[At a speech at West Point, Bush] added an assertion that is demonstrably untrue but that, in the mouth of the president of the United States on an official occasion, amounted to an announcement of a crusade: "Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time, in every place." The preamble to the National Security Strategy document that followed claimed that there is a "a single sustainable model for national success" - ours - that is "right and true for every person in every society... The United States must defend liberty and justice because these principles are right and true for all people everywhere."We often hear how militant Islamists want to use violence to force the whole world to follow their belief system, which they uncritically accept as superior to all others. Our response to this alleged existential threat has been to use violence to try to force the whole world to our belief system, which we uncritically accept as superior to all others.
- Chalmers Johnson, pp. 286-287
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
to fight fire with fire
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4 comments:
Who uncritically accepts our violent response to other belief systems? Not me. Not anyone I know.
The uncritical acceptance is of the belief system, not the violence. I think you're misreading my words, but perhaps I'm not seeing a way of reading them that is consistent with your response.
I see, it could be read both ways. Hasn't this been a problem through the history of man? It's what the word "culture clash" was invented for. The Babylonians and the Jews had different cultures, so the Babylonians destroyed Israel. The Greeks and Spartans had different cultures, so the Greeks destroyed Sparta. The Romans and Greeks were different, so Rome destroyed Greece. Etc etc through history. It's a human flaw to fear, misunderstand, and look down upon other cultures. That doesn't mean it's justified, but there's a very good reason.
I suppose that while the moral outrage might not be particularly novel, seeing it in real time is still shocking. The hypocrisy of the rhetoric commonly used to support these activities is especially frustrating.
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