The liberal religion

Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.
—Gen. George Casey, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, Meet the Press, Nov. 8

What have I always said? Under our liberal belief system, diversity, meaning the transformation of our historically white Christian majority society into a non-white, non-Christian majority society, is—along with the means of achieving it, which is non-discrimination—the highest value, to which all other values—life, liberty, country, sanity itself—must yield.

We can perhaps capture something of Casey’s mentality by paraphrasing Goneril’s disturbingly over-the-top reply to her father in Act I, Scene 1 of King Lear:

I love diversity more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
As much as general e’er loved, or political correctness found;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love diversity.

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

Reuters quotes the Meet the Press interview, and you can see it on YouTube. The exchange begins at 5:20 in the interview.

Brandon F., who had sent me the Casey quote, writes:

I just read your post and realized he is effectively saying that it is worth the occasional mass murder of soldiers in order to maintain this diversity. I guess all religions have their sacraments.

LA writes:

A problem with my Shakespeare paraphrase, as an astute blogger points out, is that Goneril was insincere in her protestations of infinite love for her father, whereas Casey actually believes what he says about diversity. But that’s the thing about paraphrases and analogies. You’re not comparing all aspects of one thing to all aspects of another, just some aspects. However, since the most famous thing about Goneril’s speech is its insincertiy, perhaps the paraphrase doesn’t work.

Patrick H. writes:

It is common to point to the degradation of liberal thought evident in appalling statements like that of the bureaucrat mediocrity General Casey (whose failure in Iraq is no longer a mystery to this observer). But what is sick-making about the words of Casey is their utter heartlessness. I’ve long thought that the ugliness of liberalism has been, not its emotionalism, but the opposite: a deadness of feeling, an absence of any genuinely human response to life, an icy cold sentimentalism that hides a depth of heartlessness, even mercilessness, that would put a chill into a psychopath. No one talks about “compassion” more than a liberal … and feels less of it.

Consider: “Diversity is … strength.” Orwellian sloganeering, and the first words out of Casey’s mouth. And, inevitably, the crime is a “tragedy,” and is not “evil,” but “horrific.” Notice the retreat from humanity evident in that last word. The most important thing is not the objective moral nature of the act, itself drastically miscategorized as a tragedy, but how it makes the observer feel. Casey is horrified by the evil perpetrated at Fort Hood, not, as would be true of anyone with a living soul, enraged (as well as horrified). His language reminds me of the repellently passive message of the memorial to Flight 93, with its invitation to visitors to “reflect” and experience “sorrow” and “grief.” Why is it that I sense that the people who claim to respond to crimes like Fort Hood or 9-11 with professed feelings of “sorrow” actually feel nothing of the sort? No-one talks “grief” more than liberals … and no-one feels it less.

Casey with his final words lets the dead cat out of the ice-cold bag of his heart: losing “diversity” is worse than the crime of mass murder. And so Casey pronounces sentence upon himself and the liberalism he so well represents: his central value, “diversity” (i.e., sameness), is so important that its loss (or delay more like it) is worse than murder.

Only a dead soul could say those words and mean them. Only a dead religion could produce acolytes like General George Casey, United States Army Chief of Staff—dead man walking, emotional zombie—unable even to feel the simplest human response to evil.

I should pray for him, but I can’t work up the will to do so right now. God save me from the sin of hatred.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 10, 2009 01:11 AM | Send