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War is “failure”
Here is the latest in continental wisdom from the President of France: “For us, war is always the proof of failure and the worst of solutions, so everything must be done to avoid it.” [Emphasis added.] The first question elicited by M. Chirac’s extraordinary remark is: If war is the proof of failure, whose failure does it prove? Well, obviously, our failure, we men of the West. If an enemy attacks us or threatens to attack us and we defend ourselves, that means that we have failed. The enemy, of course, is never accused of “failing.” He is simply the sacred Other who is outside any moral calculus except as an object whom we are obligated to accommodate and make peace with, no matter how dangerous he may be.
While Chirac is a self-seeking politician who may not believe what he’s saying, his statement nevertheless reflects the current orthodox view in Europe, and, as such, demonstrates once again how the belief in a utopian peace and harmony renders existing societies defenseless against evil. If, as the spiritual descendants of Rousseau affirm, human beings are naturally good, then the only explanation for an enemy’s aggression against us must be that we have done something bad to him, thus provoking him into behaving contrary to his natural reasonableness and lovingkindness. From this point of view, even what appears to be the most urgent and legitimate act of self-defense on our part is in reality a monstrous repetition of our own oppressive behavior (a.k.a. “root causes”) that supposedly caused us to be attacked in the first place. Utopia condemns reality, resulting in a profound, guilt-ridden alienation from our ourselves and our own society—even a cynical readiness, accompanied by a Gallic shrug, to betray it to its deadliest enemies. Comments
I can see the point of calling this kind of thinking utopian, but I also see its root in the pathology of self-hatred. One can see this pathology in many different ways: 1) The hatred and punishment of school teachers when they defend themselves from violent attacks: they are punished for meting out “corporal punishment” if they choose to break up fights in public schools or even if they just defend themselves from physical harm. 2)In the way many Christians nowadays, in obeisance to the the sacred “ecumenism,” apologize in a self-deprecatory way about their faith and even dissuade others from converting: “Who am I to ask you to be a Christian? Look at what we Christians did to non-Christians in the past, etc.” The way that Catholic Priests do nothing to defend their Liturgies and their dignity as Priests from the brutal savages in the chancery offices, and from the flock of post-menopausal women who, in their passive regressive rebellion against their feminity and the weakness of men, usurp the masculine role of custodian of the Eucharist. When a Priest acts like a clown during Mass in order to pervert that which gives him his identity, the sacredness of imitating Christ. He sacrifices his own dignity so that he can damage the dignity of Christ and the Church. 3) In the Donahuesque mockery of anyone who complains that their country is being invaded by hostile aliens from other countries. In the way people like him revel in the destruction of their own homeland. 4) In homosexuals desiring to be murdered by other homosexuals, either by being sexually violated in their anuses and indirectly killed by men carrying HIV (“bug chasers”), or by being directly killed and then cannibalized—by choice. This last example represents the final trajectory of the self-hatred that masks itself as humility and the love of peace. It is a very similar sentiment to the ones expressed by the damned in Dante’s Inferno. They wilfully choose to be tormented by demons as a way of both paying for their sins and at the same time refusing to repent for them. The self-laceration and passivity in the face of evil expressed by Chirac and Donahue is akin to a masochism writ large on a political scale and a nice, societal preparation for the eternal self-hatred and torment of Hell.
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