Mark Steyn weighs in on Crackerquiddick
Bookworm on Apr 19 2008 at 11:10 am | Filed under: Barack Obama, Europe
A political kerfuffle is never over until Mark Steyn has weighed in. He’s now got a full column on Obama’s “bitterness” remarks and, of course, mixed in with the wonderful word play is a perfect analysis about America’s Guns and God “bitterness,” when compared to Europe’s no-guns, no-God “Eutopia.”
In my book “America Alone,” I note a global survey on optimism: 61 percent of Americans were optimistic about the future, 29 percent of the French, 15 percent of Germans. Take it from a foreigner: In my experience, Americans are the least “bitter” people in the developed world. Secular, gun-free big-government Europe doesn’t seem to have done anything for people’s happiness.
[snip]
Obama and far too many Democrats have bought into this delusion, most thoroughly distilled in Thomas Frank’s book “What’s The Matter With Kansas?”, whose argument is that heartland voters are too dumb (i.e., “moronic muppets”) to vote for their own best interests.
Europeans did “vote for their own best interests” – i.e., cradle-to-grave welfare, 35-hour workweeks, six weeks of paid vacation, etc. – and as a result they now face a perfect storm of unsustainable entitlements, economic stagnation and declining human capital that’s left them so demographically beholden to unassimilable levels of immigration that they’re being remorselessly Islamized with every passing day. We should thank God (forgive the expression) that America’s loser gun nuts don’t share the same sophisticated rational calculation of “their best interests” as do Thomas Frank, Obama, too many Democrats and the European political establishment.
[snip]
I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: It benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on Earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today’s Europe – a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism.
A while back, I was struck by the words of Oscar van den Boogaard, a Dutch gay humanist (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool). Reflecting on the Continent’s accelerating Islamification, he concluded that the jig was up for the Europe he loved, but what could he do? “I am not a warrior, but who is?” he shrugged. “I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.”
Read the rest here. As always with a Mark Steyn article, even if you don’t come away enlightened or, at least, thoughtful, you’ll still have enjoyed the read.
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4 Responses to “Mark Steyn weighs in on Crackerquiddick”
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Steyn’s assertion that the 1st and 2nd amendment go hand in hand is right on the money.
For some years now, the Liberals/Progressives/Democrats etc have been trying to reduce the 2nd amendment to the “right to hunt.” It is in fact, the right to self-defense and at need, the right to revolution.
Steyn’s assertion that the 1st and 2nd amendment go hand in hand is right on the money.
Every Jacksonian already knows that the 2nd Amendment is there to ensure that the First continues to exist. This includes many military members as well.
It is translated, in the vernacular, as “Peace Through Superior Firepower”. The 1st is just an individual citizen’s ability to fire bureaucrats and politicians.
As we see with Liveview and various other Western institutions, when people feel threatened, they naturally discard their First Amendment rights for the more basic right of life and not getting murdered.
That’s not really going to help them, of course, but that’s why humans are flawed and not gods.
Americans haven’t gone through everything Europe has. They are a young nation that still has the inertia of the consumer society and the cult of the dollar. The public doesn’t yet fully comprehend phenomena like the modern crisis, because it still has faith in its society and democracy.
Bernard Shaw wrote: “Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many [like in America] for appointment by the corrupt few [like in Russia].”
We learn from the collapse of the system of the spiritual worlds (Shvirat Olam HaNekudim), that the higher a level (Malach) is, the lower it falls when it breaks. But this action takes longer than on lower levels due to the level’s height and reserve power, and hence its inability to recognize and predict the forthcoming developments that threaten it…
Similarly, faith in God and the feeling of safety one gets from carrying weapons delay one’s recognition of the forthcoming crisis. If society continues developing egoistically, the crisis will be devastating to all.
Nevertheless, we can already see the influence of Kabbalah’s dissemination. I don’t mean its mechanical dissemination, the fact that people know about Kabbalah. Rather, I’m talking about the fact that little by little, people are starting to think in Kabbalistic notions, even without being aware of it. Most of the dissemination happens through thought, through the Upper field of forces, and I hope that it will bring about recognition and a change in people’s attitude to the world, God and weapons.
http://www.laitman.com/2008/04/america-optimistic-and-why/