Britain’s epitaph (and one for the rest of us too)
Bookworm on Apr 08 2007 at 9:05 am | Filed under: America, Britain, Iran
Tony Blair was at pains to point out that the hostages were released ”without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature.” But he’s missing (or artfully sidestepping) the point: Tehran didn’t want a deal. It wanted the humbling of the Great Satan’s principal ally. And it got it. Very easily. And it paid no price for it. And it has tested in useful ways the empty pretensions of the U.N., the EU and also NATO, whose second largest fleet is now a laughingstock in a part of the world where it helps to be taken seriously.
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Even if there is more going on than meets the eye, what meets the eye is so profoundly damaging to the credibility of great nations that no amount of lethal special ops could compensate for it. Power is only as great as the perception of power. The Iranians understand that they can’t beat America or Britain in tank battles or air strikes so they choose other battlefields on which to hit them. That’s why the behavior of the captives gives great cause for concern: There’s no point training guys to be tough fighting men of the Royal Marines when you’re in a bloody little scrap in Sierra Leone (as they were a couple of years ago) if you allow them to crumple on TV in front of the entire world.
So in 2007 the men of the Royal Navy can be kidnapped and “the strong arm of England” (in Lord Palmerston’s phrase) goes all limp-wristed and threatens to go to the U.N. and talk about drafting a Security Council resolution. Backstage, meanwhile, deals are done: An Iranian “diplomat” (a k a Mister Terror Kingpin) suddenly resurfaces in Tehran after having been reported in American detention, his release purely coincidental, we’re told. But it’s the kind of coincidence that ensures more of your men will be kidnapped and ransomed in the years ahead. And, just to remind the world who makes the rules, six more British subjects were killed in southern Iraq even at the moment of the hostages’ release. The Iranians have exposed America’s strongest ally as the soft underbelly of the Great Satan.
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THe problem with the Left is that they are inferior to the Islamic Jihad. It’s a blindspot. They can outmaneuver and crush Republicans ala a Valerie Plame operation, but all too many are clueless as to what exactly their enemy’s plans are. There is too much projection, meaning too many people on the Left acts as if they believe the Republicans and the Islamic Jihad are just like them. No, that’s not how it works.
It isn’t that they are dumb, because if they can say that the Right is more of a religious threat than the IJ, they have the mental framework in order to set things up so that they view the Islamic Jihad as being better at propaganda than the Left or Right. But no, they don’t do that. They act like the Islamic Jihad, Amanie in this case, is a Democrat, just like them, and therefore they have to somehow come up with reasons to toe the party line and protect the fold so to speak. Which gets them into ridiculous binds like “Iran isn’t at war with Britain, so the Geneva Conventions don’y apply”.
When you can no longer understand your enemy because you’re too inwards focused on yourself and cultivating your blindspots, then you become like Britain. Unable to to a situation appropriate to that situation. Every situation is treated and reacted to, as if it was the same as every other situation. This lack of flexibility is due to close minded people and stagnant societies. When your society no longer welcomes new thought to bring in fresh blood, but become stagnant with old and dumb ideas and ways of doing things, eventually the people in that society will lose the ability to adapt to change. But this actually doesn’t mean things will go frozen and never change. In britain we see a destabilization of institutions and a corruption of people, their spirits and their souls.
A democracy or whatever you call a government that promotes human progress, needs energy and new blood to sustain its work. Liberty requires the blood of tyrants and patriots, after all. Eternal vigilance and all that.
Eternal vigilance against what though? You see, most people can’t stand guard duty for 24/7 and actually pay attention to what is going on. Their mind starts to drift. It takes… guess what? Discipline. Yes, discipline, it takes discipline to maintain focus and attention while doing repetitious and boring tasks. But they are still important tasks for all that.
When people lose their ability to adapt to new things, they more or less stop paying attention. And when that happens, things start going down. If you aren’t there to help in the maintaining of the system, then the system doesn’t maintain itself.
So instead of people in Britain adapting to new things and making new energy useful to the system, we have new things and new energy making use of Britain. Eating it up.
In the end, people who don’t pay attention to new stimuli in their environment, cannot defeat their enemies. They cannot because they do not understand their enemies, if only because they spend like .01% of their time really thinking about potential enemies. They simply react, as Britain and the Left reacts, according to prescribed behavior. Prescribed bad behavior that is not going to work to sustain the system. So we go down. Into chaos. Entropy in action is a very interesting phenomenon. All the more because people can resist it, but they don’t do it cause… what? Too hard perhaps? Easier to freeload off their ancestors, that must be it. A great big pyramid scheme. (which is similar to social security, but faster)
The Iranians have exposed America’s strongest ally as the soft underbelly of the Great Satan.
Iran understands their enemies, if only because they are far less decadent and far more adaptable to change. But of course, people might wonder why Iran is so much more adaptable to change than the US/Britain when our societies are more open and far less totalitarian than Iran’s. The answer is simple although not complete. Iran spends a lot of their time and energy on Jihad. What does this mean? It means that even though they have less ability to adapt to change, they make up for it by thinking about it for 24 hours every day, 7 days a week. Don’t underestimate the fanatic’s dedication, people. What do most people in the West spend their time on? Thinking of ways to kill more Islamic JIhadists? Idon’t think so.
Btw, some people might start thinking about how Iranians don’t think 24/7 about how to kill Westerners, at least not the majority. That isn’t exactly true. A benefit to totalitarian systems is that the will of the leader(s) is the will of the people. There is no difference, there is no argument, because there is no disunity.
This is different from the West, in that the will of the people is supposed to be the will of the leaders. Not always true of course, but since Iran has the benefit of concentration, it doesn’t matter.
Total productivity from a free society is both higher and more beneficial to people and to human progress. But total productivity doesn’t mean actual and it doesn’t mean efficient or timely. Iran’s total productivity is low, but again let’s hear it for concentration. They concentrate what they produce, oil and jihad, very well, and therefore make a weapon of it. Violence like that from the Left are disorganized, chaotic, “individualistic” actions that are not focused, and therefore not nearly as dangerous as a focused form of aggression and violence (Islamic Jihad).
Entropy doesn’t do much good in this world. But entropy is very good at what it does do, which is decay. Iran doesn’t need to replace anything they destroy, they just need to destroy it furst. That “furst” thing is important. Because it comes from a quote I remembered.
“I’m going to do to you what you’re going to do to me, but I’m going to do it furst”-Written in some kind of gutterish pre 21st century English.
We want to beat Iran down and make them submit. Iran’s leaders and Iran’s people want to beat us down and make us submit. Simple, simple. Whoever can get there first, wins. The guy who is focused on winning and contributing 100% of his resources to winning, has an advantage over another person with 20% of his attention on winning, and 80% of his attention worrying over should he throw the match given that his family is held hostage.
The mind is a powerful resource. The Left and Britain makes such great waste of it. Jihad does it as well, but Iran at least is better at it. Professional you know.
Hey Book, you might like reading this shot from the past.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,794163,00.html
From the Guardian no less. It is not gushingly (is that even a form?) positive, but it certainly raises interesting questions, questions which seem totally alien given Britain’s current situation now.
Rome’s problem was technological. Empires need technology, communications, and trade to flourish. But it also needs good leadership, tradition, and foundations. The Hellenization of Rome had interesting results. Greek itself was going nowhere, but its ideas had value. Unfortunately, Rome took a shat load of Greek culture with them when they invaded and conquered. That wouldn’t be that bad, had Rome been able to do so and not lose their own brand of ancester worship (the power that made the Roman Republic in the beginning).
This applies to both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. The Eastern Roman Empire (So called Byzantium) lasted for far longer, maybe because they forgot about the Greeks and found a stronger source of energy (Thracian barbarians or Persian dehgans).
http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2007/04/pope-in-proper-context.html
Check out that video for an interesting look at the situation the Eastern Roman Empire got stuck in around 500 AD, Book. The Hagia Sophia was supposed to have been a Church dedicated to Christianity, built by the Romans. How it turned into a Muslim holy site.. well.