Egypt’s ‘Moderate’ and ‘Pragmatic’ Dictator
Whence such a constraint now? After all, what could be more “pragmatic,” what works better than simply seizing power, given the opportunity? There’s nothing intrinsically ideological about dictatorship, so you’d think that this pragmatic non-ideological president would be totally down with it (perhaps even more than a little envious?).
And at the risk of Godwinizing this piece, I have to note that there were other people who, historically, were lauded for their pragmatism. For instance, Benito Mussolini reportedly “made the trains run on time,” which was supposedly a great feat in Italy, and was greatly admired by many American “progressives” for it (not to mention mafiosi, and even if he didn’t really). And Adolf Hitler himself was as pragmatic as he needed to be, at least when coming to power. He built up his arsenal, in defiance of the Paris Accord, only after realizing that the French and English weren’t inclined to stop him. As Jonah Goldberg relates via email (so sorry, no link or source unless you subscribe, which you should):
…when the fascist chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dollfuss (yes, you read that right) was deposed in a Nazi coup, the fascist dictator of Italy Mussolini sent troops to the Austrian border to defend Austrian independence from Nazi aggression. Hitler backed down, renounced the coup, and played nice. He was after all, a “pragmatist.”
And as for his moderation:
In 1938 former Labor Party leader and president of the British Peace Pledge Union, George Landsbury, proclaimed, “I think Hitler will be regarded as one of the great men of our time.”
And actually, as I wrote last spring, President Morsi has some other things in common with the Reichschancellor than just his pragmatism, moderation, and complete lack of ideology:
- Do they promote a political system where the individual will is bent to that of the (Islamist) state? Check.
- Do they advocate a totalitarian regime, in which no personal decision lies beyond its reach? Check.
- Do they take as their guide a book written by the founder of their movement? Check.
- Are they willing, even happy to kill and terrorize innocents to maintain that power? Yup.
- Do they think Jews nonhuman, and wish them exterminated from the earth?
Well, OK, maybe there’s a little ideology there. But you got to love that pragmatism.
More: Why Doesn’t Egypt’s Military Do Something About Morsi’s Power Grab?
The readers should know, to immerse in the Islamic muck (for over a decade) is akin to submerging in the worst dung possible. Nothing compares to the stench. And it is not as if a thorough cleaning is ever possible. The filth ALWAYS sticks.
And it is when one gets closer to their core some of their foot soldiers rear their heads. But no matter, they will be exposed.
So, the Muslim Mafia Prez of the largest Arab nation is about as moderate as a six alarm fire. But in order to know what underlies Morsi, one must first immerse oneself in his ideology – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/07/25/the-muslim-mafia-aka-the-brotherhood-their-overarching-plan-what-it-means-for-americas-future-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Without doing the above it becomes impossible to internalize the dangers encircling the west! It is not for the weak kneed.
The big question no is are we too late to save the country for all the ravages of leaders who embrace CommuSharia?
“In fact, the administration won’t even bring itself to criticize Morsi and his minions’ pro-jihad rhetoric, presumably because, like Joe Klein, and despite vast and obvious evidence to the contrary, they think that he is a “moderate” who might somehow become radicalized by any truth uttered about his behavior”
This is like a rerun of the 1930′s, just substitute Morsi for Hitler. Joe Klein can’t be so stupid as to not recognize this, so he must approve.
Klein is an example of willful ignorance. He is still blinded by Obama’s dim lights, a true believer. That is what is so scary right now because he is far from alone. People such as him on the left want passionately to believe in someone as manifest and for some unfathomable reason have chosen Barack Obama. This so reminds me of G. K. Chesterton’s comment (I think it was his) “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing – they believe in anything.” Obama comes under the heading, “anything.” That is how sad our country has become.
We do have our Obama phones to look forward to.
We are falling apart as a country, yet that never seems to register with the left. There is even the scarier thought that it does and they are applauding it.
There may be ‘moderate’ Muslims it is THEY who are the misunderstanders of Islam. But what there most certainly is not is a ‘moderate’ Islam. Islam’s aims remain exactly as they were in Mohammad’s time hegemony over the whole world, the death of ALL Jews and everyone either converts to Islam or tribute paying dhimmies. Its all there in the Koran ( which according to Muslims is the Actual and UNALTERABLE words of their satanic allah) and in the aHadith, written by his faithful followers, which describe the life, times and personality of their “prophet” the paedophilic, misogynous,murderous, antisemitic, lying, thieving warlord and slave master.
And you expect Morsi to be different? If so what fools you are.
What could be more pragmatic than thinking beyond freedom and dignity?
The one good thing about fascists is that they cannot hide their true face very long (about five months in Morsi’s case.) The problem comes in how long people choose to not see it.
It’s purely a coincidence that (Obama’s) proposals always somehow end up increasing the size and power of the state.
Didn’t any of these dweebs read far enough in the manual to know that “dictatorship of the proletariat” spells the dissolution of “the state”?
Oh wait, communism, where it has been supposedly tried, always spells the creation of a permanent, gigantic invincible state.
I despise these people who, wherever they are, Chicago, Washington DC, Russia, China, North Korea…want to curtail the initiative and independence of the individual in service to their foul little control freak agenda, in service to their ideology.
…the administration won’t even bring itself to criticize Morsi and his minions’ pro-jihad rhetoric, presumably because, like Joe Klein, and despite vast and obvious evidence to the contrary, they think that he is a “moderate”…
And Hillary Clinton used the word “reformer” to describe Bashar al-Assad, January 2011.
This kind of wishful thinking led directly to the “success” of Islamists at Benghazi.
Of your 5 bullet points, the first 3 pretty much describe America’s progressives.
Numbers 4 & 5 (and more) are waiting in the wings.
Number five isn’t waiting in the wings. It simply isn’t stated out loud.
Number four is only waiting in the wings because of the 200, approaching 300 million, firearms in private hands, and because the US military (other than the top brass) still believes in the Constitution.
Excellent article. Jonah Goldberg really skewered Juan Williams the other day in a debate about Morsi’s motives. As Jonah said, the fact that Morsi lent on Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel doesn’t prove he is in any way a “moderate”, it just proves he is one savvy operator. He knew the Obama fools would laud him as a peacemaker. And so they did. And as Johna put it, he IMMEDIATELY cashed in that political capital by issuing his “From-now-on-I-can-do-no-wrong” decree. He knew he was playing the administration for the fools they are.
Like, OMG. Where was America on November 6th?
Trivia/pedant corner: it was George Lansbury (not Landsbury) who was the arch-appeaser Labour Party leader in Britain in the 1930s. His granddaughter is the actress Angela Lansbury.
Hamas was getting its ass whupped and its rockets blown up by Iron Dome. Israel was considering a full blown invasion.
Gaza terrorists needed a break to re-arm and re-supply, get some longer range hardware from Iran and so forth.
Morsi did his Hamas buddies a little favor there.
Kings are always self proclaimed. Their favorite rationales are heridity or divine right, but in a pinch, any reason will do.
They also like to change the names of their title periodically. A current favorite is “President”.
The sad irony of Leftism is that it has itself become the residue of the last great movements it opposes. For example the greatest amount of organized racialist rhetoric with the institutions to back it up resides entirely on the Left.
The Left crows openly about increasing non-white demographics and Clint Eastwood’s city of Carmel can be “frighteningly white” but the NBA and Detroit will never be frighteningly black.
Leftism has devolved into a cult of cool and fadism, if it was ever anything else, given its more pop culture origins in Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs.
The conspicuous stupidity of PC Leftism is that, in 2012 and like a religion, it is based on faith. This is faith in a record of accomplishment never seen in history by the darlings it protects, and the existence of demons and devils that don’t exist.
Faith is the opposite of pragmatism and empiricism. The knock on the GOP is that they believe dinosaurs and men walked together when the world was created 4,000 years ago. Yet where is empiricism when Leftists seek to uplift cultures that have an historic record of a losing streak of failure when it comes to an American viewpoint? Where is pragmatism in ignoring the historic failures of socialism and communism?
The truth is that the Left itself is what it despises: deluded, racist do-gooders on the wrong side of history and reality. Somali clans clash and Nigerians burn down churches and rockets are lobbed into Israel yet these are the historically “oppressed” people the Left seeks to bring into America by the bucket full, the way a Catholic says ten Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers after confession to mitigate their sins.
Egypt is 6th in the world in remittances sent back by emigres – 18 billion a year. India and China are 1st and 2nd, at 70 and 66 billion. The Left’s darlings aren’t bringing to the table in America but taking away. Morsi is the President of a failed culture with a failed religion. Cairo is full of street corner downtown with street lights that simply don’t work. That’s because Egypt turned its back on the lessons of the West and instead began to have faith in itself, with sad results.
Egypt and the Third World’s problems go far beyond post-colonial and imperialism. Cairo, a city of 20 million people, is not a place one sees the common inventiveness and assertiveness of America. You will not see skateboarders, people riding bikes for fun, or rollerskaters in the streets of Cairo – however you will see people riding donkeys in the suburbs, and not for fun. There are no science fiction conventions or demolition derbies in Egypt. Multiply that by 10,000 and then by the entirety of the Third World. No wonder Leftists see socialism as the answer – how else can failure survive if it is not catered to and propped up?
Sophistication and success start from the bottom up, not the top down. You can’t spread it over a culture like jam and declare bread to be jam. Diversity is not a color – diversity is diversity. The fact is that Egypt is a brutal lack of diversity as are all the darlings of the Left. Pragmatism would say “they have a problem,” but Leftist say the problem is ourselves and failure is really a centuries long streak of bad luck.
Morsi is not a bad man but a child of failure. He doesn’t really know how to do anything else. He even had to come to America to get an education. In the old days, he would’ve learned a valuable lesson. Instead, like Sayd Qutb before him, Morsi learned America is racist and decadent and under refined. The true source of oppression within Islam itself is not Napoleon, or the Brits, but Islam. Like the Left, failure is its own explanation. Remember when we were told as children “no excuses.” Well, today we’re told “Excuses!” That’s why I call the Left an excuse factory.
The Left has faith in Morsi because they simply don’t want to admit he represents the antithesis of what the Left protects. It requires great faith to ignore homophobia, the oppression of women, the mutilation of girls between 6 and 11, the oppression of Christians, even the few Shia, doorknobs that are Rubik’s Cubes and a society that has no more idea of what a tool of self-criticism is than a the donkeys they ride.
And some of Morsi’s friends in “the Brotherhood” have called for the Sphinx & pyramids to be blown up à la the giant Bamiyan buddhas blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Just freaking morons, much like Obama voters in this country.
Twice now in less than a week this unknown poster has written something that is more profound than any pundit or “intellectual” of any persuasion I’m aware of, on any side of the political divide, has written in ten years.
Bravo FB. Bravo.
Jimmy Carter brought about our ally, the Shah of Iran’s downfall. Many innocent people were killed. Iran is now a threat to the entire Free World, especially to Israel and America. Carter has NEVER apologized for the deaths, destruction and terrible suffering he caused in Iran. Suffering which continues to this day.
Why do our leaders stab our allies in the back? U.S. ally, moderate Mubarak in Egypt, was betrayed by our leaders, stabbed in the back in order to replace moderate Mubarak with the Muslim Brotherhood whose stated goal in America is the DESTRUCTION of CIVILIZATION and GLOBAL ISLAMIC CONQUEST.
Obama, Clinton and George Soros are DELIBERATELY destabilizing the Middle East.
In Libya, Obama and Clinton took the side of Al Qaida. Gadaffi was FIGHTING AL QAIDA.
The US/NATO war waged against Libya and Gadaffi enabled a terrible genocide and horrific atrocities of Blacks in Libya by the US/NATO backed anti-Gadaffi Muslims. US/NATO did absolutely NOTHING to stop the genocide of blacks or try to help and rescue the black innocents. ETERNAL SHAME ON OUR LEADERS.
BLACKS MUST HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS!
I have been reading Andrew Bostom’s fine Sharia versus Freedom after David Goldman’s recommendation gave me pause over yet another Totalitarian offensive against the West.
I have been Chronicling what the UN is now pushing globally via education to take out the rational mind and the legitimacy of the Individual and personal liberty. Now juxtaposing that reality with Bostom’s astute overview of what the Muslim world really intends to do leaves no wiggle room but to recognize we are back in a 30s type situation pretending there is a Maginot Line protecting us when there is not.
Every door and window that would appreciate such a noetic assault seems to be either turned off or bought off with copious grant funding. Both in the East and West there’s a real effort to shut down every practice that builds up individual reason or creates your own personal store of facts for constructing your own filtering Mindset.
UN policies shutting down the West’s ability to perceive reality accurately at precisely the same time one of its largest blocs is going on offense is just not likely to be coincidental. It fits too well. Especially with the upgrading of Palestine’s status this week despite its horrific behavior.
It is a dangerous time for any of us who believe in personal and economic freedoms not to be dedicated Students of History. Accurate, unvarnished history even if it is painfully prescient.
“‘We are concerned about it and have raised those concerns,’ he said.”
Oh yeah, I’m sure an administration that tried to ram Manuel Zelaya back down the throats of Hondurans is “concerned” about Morsi’s anti-democratic power grab.
Republicans have separation of church and state. Deductive reasoning is ideal in spiritual matters when usual care is applied. Inductive reasoning is hazardous there as one ends up working on the angel-carrying capacity of pinheads. Republicans, outside of spiritual matters at home and religious services, follow Inductive reasoning in their daily lives and in the World of Work. They have a separation of church and state in their own minds.
Democrats are holistic. Church and State are smeared together and there is Deductive reasoning everywhere. They rename their Deductive reasoning as “pragmatism” and other things. Using a leisurely pace to consider their statements and one can find Deductive reasoning elements everywhere, like pox spots.
Deductive reasoning is a Godsend to the busy person, a great time-saver and having good probability, allowing one to get through the day without hand-wringing. However, all those Deductive reasoning elements are assumptions and only analysis which may include destructive testing will reveal what is really true. It provides certainty in the absence of proof. Deductive reasoning has warmth to it.
Deductive reasoning seems to provide certainty, and gives warmth that is really not there. Using it too much in daily life and the World of Work is to mix church and state. It turns daily life problems, economic matters, and foreign policy into religious works. When these issues are more a matter of natural law than anything else, then one’s political behavior has facets which are not unlike cargo culting. One is living in sort of a Cloud Cuckoo Land.
The US is a contractual nation. Contracts are presumed to be upheld. Contract failure is almost as if a separate matter handled elsewhere. Nations having a trader society include capability of using force as part of negotiation. The gun muzzle is put in your face, in a manner of speaking. Terrible consequences result when a contractual nation is not aware of this, and we usually are not. President Roosevelt’s 1940 order to Japan to leave Vietnam and the subsequent negotiations on the issue demonstrates that. The negotiations involved transactional items, embargoes. Figuratively, if FDR had entered the poker game by plopping the giant US six-gun on the table, the results might have been different. Note that the giant US six-gun was not entirely visible as our huge WWI productive effort was not visible on the battle field and could only be revealed by reading widely-available material on the WWI war effort. Of all the military-force related things which could have been done to demonstrate FDR’s seriousness, none were attempted. We are all aware of the Deductive reasoning ability to repair economic catastrophe. The narrative’s content of Deductive reasoning creations needs to be attacked and repaired.
For some good, clean fun, take a look at THE FALLACY DETECTIVE: Thirty-Six Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning, 2nd Edition. Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn.