A Challenge to Civilization
Bret Stephens poses an excellent challenge to the left in today’s Wall Street Journal. If Andres Serrano should be defended for Piss Christ and Salman Rushie should be defended for Satanic Verses then why shouldn’t Geert Wilders be defended for Fitna? Stephens correctly recognizes this for the civilizational challenge that it is.
Instead of benefitting from a rousing defense of freedom, Wilders has been charged with insulting Islam in the Netherlands and refused entry into the UK. Why?
Unfortunately, I am not as optimistic as Stephens about receiving a coherent response from the left.
They would have to adequately explain their intense desire to destroy western civilization. Make no mistake, while many on the left will deny that with some justification, they are subscribing to ideologies that are intended to do just that. They are at a minimum guilty of intellectual negligence. Without an adequate understanding of the ideas they are espousing, they blindly chop away at the roots of the civilization that has produced prosperity, political freedom and personal liberty unprecedented in the world.
My question to them is: what’s next if western civilization fails?
What historical precedent makes them so confident that they will be able to successfully separate a civilization from its roots without destroying modern life in the process? What historical example is there of a civilization that rejected itself and survived? If the forces of civilizational change are unleashed, what historical precedent makes them think they can control it?
If western civilization fails, what culture is poised to ascend to dominance? Is Chavezian South American socialism? Is it thugocratic China, technocratic Japan or another Asian power? Is it still impoverished India? Is there any country in Africa capable of not shooting itself in the foot long enough to rise to anything global? No is the answer straight through the list.
There is only one civilization with a global reach and growing power: Islam. That should send a chill down anyone’s spine, especially the culturally permissive left. Since the left is so committed to the idea of accommodating Muslims in our midst, what makes them so sure the Muslims will be so magnanimous in return? They may be betting their grand children’s lives on the answer.