Friday, February 04, 2011
WOW! England wakes up!!!!!!!
Huge news from Britain:
Cameron is following Angela Merkel, basically copying her words from a few months ago.
Nevertheless, this is a tremendous advance in rhetoric, and if followed by regulatory and police action, it will be the first sign that an English-speaking country has STARTED TO FIGHT the current war, the first real response to the real threat of Jihad. After ten years of utterly wasted Phoney War in Iraq and Afghanistan, which killed lots of their civilians and lots of our soldiers for exactly zero purpose, we're finally getting back to Dec. 8, 1941.
That's a big If. Remains to be seen, and Polistra will be watching closely....
Polistra is praying to St George, patron saint of England. Grant them the moral strength to carry out this difficult war.
= = = = =
Later, after hearing the speech itself: It's not clear that Cameron can make this happen. There's a basic logical weakness.
On one level he states that Muslims are different from Englishmen. He acknowledges that the existing policy tolerates traditional Muslim attitudes while criminalizing traditional English attitudes. This makes law enforcement absurd, and quite properly leads Englishmen to withdraw their consent from the government. In objective fact the governments of US, UK and Australia have abjectly surrendered to Islam, and the Christians understand it only too well.
But at the same time Cameron also says the primary value that defines Englishness is a belief in equality.
Can't have it both ways. Either you observe human nature accurately, which means you notice, discuss and act on real differences; or you follow Robespierre, Lincoln and Lenin into the modern world of evil delusion, where no differences can be seen, mentioned or acted on.
Cameron tries to square the circle in the same way that the Buckleyite neocoms do: it's all about an imposed ideology, which anyone could adopt under the right conditions. Anyone can get democracy if they want it, anyone can get "radical Islamism" if they want it. Nope. Culture is more permanent than that, and culture is partly innate.
Near the end of the speech he destroys the whole point by saying "Anyone who claims there's a war between Christians and Muslims is speaking nonsense." It's possible that he feels the need to say this for some stupid public-relations purpose; I always prefer to judge politicians by actions, not words. But you really can't fight a war unless you know it's a war. The Islamic side knows it's a war. ¶ 5:59 PM
British Muslims must subscribe to mainstream values of freedom and equality, David Cameron will say as he declares that the doctrine of multiculturalism has “failed” and will be abandoned.
... The Prime Minister will declare an end to “passive tolerance” of divided communities, and say that members of all faiths must integrate into wider society and accept core values.
To be British is to believe in freedom of speech and religion, democracy and equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality, he will say. Proclaiming a doctrine of “muscular liberalism”, he will say that everyone, from ministers to ordinary voters, should actively confront those who hold extremist views.
Cameron is following Angela Merkel, basically copying her words from a few months ago.
Nevertheless, this is a tremendous advance in rhetoric, and if followed by regulatory and police action, it will be the first sign that an English-speaking country has STARTED TO FIGHT the current war, the first real response to the real threat of Jihad. After ten years of utterly wasted Phoney War in Iraq and Afghanistan, which killed lots of their civilians and lots of our soldiers for exactly zero purpose, we're finally getting back to Dec. 8, 1941.
That's a big If. Remains to be seen, and Polistra will be watching closely....
Polistra is praying to St George, patron saint of England. Grant them the moral strength to carry out this difficult war.
= = = = =
Later, after hearing the speech itself: It's not clear that Cameron can make this happen. There's a basic logical weakness.
On one level he states that Muslims are different from Englishmen. He acknowledges that the existing policy tolerates traditional Muslim attitudes while criminalizing traditional English attitudes. This makes law enforcement absurd, and quite properly leads Englishmen to withdraw their consent from the government. In objective fact the governments of US, UK and Australia have abjectly surrendered to Islam, and the Christians understand it only too well.
But at the same time Cameron also says the primary value that defines Englishness is a belief in equality.
Can't have it both ways. Either you observe human nature accurately, which means you notice, discuss and act on real differences; or you follow Robespierre, Lincoln and Lenin into the modern world of evil delusion, where no differences can be seen, mentioned or acted on.
Cameron tries to square the circle in the same way that the Buckleyite neocoms do: it's all about an imposed ideology, which anyone could adopt under the right conditions. Anyone can get democracy if they want it, anyone can get "radical Islamism" if they want it. Nope. Culture is more permanent than that, and culture is partly innate.
Near the end of the speech he destroys the whole point by saying "Anyone who claims there's a war between Christians and Muslims is speaking nonsense." It's possible that he feels the need to say this for some stupid public-relations purpose; I always prefer to judge politicians by actions, not words. But you really can't fight a war unless you know it's a war. The Islamic side knows it's a war. ¶ 5:59 PM
