Preview and forget.

What we have before us is three forms of Nihilism, using the word in Nietzsche’s sense. In each case, the ideals of yesterday, the religious and artistic and political forms that have grown up through the centuries, are discarded; yet even in this last act, this self-repudiation, each several Culture employs the prime symbol of its whole existence. The Faustian nihilist‚ÄîIbsen or Nietzsche, Marx or Wagner‚Äîshatters the ideals. The Apollonian‚ÄîEpicurus or Antisthenes or Zeno‚Äîwatches them crumble before his eyes. And the Indian withdraws from their presence into himself. Stoicism is directed to individual self-management, to statuesque and purely present being, without regard to future or past or neighbour. Socialism is the dynamic treatment of the same theme; it is defensive like Stoicism, but is concerned not with conduct but procedure, and more, it is offensive-defensive, for it projects itself into the future and plans to bring the whole of mankind under a single regimen. Buddhism, which only a mere dabbler in religious research could compare with Christianity, is hardly reproducible in words of the Western languages. But it is possible to speak of a Stoic Nirvana and point to the figure of Diogenes, and even the notion of a Socialist Nirvana has its justification insofar that European weariness covers its flight from the struggle for existence under the catchwords World-Peace, Humanity and the Brotherhood of Man. Still, none of this comes anywhere near the strange profundity of the Buddhist conception of Nirvana.

Therefore, make peace with your god, whatever you perceive him to be: hairy thunderer or cosmic muffin. With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate. GIVE UP!

—Tony Hendra, Oswald Spengler (in translation) and Tony Hendra

As the procession reached the appointed site, the air-rade sirens began to wail…The siren wailed, but nobody was sure: it could have meant the Last Judgment, or just another air-raid exercise.

Arthur Koestler, “The Age of Longing” (1950)

How it is that so many nations and people who suffered so terribly (and relatively recently at that) at the hands of those who wanted to strip them of basic freedoms and rights are unable to catch the scent of a similar attempt developing in plain view is absolutely beyond me and at times rather demoralizing.

I have not a doubt that the West is worth fighting for and saving, but I still cannot fathom how any who live in it and benefit from it could feel any differently.

Fernandez has got me worried.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/08/gods_country.html

We’re pretty far into this now. There are those who see and those who don’t. Fernandez is good at seeing. Always looking. And thinking. Never a cliche passes his keyboard. And always aware of how much is going on that he doesn’t know about. I suspect, he’s right about this. If anybody in the long, sad history of getting people’s numbers ever got somebody’s, the Islamists have gotten every last digit of the ones of the people in Connecticut David is talking about. Nobody can know the future, and events in India or China or Russia could change everything, but if it doesn’t, I think the early 21st century is going to look like a game of rock, scissors and paper. The paper people are phony and insubstantial, but they have the universities and the MSM. They cover the rock people, the Christian people in most of America who don’t understand why they can’t escape the paper, why they don’t have a Harvard or a New York Times. The scissors people are the Islamists. I think we’ll start to see Muslim numbers grow now with conversions in Europe and cities where the paper people offer the only competing values. It’s going to look scary to a lot of people. The paper people have made the world of popular thought and entertainment a meaningless vacuum. People want meaning. And nature abhors a vacuum. Paper sure can’t cover scissors, and paper doesn’t have any defense either. That’s what we see everywhere. Don’t offend. Try to understand. I see a root cause over there, but I don’t want to see anything in that Mosque. Rock works, when and where it can. It’ll have a lot of staying power. And grow stronger as things get scarier and scarier. Three elements in the game. When it’s done, likely long after I’m gone, there won’t be three. Only two, I’d guess, in an age that we can’t really imagine. Worse than ours, maybe. My guess is that, one way or another, however it turns out, the paper people won’t make it.

In many respects the nation has experienced enormous luxuries compared to times gone by. Although not everyone lives in the gated Connecticut communities David speaks of, the country has had a period of enormous wealth, technological development and the promises of more to come.

In many respects, I think we believe that we can create heaven on earth, so the idea is to live for that. Whether one believes in God, there have never been as strong a challenge to the existence of God as brought forth by Western Society. What can replace the power of faith for most people? I use the Tantalus myth to discuss this, but there are other ways to think about it. He raises an existential quandry for the West. But we can also see how threatening Western Society is for the Islamofacist.

This excellent point reminds me why I am so critical of Peter Beinartís The Good Fight: Why Liberals–and Only Liberals–Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again. The author conveniently cites Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy—strong Democratic Party leaders of over forty years ago. However, Beinart only spends about half of one page (page 188) dealing with the relatively pacifist Democratic Party of our present era. Are the Republicans able to foster ìa fighting faith?î Whatever, we know one thing for sure—the Democrats almost totally lack the vision or will to do so!

I lived for a few years in Connecticut. This is a very affluent state where violent crime, especially that of the stranger on stranger variety, is virtually unheard of in the wealthier communities. These people often do not merely depend on local law enforcement. Many also hire private security guards and own elaborate burglar alarm systems. What happens to such citizens over a period of time? Is it possible that they are subtly seduced into believing that the whole world can be similar to their super safe Connecticut neighborhood? Are they less likely to perceive the danger of Islamic nihilism? Also, a large number of Connecticut residents take religion with a huge grain of salt. An Islamic suicide bomber mystifies them. How can anyone do such a thing? The real reason must be due to economic need and past mistreatment by Western imperialists. Thus, the threat should soon end If we are simply nice to Osama Bin Ladin and his buddies. The war monger Joseph Lieberman must be driven from office before he and the other neo-cons further enrage the radical Muslims.