frighten men. Enshrine mediocrity–and the shrines are razed.”
“…Kill by laughter. Laughter is an instrument of human joy. Learn to use it as a weapon of destruction. Turn it into a sneer. It’s simple. Tell them to laugh at everything. …Don’t let anything remain sacred in a man’s soul–and his soul won’t be sacred to him. Kill reverence and you’ve killed the hero in man.”
“…This is most important: Don’t allow men to be happy. Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men have no time and no use for you. Happy men are free men. So kill their joy in living. Take away from them whatever is dear or important to them. Never let them have what they want. …Make them feel that the mere fact of a personal desire is evil. Bring them to a state where saying ‘I want’ is no longer a natural right, but a shameful admission.”
“Altruism is of great help in this. Unhappy men will come to you. They’ll need you. They’ll come for consolation, for support, for escape. Nature allows no vacuum. Empty man’s soul–and the space is yours to fill. …just listen to any prophet and if you hear him speak of sacrifice–run. Run faster than from a plague. It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings… The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.”
“…Am I raving or is this the cold reality of two continents already? Observe the state of the world as of the present moment. Do you still think I’m crazy, Peter?”
Don’t you have “anyone” to speak to?
Rand enthusiasts can occasionally find people to begin speaking AT, but their audience has this benighted way of getting glazed eyes and leaving the room before the lecture’s even built up steam. A bunch of damned looters in utero, obviously!
I can’t be the only person who notes the date when Obama finally revealed his hatred of this nation and all it stands for. Friday the 13th.
You have to appreciate the irony.
I am amazed and dismayed at the reaction of the so-called elites – the msm, the career politicians and the academics – to the Islamist threat that faces us. Their education should be of some use in countering that threat, but to my simple mind they seem not to even recognize it. Do they not know that Islam has been on the attack against the West for over a thousand years, that although the West is no longer theocratic, the Middle East is as it ever has been, and is by no measure modern in its thinking; That Islam, if its precepts are followed, is not capable of moderation in the form that we seek as the “moderate Muslims’; that the “moderate Muslims that we seek are in fact evading the commands of their prophet. Muslims are allowed to dissemulate when it is to their advantage to do so. A peaceful Islam only applies within the ummah. Castration of slaves, for example, was not permitted within the ummah, so slavers castrated their captives outside the boundaries of the ummah and then brought them in. The Twentieth Century, with its bipolar world in a standfoff and the Muslim countries, having just come out of colonization, in one camp or the other, was an abberation and a pause in the long history of violent Muslim conquest of the infidels.
The common man senses danger when it approaches, the elites are blinded by their interests.
I have a single question for all of us who see what is happening to our country, and sit around, and blog, post, and comment: is that all we plan to do? Don’t tell me that you plan to “vote,” because I’m already laughing at that: radicals willing to do these things we are whinning about, are willing to do far more and worse: give you fraudulent election results (and they have done that, ex: the clown in Minnesota was elected by 15,000 ACORN votes that never existed – and we all accepted that).
No radical regime in recorded history has given up power through an election. Simply, it isn’t in their DNA. As their good teacher Stalin used to tell them: it doesn’t matter who votes; it only matters who counts the vote.
No islamist advance has ever ceased or been reversed, without being physically confronted.
Keep talking, keep waisting your time, and keep “de-compressing” and all things will somehow go our way, either by chance or by divine intervention; just do nothing, relax and go out for a drink, and magically things will get better. Good luck fellows.
An incredible article. I am now firmly against the mosque.
just a small fact
the dome of the rock on the temple mount is built on the exact site of the ancient jewish temples both one and two.
the arabs also blocked up one of he gates,now called the Dung Gate, for the express purpose of blocking the anticipated messiah of the jews who was supposed to enter through that gate.
the islamics know their cultural facts when it comes to conquered peoples.
Excellent article. Concise, thought-provoking, on point.
Since quotes seem to be the order of the day, some additional fodder:
“… to fight this current war to victory requires understanding and accepting the similarities between the Nazis and the Arab-Islamic terrorist armies.”
Winston Spencer Churchill, during World War II, written in response to Himmler’s endorsement of the alliance between Hitler and the Muslim Brotherhood (the precursor to Hamas)
“We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.” Hussein Massawi, former leader of the Muslim terrorist organization, Hezbollah; as quoted in America Alone, Mark Steyn
“We don’t make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of the unbeliever has no value.” Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, Muslim cleric; in an interview following bombings in Madrid, Spain, which killed 191 people; Publica Magazine (Portugal)
“In 1940, we knew who we were, we knew who the enemy was, we knew the dangers and the issues … It is different today. We don’t know who we are, we don’t know the issues, and we still do not understand the nature of the enemy.” Bernard Lewis, expert on Islam and part of the British Intelligence service
George is so right, this article crystalizes the issue in 2 pages–I’m convinced.
I think it should be called the Middle Finger mosque, which more accurately describes why it’s been pushed for in this location.
Mr. Miller has set out why I distrust these people and their “moderate” imam, Feisel Faud. I’ve read much about the history of Islam, and I’ve never had reason to believe most Muslims hate the West or desire to destroy it, but most of those who claim to speak for Islam are a different story.
Thank you Mr. Miller for an excellent column, and for referring to ISLAM for what it is: not “radical islam”, or a “perverted version of islam” (when true perversion in islam is muslims supporting secular laws, women’s and gay rights, drinking alcohol and eating pork), but the truly fascist ideology that it is.
I very much agree with your article, except for one thing. Since the Berlin Wall came down, Russia has, indeed, recovered its heroes and symbols, in that Russia’s people have returned to the Orthodox Church. Yes, it has taken some time, and it did not happen immediately. My advice to those in search of role models is to look to the saints.
I would suggest that anyone interested in stopping the Ground Zero mosque look at this article:
How You Can Help: Build the CHURCH, Not A Mosque
abe:
“from” imam feisel abdul rauf, chief sponsor of the “ground zero” mosque, on whether it is an islamic “triumphal mosque:”
“from an article by rich lowry at the national review. lowry can be reached via email: comments.lowry@nationalreview.com. the article, as excerpted, from the pages of the 08.15.2010 sunday edition of the walla walla union bulletin, “perspective,” page d. 1:
“the organizers of the mosque, in contrast, relish their hot-button address. feisal abdul rauf, the project’s imam, wrote a book called “what’s right with islam is what’s right with america.” but, as former prosecutor andy mccarthy points out, it was published in malaysia under the more pungent title, “a call to prayer from the world trade center rubble: islamic dawa in the heart of america post 9/11″ (dawa is islamic proselytism). a noncommercial edition was published by two organizations that have ties to the muslim brotherhood and [that] promote hamas.”
……………………………
“nina shea of the hudson institute has documented how saudi materials at american mosques exhort muslims to spill the blood of infidels and jews, in interfaith bridge-building wahhabi-style. if the ground zero project relies on saudi money, the desert monarchy will have pulled a perverse twofer–funding the radical version of islam that created ground zero, then funding the mosque that outraged the families of the victims.”
there you have it.
imam rauf, husband of mosque apologist and spokeswoman daisy khan, has written a book calling the mosque site location as being in “the rubble” of the world trade center, as indeed it was. and, in imam rauf’s book title, we have the exact function of the mosque described, and that is forwarding muslim “dawa,” or proselytism.”
this is a bit confusing, because i do not know how to indent on this “comment” “word processor,” but the excerpt comes from an article at my blog, wintersoldier2008, and quotes the walla walla union bulletin regarding their quotes and analysis of an article by rich lowry at national review online.
it about says it all. i wish i could have gotten here earlier, and a bit higher up on the comment ladder, but, maybe someone will pick it up. i don’t claim any authorship or insight particularly, i am just repeating mr. lowry who has done a fine job of writing in his article.
john jay
http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.com
In its defense, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was the first court to incorporate the 2nd amendment under the 14th. That was one of the most radically conservative rulings in over 100 years.
I am all for studying people (Goldwater and Rand)who have been proven right. But, lets not forget to study who has been proven wrong over and over again. I submit that a study of Jerry Brown and his backing of Jim Jones (of Kool aid fame) and Bernadine Dohrn and her backing of Charles Manson would be a good study. These people are still alive and well and giving advice. Their judgement of other’s character has a history of flaws, to say the least. Nancy Pelosi and her family have a history, as well, of backing “moderates” that turn out to be stone cold crazy. Reminding the public of these people’s lack of judgement could shut them up.
Excellent article. Miller provides insights that the national media cannot