Fight or Die

Porphyrogenitus nails the problem caused by the "inner enemy" - the Westerners who themselves see Western culture as a threat to humanity:

European governments express concern over things like [Islamic militants in European countries calling for Shari'a in Europe], but if you judge real concern by action, it's hard to see much. We do not expect other cultures to tolerate movements dedicated to their destruction, but there is a level of passivity throughout much of the West to not only threats, but actions, based on that desire. I have written before that I am adamantly in favor of welcoming immigrants of whatever background who want to join our society and live within our civilization. But that is not the same as welcoming a viper to your bosom.

One thing that needs to be noted is that Europeans don't actually travel much. They boast about how many countries they've been to, and deride Americans for mostly staying here, without realizing that most of their countries are smaller, less populous and less culturally diverse that American States. Not to mention, Americans actually do travel out-of-Continent more frequently than Europeans, largely due to overseas military and foreign policy committments and student study-abroad programs. (I've got to dig up the link for that, because it's an important point to have direct evidence for.) As a result, I think that Europeans are less likely to understand the cultures outside of their own, less able to put their culture in a worldwide context (and less able to put their culture in a historical context, due to the debased Marxist form of history commonly taught in Old Europe), and thus less capable of fearing what threatens to consume them. Sadly, I don't think that Old Europe will understand the threat until it's literally "fight or die".

Posted by Jeff at April 28, 2004 09:40 AM | Link Cosmos