What if the supply of liberals is as inexhaustible as the supply of jihadists?

In an earlier entry I argued that liberalism is so deeply embued into the essence of Western people that there is no hope of ridding the West of its liberalism in the foreseeable future, but that, ironically, we may be saved from liberalism by Islam, which liberalism itself has admitted into the West. That is, when people see that liberalism is wholly unable to meet the immediate and horrible threats that Islam poses to our society, they will abandon liberalism, making Western survival possible. A reader expands on those thoughts and turns them in a darker direction. Though he misinterprets a couple of my points, his scenario is interesting in its own terms. I am especially struck by his comparison between an unstoppable tide of madrassa graduates and an unstoppable tide of liberal university graduates. It is as though we had to contend with two species of Orcs at the same time, one of them attacking our society from without and within, the other rendering any defense impossible, leading to a total Muslim victory and the ruin of our civilization.

Dear Mr. Auster:

Your reply to Shrewsbury poses one of many possible outcomes of the West’s close encounters with Islam. Logically, your premise and conclusion, that Islam in the West is the poison which liberalism has fostered, is interesting to explore. Essentially, you envision a scenario in which a violent reaction will unleash a development that will destroy both Islam and liberalism, thereby saving us, the good men of the West.

This is a hopeful possible course of events. But as a general said a few years back of fanatical Moslems, we can’t kill them as fast as the madrassas in Pakistan are turning them out. Now imagine that we can’t stem the legions of suicidal liberals that the universities in America are producing, the media is promoting, Hollywood is glorifying and the social engineers on the bench are creating.

In that possible universe, we will have both a sizable number of imported Moslems as well as a generation of Americans thoroughly steeped in the poison of liberalism in all its ugly manifestations. In such a society, the strongest, most unified group will attain hegemony. Islam would rise to the top as a natural consequence of being the most coherent group in a country that has lost all vestiges of its culture, heritage, and traditions. The entire country would cease being the historic America we have known….

Now that the liberal genie has been released from his bottle, how can we imagine that a reversal can occur in time to rescue our nation from the hordes of Moslems streaming in and the ranks of liberals swelling to the bursting point at every level of leadership?

Tonight, while walking through Times Square, I thought about how America seems to have become one great big masquerade ball and Disneyland all wrapped up in one big empty package. Everybody I talk to knows this and readily admits that they think the same as I do, that we are falling in much the same way as the Roman Empire. Despite the awareness of this tragic reality, some element is missing, a spark to ignite resistance and ultimately the battle which is sure to come as night follows day. What that spark is, what course our history shall take, remains to be seen.

Another reader, a formerly leftist Dylan fan who has repeatedly told me that we cannot eject Islam from the West and must instead learn how to get along with it, adds:

Subject: “YOU SAID YOU’D NEVER COMPROMISE WITH THE ISLAMIC TRAMP BUT NOW YOU REALIZE”

Read with interest your reader writing about the endless supply of suicidal liberals. Well I hate to say I told you so but the gist of the article is very close to my assessment of the situation which admittedly I kept repeating to you TO YOUR ANNOYANCE. Liberalism is too ingrained to dislodge in the near future therefore Islam and Muslims can’t be removed. Simple. I wish it wasn’t like that but as I’ve repeated endlessy to your annoyance one has to be realistic in dealing with this Islamic cancer. Sometimes cancers can’t be eradicated. The strength of liberalism assures that scenario.

The scenario the first reader presents is powerful and chilling, but, pace the second reader, it does not necessarily refute my more hopeful scenario. My scenario does not presume any numerical cut-off of liberals. Rather, I am saying that the sheer horror of aggressive Islam seeking to destroy our society, combined with the inability of liberalism to counter it, will discredit liberalism in the eyes of millions of people, including many liberals. We are already seeing, as a reaction to the increasingly open Islamic attack on the West, a growth of non-liberal ideas that would have been inconceivable in the absence of that attack.

Please remember that I am not being at all pollyannish when I make these projections. As I said in the earlier blog entry, since liberalism is now the essence of Western people, they must be melted down before they can free themselves of it. It goes without saying that they may not survive the operation.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 16, 2005 04:10 PM | Send