Where we are now

Here is an e-mail I sent out today to a list of readers along with a collection of recent VFR writings:

Dear Reader,

The British and American responses to the London bombings have revealed that, far from learning lessons from past mistakes as they are constantly boasting of having done, and far from showing great defiance and courage, as they boast of now doing, the British and American peoples are more entrenched than ever in leftist and neoconservative fantasies that make it impossible for them to defend themselves adequately from Islam and Islamic terrorism. In the below blog entries from the last few days, I reach some uncomfortable conclusions about the state of the West. What is apparent now more than ever before is the sheer massiveness of the liberal belief system as it has taken over and literally become the Western self. It is what the West is.

The result of these thoughts is not despair, but a greater sense of distance and objectivity toward Westerners and the contemporary West. I’m not thinking so much, as I sometimes do, “Oh, this or that event or insight might turn people around.” I see that any turnaround, if it is to occur at all, will happen much more slowly and agonizingly than through articles, debates, reports of threatening statements by Western Moslem terror supporters, or even a couple of terrorist attacks. Only real and sustained destruction, pain, and fear will wean Westerners from their liberal cult of Openness, as least as far as their openness to Moslems is concerned. That sounds very harsh and grim, but I believe it expresses our true state, and I think we must start being realistic about it.

Sincerely,
Lawrence Auster

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 12, 2005 01:11 PM | Send