The Danger Within

Via Sissy Willis' blog, Armed and Dangerous gives us one of the best essays I've read on the dangers of trans-national progressivism. The piece is full of excellent links on this particular subject and contains thought-provoking points about the origins of anti-western thought and just how far these memes have penetrated the culture, particularly in the Academy. If you choose not to follow the link, give these points some thought; it's as accurate a list of the Liberal Canon as I've ever seen:

• There is no truth, only competing agendas.
• All Western (and especially American) claims to moral superiority over Communism/Fascism/Islam are vitiated by the West’s history of racism and colonialism.
• There are no objective standards by which we may judge one culture to be better than another. Anyone who claims that there are such standards is an evil oppressor.
• The prosperity of the West is built on ruthless exploitation of the Third World; therefore Westerners actually deserve to be impoverished and miserable.
• Crime is the fault of society, not the individual criminal. Poor criminals are entitled to what they take. Submitting to criminal predation is more virtuous than resisting it.
• The poor are victims. Criminals are victims. And only victims are virtuous. Therefore only the poor and criminals are virtuous. (Rich people can borrow some virtue by identifying with poor people and criminals.)
• For a virtuous person, violence and war are never justified. It is always better to be a victim than to fight, or even to defend oneself. But ‘oppressed’ people are allowed to use violence anyway; they are merely reflecting the evil of their oppressors.
• When confronted with terror, the only moral course for a Westerner is to apologize for past sins, understand the terrorist’s point of view, and make concessions.

The bullet list above reads like the bizarre core beliefs from some sort of alternative universe. But one encounters these beliefs EVERY DAY when one reads the writings of the Left, particularly Lefty blogs. There are a substantial number of people in our society who fervently, and I mean fervently, as in "religious zeal," believe this stuff. And they are oh-so-wrong. It's up to us to fight back, rationally, and with facts. The first step is understanding the source of these beliefs. I encourage you to read the whole essay. Enlightening, it is.

Update, 2/23/2006 1340 hrs: The Armchair Philosopher examines the quoted bullet list of liberal memes and comes up with interesting observations. There ain't no black and white, only shades of gray. I'm not sure I agree with TAP, but his essay is definitely worth a read.