The records continue to tumble: It's only a month since the deadliest single-shooter massacre in American history. Now we have the worst slaughter in Texas history and the deadliest church shooting in US history: Twenty-five people are dead for no other reason that they attended Sunday service in the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. One man walked in, began firing, and, from a weekly congregation of approximately fifty, left almost everyone slain or injured, including the Pastor's 14-year-old daughter.
In between these two bloodbaths, some guy went Allahu Akbar on a Manhattan bike path and killed eight people. Within five days, the usual psycho misfit loner from the teeming swamps of loserdom managed to make a proud Uzbek Soldier of Allah look like a know-nothing piker who can't even rack up a third of the corpse count of some schlub with an unknown grievance against a town of 400 people. Some global caliphate you got there, Sayfullo.
A republic requires virtue, and the decline of virtue is accompanied necessarily by the decline of the concept of evil, and its substitution by exculpatory analysis of the "motives" of evil. A more useful conversation would be on what it takes to remove the most basic societal inhibition - including the instinctive revulsion that would prevent most of us from taking the lives of strangers, including in this case eighteen-month-old babies. That inhibition is weaker in the dar al-Islam, because of Islam's institutional contempt for "the other" (unbelievers) but also because of the rewards promised in the afterlife. Thus, violence is sanctioned by paradise. That is the precise inversion of our society, and yet the weakening of inhibition seems to be proceeding here, too. A church sealed off by yellow police tape: a shameful and astonishing sight, and yet one senses that it will neither shame nor astonish us for long, that something else will come along to make the records books and distract a couple of news cycles.
It was not always so. Over five years ago, I wrote:
If you recall the spate of American school shootings around the turn of the century, you may also remember that in the immediate aftermath of September 11 they ceased — almost as if, in a nation fired to righteous anger and waging war in a just cause, even the most solipsistic psychos can discern that taking out Grade Six will look like an act of feeble narcissism. But the years go by, and righteous anger fades to WMD, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, Bush lied . . . and the lone-wolf sociopath returns.
"Solipsistic psychos" and "feeble narcissism": As I write, someone is on the airwaves promising that we will soon know the "motive" of the shooter. To dignify what drove this guy to do what he did as "motive" is to torture the word beyond meaning. But then our interest in the concept of "motive" is highly variable. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
One Year Later, Motive of St. Cloud Mall Attacker Remains Unclear
So, when a "Minnesota man" stabs mall shoppers while yelling "Allahu Akbar!", the motive "remains unclear": The befuddlement is nigh on universal ...for years on end. But a fellow who thinks getting a bad-conduct discharge or falling out with your mother-in-law, or losing your job or being dumped by your girl or having your mom suggest that as you're pushing thirty it might be time to move out of the basement, is a "motive" for shooting up a church or a schoolhouse or a movie theatre or an old folks' home or whatever's next, that guy we're fascinated by, for weeks on end - and then months and years later on in all those "Inside the Mind of..." TV documentaries. They have church shootings in Egypt and Pakistan, too, but in service of cleansing the dar al-Islam of believing Christians, and leaving Islam king on a field of corpses. Our church shootings are in service of ...what?
The words I wrote above came in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado Batman shooting, in which a film about nothing attracted a bloodbath about nothing. Whether or not there is a connection between the two, there is certainly a symmetry. The bike-path jihadist has a rational motive: He wishes to replace western decadence with an Islamic Sharia state. But, for Hollywood, that's all a wee bit sensitive for our delicate sensibilities, so instead we have films in which the techniques of terrorism - bomb plots, beheadings - are divorced from motive:
Film after film shows bad men plotting, scheming, disguising, infiltrating, planting, detonating, slaughtering on an industrial scale. But why? Who knows? And so we watch the world burn, with explosions and fireballs and shattering glass and screaming civilians unmoored from any recognizable reality. Back in the spring, I passed an amiable couple of hours with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 4, an instantly forgettable blockbuster. It opens with some bloke blowing up the Kremlin and proceeds to the usual nuclear-countdown finale in a parking garage, but it isn't about anything. It's like a perfectly executed act of mass terrorism for no reason at all.
I don't think it's a surprise that a vapid culture produces vapid murderers. In a sense, the unusual seriousness of the immediate post-9/11 era imposed a discipline on "feeble narcissism" that extended even unto those "solipsistic psychos".
One should not underestimate the effectiveness of cultural pressures. For a couple of days last week, everyone on TV was an Uzbek activist. My own experience of that benighted stan is limited to a few days in and around Tashkent and Samarkand, not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Say what you will about the Commies, but they held the lid on Islam: The Uzbeks I met were nominal, residual Muslims; they consumed alcohol at a fairly impressive rate to this semi-Irishman and there was no imam to give them a hard time over it because the mosques had all been closed. Then in the Nineties the Wahhabists and Salafists showed up and started walking around a ton of Saudi cash, and slowly, inevitably, Islam awoke...
It's not an attractive model, but in Central Asia Moscow held its subject peoples' pathologies in check. So too did the Raj in what's now Pakistan. What cultural pressures would suppress our worst pathologies, would staunch that descent into "feeble narcissism"? For those of us who think the Islamization of the west is the most pressing issue of our time, and the one that will determine our future, the depraved one-man bloodbath in a house of God is not merely an affront and an abomination - but also embarrassing in its self-indulgence and decadence. It has instantly obliterated the Uzbek jihadist, just as the Las Vegas attack instantly obliterated that weekend's vehicular diversity by a Somali in Alberta, and the two Frenchwomen fatally stabbed in Marseilles, and the trial of a teen jihadist in Oslo... As I put it just a few weeks ago:
All these events, by fiercely committed ideologues in multiple jurisdictions in service of a global civilizational struggle, were all but forgotten, banished to the in-brief sidebars at the foot of page 37 by one apparently non-ideological American retiree who, unlike the aforementioned, was extremely good at killing large numbers of people.
And now by a 26-year-old loser, likewise way better than Johnny bin Jihad at killing large numbers of people.
I confess to a certain resentment at this. I regard the Albertan, French and Norwegian stories as far more relevant to where our world is heading. It is not a small thing when a young Frenchwoman can have her throat slit in broad daylight at a major public venue in a European metropolis, notwithstanding that the Mayor of London and others tell us we have to accept that it's now part and parcel of life in a big city. Yet in a certain sense these events are ineffectual - as the corpse count of a Stephen Paddock reminds us. And every Stephen Paddock makes it easier for all those who want to brush off Islamic supremacism and retreat to all those lame-o lines about how you've got more chance of being killed by a toppling household appliance than by a terrorist, and anyway, even when the shooting starts, half-a-dozen Isis cells can't match one white-male gun nut. Why didn't the Somali guy, the North African, the Caucasian jihadist figure out what one 64-year-old from a Nevada retirement community did? That all over the map there are soft targets with large numbers of people penned into small, tight, open-air spaces - and right across the street tall hotels whose upper floors offer easy opportunities for a bloodbath.
Or, failing that, unprotected churches and schoolhouses and old folks' homes...
America's four deadliest single-shooter mass murders occurred in the last decade. Only one of them - the Orlando nightclub massacre - can be said to have a political or ideological component. The rest seem to be a peculiarly contemporary form of narcissism - that, when my life heads south, the only way to give it meaning is to take large numbers of people with me. There is no cause, no fealty, no "Allahu Akbar!" - because pointless slaughter is the supreme triumph of amoral will: Who needs Allah? You're your own Allah. Unlike Manchester or Nice or Paris or Berlin or Brussels, there is no meaning: Indeed, the only meaning is the meaninglessness; that is the point - the black void at the heart of the act.
Texas officials now believe they have their "motive" - in their words, "a domestic situation going on in this family"; in my words, "the black void at the heart of the act". It is a grim phenomenon, its accelerating proliferation is deeply disturbing, and it is not unconnected to the broader societal weakness in which Islam senses its opportunity.
~We had a busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with a video edition of Mark's Mailbox in which he answered questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the world on some of the big issues of our time. We also celebrated Guy Fawkes Night with our Saturday movie pick - V for Vendetta - and marked our friend Patsy Gallant's upcoming appearance in Toronto with her live performance of "L'Hymne Ă l'amour". If you were tied up with other activities these last 72 hours or so, we hope you'll want to catch up with one or two or more of the foregoing.
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92 Member Comments
The really frightening thing about all this, as you note Mark, is that white American folk are capable and efficient. A couple rubes with a rental van took down a whole federal building.
"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." - George Orwell (attrib)
Thankfully, we still have one intelligent man in America. That he arrived from Canada is not a hopeful sign for those who didn't.
I am kind of getting a kick out of the reactions to the Texas thing.
It seems that quite a few people have concluded that we need more guns as opposed to the usual reactions.
Carrying both a gun and a bible to church seems to make some sense.
More than James Taylor and teddy bears anyway.
Indeed. Make your death notable and enduring (plus/minus in the service of Allah) by taking others with you. Secular dictators etc in one part of the world held a violent religious ideology in check, just as our vast common inheritance in the West has been a restraining influence on our own "worst pathologies"; the collapse in both systems corresponds with the rise of cult-of-self, manifest at the extreme end- with depraved mass killings- in much the same way.
What's interesting is that Steyn and the late C Hitchens are amongst the few to critique the psychopathology common to individual acts of ideological mass slaughter without diminishing the contribution of the (also self-regarding) ideology, and the solipsism extending to co-religionists more broadly. Hitchens noted that "...(the religion) exhibits the horrible trio of self-hatred, self-righteousness, and self-pity." That is, "feeble narcissism" (.... a disorder of character rather than "personality").
Like Mark, Theodore Dalrymple has described the (often covert) narcissistic disposition shared by perpetrators of non-ideological acts-- "No one, not even the most murderous psychopath, is so lacking in compassion that he does not pity himself."
With an epidemic of narcissism-- admittedly most of it somewhat benign and "positive" (selfie internet exhibitionism, conspicuous compassion etc)-- the increase in lethal, evil forms expressed by pathologically failed and angry self-regarding types is also likely to be on the rise.
I believe that the general market in America is now operating in a way that makes psychopathology the most expedient path to success. Those with no conscience, systems with no conscience, these are what makes people into what everyone seems to desire these days.
Correct: "high-functioning" (non-criminal/ non-violent) psychopathy is the key to career success in many fields.... charm, callousness and "conscienceless-ness" go a long way!
Great analysis Mark on the cultural State of the Union. My hero in all this is the armed Texan (with the white hat) who chased down the bad gunslinger (with the black hat) and put an end to it. The guy should have a parade. This is how I remember a thriving culture decades ago, before the nut jobs got control of it.
Today we have the politicians wearing their grave faces being very solemn, and wringing their hands at candle light vigils. The media of course is thrilled, as they live in the culture of death. They focus all their attention on the loser de jour. Seriously, throw this guy a parade. Give him a medal. Give him a town - Willeford, Texas. Don't let him say no - that's leftist way of thinking. At least do it for "Nostalgia day" if you can't do it properly. Because the way things are going, armed citizens and carry permits may be your best chance to get through the religious service, the music concert, or the bicycle outing.
Like your idea about naming a town after the man. Or two, one that drove and one that did the shooting! It's refreshing and has been done. There is a town on the interstate south of Albuquerque called Truth or Consequences after that show's talk show host came through town. It used to be called Hot Springs for the mineral springs there. That town had a name change for next to no reason, so sure, Sutherland Springs could and should do the right thing and consider either of those two heroes' names for their town. We seem to be going back to the days when the West was wild, only now the towns are either so big and the police are so few there's something to be seriously considered about this idea of us all being self-reliant and knowing how to defend one's own person and family.
Sunday was another great lesson in the inability of our government institutions to protect us and in our need for self reliance. Similar to the actions of the passengers on 9/11's Flight 93, Stephen Willeford, a private citizen empowered by our still unique liberties, wasn't enfeebled from taking action and bringing an end to the carnage before the local authorities were able to respond. We build ivory tower bureaucracies that are reflections of ourselves and our misguided desires to be gods. We then demand that all bow and worship our man-made institutions. Well, the value of those ivory towers was once again clearly on display Sunday as we learn that the Air Force failed to register the murderer's crimes with the FBI thus enabling him to buy weapons he legally wasn't permitted to own.
Given the ineptitude of the FBI and the state of ADD present in the Fed's management skills, I believe the case is made daily that our most important American quality may be found in our small city-state moorings and that large overnment institutions will almost always fail individual citizens. The Feds should stop pretending that big brother government can solve these problems at all and allow the citizens to manage crime and punishment at the city-state level, which happens anyway. I've never seen a clearer case of that than this horrible ragedy. I've also never seen the government regulations and laws credited with stopping carnage, only brave individuals.
Mark, I certainly agree with you about Uzbekistan, they know what they are dealing with and so have dealt with it--unlike clueless NYC Mayor De Blasio and Governor Cuomo, not to mention the entire US Establishment including FBI, DHS, ICE, State Dept.,Congress...and of course, the MSM. But already the story is vanishing and all that remains, like the Cheshire Cat's smile, is Jake Tapper's admonition that "Allahu Akbar" can be said at the most beautiful of circumstances--like NYC's Halloween terrorist truck attack.
In a way the two phenomenon the solipsistic shooter and the Islamic supremacist are symptoms of the same disease - civilisational exhaustion. I think this point about about contemporary western life was well made by Michel Houellebecq. In the Elementary Particles the moral vacuum of western life was replaced by asexual clones; in Submission by Islam. Mark has made frequent reference to the Toynbee quote that civilisations don't die by murder but by suicide. Or civilisation appears to be dying of ennui. Substitute the outrage feed on Breitbart of Drudge for the feeling of dashed expectation in that Cavafy poem and that's more or less where we are. What's left really of our collective culture and purpose other than one more pointless exchange on cable debating the relative lethality of the bogeymen of the left and the right.
Certainly civilizational exhaustion can account for the solipsistic shooter, but it isn't the reason for the Islamic jihad. It is the reason so many Western European nations are not resisting either jihad or hijrah because they have ceased to believe in the virtues of their own culture. We will quickly descend back into the dark ages, and mankind might never recover. Where are the modern Jon Sobieski's? It is to me quite incomprehensible that the better Western invention makes life on earth for mankind, the more the West is convinced to hate itself. As Stephen Pinker asked, why do progressives hate progress?
The easier things are made for us, the less we expect snafus and waiting things out. Life has become overwhelming, the world's catastrophes are in our face daily, even hourly. It's hard to process everything so it's best to get on with one's life, leave the governance to those who like that sort of thing and one day you wake up and the people in charge in your home town day after Election Day are all progressive Leftists and as a bonus gift we now even have a complete wacko Leftist lawyer just moved here from San Francisco replacing our one true conservative councilor. This morning, the one thought that hits is: It's all over now! We're doomed! The Left who markets real hate and fake news stories and whose currency is in Ad Hominem attacks and scare tactics is creeping into every crevice they can inhabit even the small farming towns across the country.
In their minds, they are making progress. Although, it seems as if nationally as a party they are the ones collapsing, but now, after the election here in Southern New Mexico and in Virginia and New Jersey last night, I'm not so sure. The uphill battle continues!
I get it about Leftists moving from where they have irreparably soiled their nests to places that are still relatively pristine and implementing the same policies that caused mess they are leaving without ever understanding what they are doing. Here in rural New Hampshire, it's folks from Massachusetts, having made that state nearly unlivable, coming up here and immediately trying to create the same "services" they had in Mass. They come because our taxes are so much lower (no income or sales taxes) but they expect to have the same level of government intervention in ordinary life that they had back in Massachusetts. They don't seem to understand that government is funded from the pockets of the ordinary citizen and if you want a lot of government,you have to pay a lot of taxes.
Not surprising! We're just in different parts of the same country.
Practicing Christians already are in the counter culture. Soon marginal or cultural Christians will be in that same bucket. The inroads that Islam on one side and secularism on the other have made don't seem to have made the US a better place.
Mark asked, "Our church shootings are in service of ...what? "
In the context offered, the perpetrators of certain mass killings, outside of the U.S., had a particular motive or justification. so to speak. Perhaps so, as despicable as that is.
There happened to be a neighbor of mine who blurted out to me one day as he ranted about this 'n that, "If I were diagnosed with a terminal illness, I'd take my guns to the nearest hangout of queers and shoot a hundred of 'em."
Motive? Justification? Just plain whack-o as far as I am concerned - and we have more than enough in this world of ours to be concerned about. Who knows what hatred-inspired rage is about to boil over within anyone of us at any given moment?
There have been shocking mass murders in this country spanning the centuries; nothing new there. I am unaware of any preventative measure(s) that would be effective in thwarting those types of horrible events.
However, we seemingly are on a path to explain-away "why?" - put together "rationale" and come up with prophesies regarding the downfall of the U.S.A. in comparison to, let's say, Rome and so forth. And of course, "Take away their guns," that is always a good catch-phrase too.
Nearly as soon as the blood splatters, we are bombarded with pontification regarding motive and all the speculation accompanying the relative know-nothings appearing across the spectrum of television "news" programming. Makes for captivating story lines - recall the OJ car chase? Good Gawd Gertie, will it ever end?
Therefore, I say in answer to Mark's question: "Nothing.
We live in a world where the whack-o may or may not resort to violence. Sort of a crap shoot where open societies are concerned.
Sorry to have to report that we as a species are indeed a murderous lot.
Tom in Missouri
A few of us are murderous, not a lot. In all the super-focus of the media that has to fill 24 hrs of airtime, one must keep events in perspective. 300 million people. What percentage are committing mass -murder with assault rifles? About 0.00001%, encouraged by the media attention who will air their grievances and rationalize their atrocities, that are based on an age-old human flaw - thirst for revenge.
Holly,
Appears I have flicked your switch . . . good.
Of all the species on this planet, guess which two are notorious murderous? Hint: humans are #1.
Percentages are fine; however - I support my contention that we are indeed a murderous lot. If
Maslow's hierarchy of needs were not filled, those percentages would sky rocket.
Tom in Missouri
Siberianmo, I enjoy reading your commentary, it's insightful and I agree with you on almost all of it, on other Steyn topics as well. But this idea that we are a "murderous lot", is an age-old despairing and I think inaccuarate view, born out of the aftermath of wars and other mass-murdering calamities. that have happened throughout history. Yes, we murder, because we are head and shoulders (pardon the pun) more intelligent and complex than the rest of the species, and are thoughts sometimes take us bad places. In Steyn's talk today, he mentions America's murder rate is 0.005%. So 99.995% of Americans are not murderers....that's a very safe society. Perspective is needed in an era of media-fuelled alarmism. The vast majority of human beings do not murder, are civilised, and use the modern justice system in place of fear and revenge.
"Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I think that is the difference between conservatives and leftists. We know what humans can do so we work at promoting that which civilizes us, they think, Hey let's get rid of everything that has ever civilized man and we will have utopia. We've seen that utopia, it never works.
Agreed.
Holly,
My perspective came from studies in Anthropology wherein the "evidence" regarding human behavior supports what I have said.
That certainly does not mean we are all harboring some innermost - unacted upon - desire to murder. However, even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter admitted to a different form of "adultery." (humor) Wonder what the numbers would amount to if they included thoughts of perpetrating the evil deed? Hmmmmm.
Within 25 miles of where I reside is a city called St. Louis where the murder rate is off the charts and one is taking a hellluva chance walking the streets, off the beaten path, alone - day or night. Hardly a safe society there - or the south side of Chicago or . . . pick one or three.
I do understand where your logic comes from. However, in my days (daze) at university as a 50 year old plus student, statistics and research methods were all about "fun with numbers." Follow my drift?
Anyway, appreciate the kind words and food-for-further-thought.
Tom in Missouri
Siberianmo, of course there are places that have much higher murder rates, the Country is not homogeneous, like Skippy peanut butter, it's more like mint ice cream with chocolate chips ( i don't mean that in a racist way AT ALL) But in most places it is low. All the evidence I need, is looking at the Country.
The commentary by TMSC members on this is superior to media reporting and analysis. By a country mile.
I get more information from Mark Steyn's posts and you and other club members than I do from most any other sources. I feel very fortunate to have a place to exchange ideas with others who think outside the box.
There's other thing about this format and feature that appeals to me. I like that others who have more knowledge in certain areas seldom convey a sense of superiority and avoid lording it over the rest of the membership. I fell behind with the recommended film viewing and only just finished "Remains of the Day." There was a scene in the second half close to the end where the Anthony Hopkins character is put on the hot seat in front of his employer, the Lord and his other phony high brow types and he was asked some pertinent questions about the political affairs or financial affairs of the day, and Anthony Hopkins's character had to act stupidly, as a fool or dimwit when he knew exactly what was going on but his duty in his position did not allow him to comment at all.
So he declined to answer the questions posed by the elitist who meant to embarrass and make his ignorance prove his point that the common folk are too dumb to understand how to manage government and without snobs and educated elitists running the show all hell would break loose. But that's what we have now. The elitists in education and government know better than us and we see the fruits of their efforts all
around us.
Agree and am heartened by your comment. Yes there is good literature out there and I, too, was very much moved by Zenda. The problem is that in these post modern times if the message is optimistic it is often somewhat saccharine and sentimental, which I cannot stomach. The cutting edge stuff is nihilistic and amoral, kind of a race to the bottom; as if authors think...let's see if I can tell a more disgusting and tawdry tale about life's meaninglessness. It takes a real talent to tell a real story of strength and selflessness and nobility of heart. So we go to the classics. But in my mind I always ask what can I I do to stop this tsunami of ennui and help
fill that black void in the heart Mark speaks of?
From time-to-time throughout the history of human-kind, people have written and lamented about " the black void in the heart" that is impossible for people to comprehend. That is because so few people actually have a black void in their hearts. This is despite two generations watching violent entertainment and playing violent video games. What is amazing is how FEW people commit violent crimes. We have no reason to, because human beings don't kill for fun, and they can tell the difference between entertainment and real-life. There are a few, a small percentage of the population, that have a void. They are psychotic, narcissistic, or consumed by hate. Some people are troubled. There is more help for people struggling with poverty, mental health, disabilities, gang pressures and drug addiction than ever before in history. Perhaps that is why only 5 people in 100,000, or 0.005%, murder. Life is not meaningless to 99.995% of the population.
The more this story unfolds, the more it reminds one of 9/11 where, as Mark has noted, the authorities messed up (in this case, the Air Force) and, to use Justin Trudeau's phrase, those exhibiting toxic masculinity took charge.
I am looking at this from a different angle based on the assumption that evil people will not disappear from the world. Obviously, what many people including Mark brought up culture, virtue, etc are important assuming that this can be implemented despite the resistance of powerful corrupting forces. The western world did not sink into nihilism and feeble narcissism overnight it was many decades in the making and it will require many decades to change if at all. So look at the event in Texas the massacre would have been worse if not for a citizen with a rifle intervened and scared off the gunmen. This citizen is now labeled by the media as a hero. The whole massacre could have been avoided or meaningfully mitigated if a significant number of the parishioners instead of relying on divine protection would have been ready to protect themselves their family and friends having a gun with them at the church.
History substantiates that the farther we stray from our Creator the more chaos and evil enters our world. That is because we are, by our fallen nature, "Incurvatus in se", curved inward on ourselves. The God of the Bible (not Allah) uniquely calls us outside of ourselves, draws us away from our narcissism, and frees us to live our lives for Him and for our neighbors (. We'll never completely escape the evil both around us and in us while we're in exile on this side of Eden, but a healthy and steady diet of Word and Sacrament will help us break our bondage to the image in the mirror with which we are so fatally enamored. It is then that we are able to come to the realization that any virtue we think we've earned isn't ours, but rather God's, and we can begin to conduct our lives in light of that epiphany.
Not unrelated to the concepts of the will required "...to cling to the splendour of truth", versus tendency towards acts of "self-assertion", as outlined in Mark's PJPII obituary.
Yeats said it best:
" Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
The last two lines are especially poignant.
"Things Fell Apart" will be America's epitaph.
That is an inaccurate assessment of the civilized Western World we live in. All because there has been a couple of dozen group murders by people using a new weapon on innocent people, the assault rifle. It is new and upsetting, but blown out of proportion by the media. These people want the media attention to justify their grievances and horrific actions. The media should not cover the stories. Instead they should talk about the many gains in ackling gun violence and crime over the decades, starting with the transformation of New York City, and the steady gains in reducing poverty and violence in inner city neighbourhoods. Yes, there is a lot more to do, the point is things have been getting better not worse. But you wouldn't know it from the media coverage, which is effectively promoting self-doubt and societal guilt over a litany of so-called Western Society
"crimes" that are either inaccurate or have been already been confronted and largely rectified, such as slavery, racism, gender equality, homophobia, minority rights, environmental damage, world food production and a long list of other things. All of these things have been IMPROVING.
In life, you will be changed by the books you read and the people you meet.
Mark asks, "What cultural pressures would suppress our worst pathologies, would staunch that descent into "feeble narcissism"?"
I found The Prisoner of Zenda to be a book that has changed my life. So many stories now are meaningless, frivolous, vulgar, crude, rude, lewd, and all that. When you look at many titles of the old classic movies, you see they had energetic, uplifting and optimistic story lines that as entertainment fit in with a bustling, horizon-busting national spirit.
Today, the spirit in swathes of the country is depressed, opiate-addicted couch dwellers of workforce age are not working, the family unit is in bad shape, etc. It goes on and on. There's plenty that's bright and cheery and not at all like that, but the other is getting weightier.
I decided to start choosing stories with things like the duty and honor of The Prisoner of Zenda. Although it seems unlikely, it's not impossible that depressing, drugged-out, dark and violence-inducing fare could start to lose some market share to stories that reach human nature by communicating directly still to human nature, but rather than to the brooding, dark, Johnny Depp destructive nature that's seems so cool but which led his buddy Hunter Thompson to blow his head off and have his ashes shot through a cannon, to the, yes, virtues of human nature that produces the good things.
You sum up many of the reasons why I no longer watch current Hollywood movies, the celebrity worship and enrichment of left-wing political ideologues is another. I would much rather watch classic movies and read classic fiction. I usually read non-fiction exclusively, but I'm going back to some of the classics now thanks to a renewed interest that I credit to the Tales For Our Time.
I hope you're right about the market share. I enjoyed Tim Allen's "Last Man Standing" but of course it has been canceled, even thought it had high ratings. Can't have some Conservative-values show becoming too mainstream.
Agree and am heartened by your comment. Yes there is good literature out there and I, too, was very much moved by Zenda. The problem is that in these post modern times if the message is optimistic it is often somewhat saccharine and sentimental, which I cannot stomach. The cutting edge stuff is nihilistic and amoral, kind of a race to the bottom; as if authors think...let's see if I can tell a more disgusting and tawdry tale about life's meaninglessness. It takes a real talent to tell a real story of strength and selflessness and nobility of heart. So we go to the classics. But in my mind I always ask what can I I do to stop this tsunami of ennui and help
fill that black void in the heart Mark speaks of?
There is another, simpler explanation for these seemingly inexplicable mass shootings. Anti-depressant and other medications. Are there any studies showing a correlation on this?
A known potential side effect of many anti-depressant medications is suicidal thoughts, especially during the first months of use. The drug companies list this potential side effect in the product info and you will even hear it mentioned on some of the TV ads. This side effect is more common for younger people, however it could affect any users. I believe you are on to something.
The over-medication (some would say chemical castration) of men is a very serious problem and I have no doubt that there are correlations. I believe that Adam Lanza was another murderer with a history of mental issues and a vast psychiatric drug resume as well. The labeling of boys as "ADHD" and castrating them slowly with Ritalin and other drugs to make them more like girls is sadistic and profoundly wicked. Shame on all the doctors and parents who participate in this form of child abuse.
This high school student gets it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-8k7YKl8hE&feature=youtu.be&t=4m05s
His teacher's twist on Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is "I think it, therefore it is."
I hope she doesn't teach math.
Good question, Mark: "What cultural pressures would suppress our worst pathologies, would staunch that descent into "feeble narcissism"?"
Both Radical Islam and the Mainstream West live in a culture of death. From the Hamas slogan, "We value death more than you value life," to the West's support for Abortion and Euthanasia, a perverse attraction to death is common to both pathologies. Our entertainment industry churns out death and nihilism continuously, and aims it at younger and younger age groups. We've been at war continuously now for over a generation.
So...what cultural pressures would suppress the culture of death that has overtaken Mainstream Western Culture...and the nihilism that comes with it?
How about a resurgent Americanism? A thriving economy where every American has an opportunity? Ending foreign wars. Putting Americans first. Draining the swamp in both our Government and Entertainment/Media complexes. Encouraging love for one another. And, most importantly, putting God at the center of our lives.
I can think of one politician who ran on that platform, and he happens to be President of the United States today. I pray that all of this violence is the last, thrashing tantrum of the evil culture of Death before it is defeated.
Steyn nails it again. There is more going on in our decline than the rise of Allahu Akbar. This transmission and propagation of virtue will need further discussion and pursuit. Some will call us back to our churches and synagogues, but such invitations ring hollow for those of us not already tolerant of odd dogma and conflicting stories. Strong transmission of values seems to follow larger crises and major events; but we would rather not require a disaster to rediscover how to prevent them. Fighting narcissism will be a challenge, especially while avoiding false gods such as environmentalism, animal rights, or yes, global warming as our pursuits.
There's a connection here to the broader withdrawal of men from what we may call civilized life. In the absence of a purpose to which they can adhere, darker tendencies hold sway.
https://dobridupin.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/superfluous-men/
To clarify further, these horrible, vengeful, hateful, narcissicist acts appear to be meaningless and senseless to the rest of us, but to the killer there is meaning. We just don't get it because our minds don't think like that. But the killer wants the entire country to know of his grievance, which he has rationalized and justified in his own mind. He wants his act analyzed and explained so everyone knows why he did it. Why all those people had to die, and what drove him to do it. He wants justification, and he may even get sympathy from the " Oh we understand now its been explained to us media", in some cases. "Too bad the poor, unhappy, unfairly treated guy didn't recieve help before he got to the snapping point". Stopping the media coverage that tries to explain his evil, unjustifiable act might help to remove the appeal to those contemplating these acts of evil and vengence.
Good points. I suppose that to quite an extent, many of them do it because we tolerate it so well. Culture rewards them. Suddenly you've gone from a nobody to the hottest thing on the news, analyzed with endless fascination and mystery and maybe gotten a place in the media's pantheon of Jack the Ripper to you, permanently in the rotation that glamorizes evil to the point of what's called immortality.
When an attention-seeking fan runs into the field at a nationally televised sporting event, producers don't air it.
The virtues taken for granted as universally dispersed in the West aren't just "there". They're Judeo-Christian in origin.
But now, they are getting shuffled out of the order that made civilized societies, supplanted by new ones like diversity and tolerance, which in their current form is un-civilizing society.
Mass killers are always instantly treated softly and sympathetically. If they survive, they are taken to a private, comfortable hospital suite and given the best care, cost-free. They are given a morals-free defense attorney and a pile of money for expert witnesses to lie on their behalf. They are endlessly psychoanalyzed as if they are important. Many reporters still include the Vegas shooter as one of the 59 victims.
They should be treated appropriately badly, and be quietly and unceremoniously served cold justice.
But tolerance doesn't work that way.
I don't agree that our Western virtues are Judeo-Christian in origin. They are human in origin. I agree that mass killers are treated softly and sympathetically. Not sure why. At this point in history, the West is going through a phase of not being "allowed" to criticize another group or culture without being accused of being racist or intolerant. It seems everyone has an excuse for bad behaviour just by claiming to be part of one of a large number of identity groups, mental illness for example, eroding cultural co-hesiveness by creating doubt and constant questioning of "where the line should be drawn" when implementing moral judgements. Accurate assessment of cultural and moral values isn't tolerated , while unrealistic and pseudo-scientific assessments are virtually enforced through public shaming of reality- based views that include expectations that individuals are responsible for their actions and choices, and must accept consequences.
Good post.
I have to agree with you on the media treatment of these people. I wish they would simply report the story and refer to the killer as a loser. But instead the media obsesses with endless coverage and "panels of experts" and raises the loser's status to something undeserved. In a way it's not unlike the status bestowed on bank robbers and gunslingers of the old wild west. They get remembered, yet their contribution to society is a minus. Leave these losers in deserved obscurity and let those who study criminal law deal with them.
But Mark is right. Surprise! This type of activity flourishes in a society that has willfully abandoned its strengths and virtues and staggers on like a zombie looking to Hollywood for its moral compass and a hollowed out leftist media for brains. Nature, like dogs, abhors a vacuum. After you finish knocking all the pillars of your civilization down, it's unlikely that what leaks in under the collapsed roof in will make your society better.
Until things change I would suggest that folks abandon movies, television and MSM to the zombies, and follow Mark and his kind for solid information, good music, good theatre, good humour, etc. At least you are pointed solidly in the right direction.
I agree with many of the comments here, and some of Mark's analysis, but I do not agree that mainly Christians possess good human values in our Western societies and that our societal moral values are degrading due to less Christianity. Virtually everyone in Western society, religious or not, has good values instilled in them from a young age. The mass shootings by feeble narcissicists recieve massive media attention, saught after by the narcissistic killers, make it fashionable and appealing to other potential angry vengeful narcissicists. In the big picture in a country of 300 million people, there aren't many of these horrific acts of vengence, but they recieve a lot of attention and hence the grievance of the killers recieve A LOT OF ATTENTION - which is what they want - justification for their vengeful act. Stop the media coverage and as Mark says" the search for meaning" of the evi deed, and these evil occurances will decline.
A year ago, Mark wrote:
In 1997, Theodore Dalrymple wrote, in an article on suicide:
...so there may be something to be said for living in interesting times, at that.
OMG I cannot believe the light bulb in my head only went off now about Leni Riefenstahl. I mean, I knew the title of the film which you so cleverly pun upon, but Mark are you connecting the dots now from the cultural celebration through film of Nazi totalitarianism to our current vapid cultural malaise and emptiness, to the new wave of totalitarianism and nihilism? OH MAH GAWD.
Warning: Reading a column this insightful followed by watching cable news coverage of the same event is hazardous to your health.
Guess I've got trains on the brain this week, but along with general analysis of Mark's views vs. cable coverage of the same event, I liken Mark's commentary to being a high-speed train in that we know there's a destination and we're not going to waste time arriving and cable news coverage to a leisurely walk through a dense woods, where you have no idea where you're going and time is not a factor.
I write not from any statistical study, just from my own gut feel. Using guns to end one's own life is nothing new in the world. It is unfortunate that it happens, saddening that people can get so down that they feel life is not worth living, and downright tragic when they would take someone else with them, usually the poor spouse or partner.
Today we have a new phenomenon called "suicide by police", where the violent perpetrator will provoke an incident in order to go out "in a blaze of glory". Texas loser may have tried to get away, but it would have only been inevitable that he was holed up in a barn facing a hundred angry state troopers. He wasn't coming out alive from this situation.
Where does all that come from? We can blame Hollywood and the violence it portrays as "normalizing" this sort of action. But changing the First Amendment is no better than changing the Second one.
Personally, I think watching this stuff does desensitize. But actually doing this stuff, in the form of the myriads of extreme violence games that millions play on their home consoles and computers for hours on end, a bazillion dollar business with little care for how a young mind is corrupted by the action of shooting scores of human beings dead, then rebooting and doing it again, only better than last time.
I get it - it's also a 1st Amendment issue and I have no good solution for that. I also get that 99% of people who play this stuff won't go out and commit such violent acts (although I do not know how the physical infusion of violence into one's brain on a daily basis cannot but produce some poison that invades the mind and makes one more apt to use violence in other ways). I suspect that most parents are not even aware of the depths of depravity that little Johnny is imbibing daily after school or after dinner of whenever.
I have no answers other than parents control what goes on with their kids.
God bless the souls of the fallen, heal the bodies of the hurt, console the hearts of those who lost loved ones.
The decline of virtue has been driven by the courts, who have steadfastly protected our right to be without virtue unless it involves non-tax paid drugs.
I don't think people actually know what virtue actually means. I mean they literally do not know, and would be hard pressed to define the concept in any way. The only current popular use of the word is by conservatives to make fun of "virtue-signalling" leftists, but I suspect even conservatives would have trouble defining virtue. If the concept is not taught or modeled, it cannot be known or lived.
The concept of virtue belongs in the "upper story" of being. This upper story is validated by faith in God and invalidated by its absence. To the modern materialist, there is no upper story; we are, at the end of the day, just lower story chemicals in motion. Philosophical darwinism is the universal acid that erodes meaning, purpose, destiny, and, yes, virtue.
Thar's good. What do you mean by philosophical darwinism?
There is an excellent little recent book by Eric Metaxas, who has proven to be, along with Walter Isaacson, one of the more readable biographers of late, called If You Can Keep It. It's about the impending loss of the American republic. In writing it, he said he figured out how America works: by the virtues at work within the people of the country. It's an engrossing, relevant read that I highly recommend.
Science employs methodological naturalism, so the answers it provides are limited to natural, materialistic explanations. As far as it goes, it has been spectacularly successful and useful. However, philosophical darwinism asserts that materialistic explanations of the origin of species are not only useful, but that they are ontologically complete.
Given the mindlessness implied by this, it follows that there is no purpose, design, intent, or goal underlying the existence of the cosmos or life on earth, or, to the point, human existence. It follows we are of no more value or consequence than a virus or snot, as an atheist once ceded to me. It is hard to build a sturdy structure that includes lofty concepts such as virtue, valour, worth, dignity, on such a flimsy base.
Francis Schaeffer articulated the upper story/lower story dilemma. Ravi Zacharias and Wm. Lane Craig have extended his work, arguing that atheism is unliveable in practice.
I appreciate that explanation, thanks. It's the truth. I like the upper story/lower story concept by Schaeffer. He, Ravi, and William Lane Craig are three great, persuasive minds.
Your second paragraph here I would like to almost see in boldface type because I think it is the crux of the issue. The evolutionary theory which now seems so accepted that it's going to be part of the new school science standards here pushed by certain science academies that I believe have been corrupted, removes all hope of a connection with a Creator of some kind. Perhaps it is beyond our ability to comprehend or prove just at this moment within the rules of logic, still, as we speak there are people working on that.
To the point you make about having a flimsy base on which to build a solid structure of higher concepts, I believe this is an important point to repeat, as well, because then, why, we are no different from animals with limited animal instincts. Why, there is nothing left but complete hopelessness. The idea of.a Creator followed by a Savior may now be presented as quaint in the 21st century, but I don't see being taught that we came from the same primordial soup as a moth or fly is something that really gives people much to work with. And there is value to believing in a Savior because regardless of what your views may be, man is flawed. A Savior saves.
There are miracles, too, in the Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist faiths that I don't think Islam provides their followers. I think this is at the heart of the problem we have with Islam. I see they certainly have an ideology which permits them to attain heaven through sacrificing other human beings like themsleves but this places them in a category of sub-human where it's a simple part of every day survival for animal to kill their own.
I don't see either in Islam any neaningful acts of connection with one's fellow man other than perhaps those within their own ideology and there somewhat strange ones. There seems to be no comprehension of one person's intrinsic worth as a human being, thus no empathy, nor forgiveness nor ability to comprehend the significance of repentance. Salvation can be had for them, yes, but missing is the complex understanding of our connectiveness with the rest of humanity. I see atheists differently, not so much that they have a lack of virtue or connectivity, but a sense of despair and a grasp of life's potential meaninglessness.
Fran -- Both Christianity and Islam have the concept of "the other", and both seek to conquer them. However, Islam's way since its inception has been to view the other as lesser and to conquer by force. Christians understand others to be fundamentally the same as them -- sinners in need of help, and seek to win others by persuasion and love. Augustine spoke of the miracle of the church; by this he meant its miraculous survival, growth, and triumph by peaceful means. The contrast with Islam is striking. There is no shalom in Islam.
"...it is not unconnected to the broader societal weakness in which Islam senses its opportunity" is perfectly stated. My dad spoke once about going to see "Bonnie and Clyde" at the theater in 1967. He was born in 1939 and until then, cowboy westerns would show an evil outlaw being brought to justice by a good guy in a white stetson hat, and the death scene was a bloodless drama featuring good vanquishing evil. He said the Bonnie and Clyde movie was deeply disturbing to him and he almost vomited right there in his seat, upon witnessing the vivid and senseless bloodshed.
He told me this back in the 80s while Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris were spraying bullets by the thousands across the silver screen, and being a teenager at the time, I thought it to be a quaint story of my dad's inability to separate the unreal from the real. However, my dad was no stranger to real blood and guts. Growing up on our farm, there were plenty of cows, pigs and chickens to slaughter and butcher, and his beloved pastimes as a young man (when chores were done) were shooting, hunting and fishing; but senseless mass murder of human beings was intensely abhorrent to him - as it ought to be to all. He loved his work, and church wasn't exactly his favourite place to spend his time, but he certainly inherited a full dose of Judeo-Christian goodness.
I don't know exactly what has changed in the North American psyche, but you're one of the rare few writing anything that seems to be poking a finger in the right place.
Thanks Mark.
Might this simply reflect how much the 'God is dead' philosophy has gained ground after over 100 years of promotion by our institutions of higher learning?
Charles Romer, yes!
The 'God is Dead' quote is not a philosophy in and of itself. It's a partial quote from Nietzsche's work that is usually misunderstood when it has been taken out of context. For a very brief background see the following link.
http://www.philosophy-index.com/nietzsche/god-is-dead/
If you understand what the quotation means you'll realize that this situation is exactly what it applies to and predicts. Not surprisingly, this topic dovetails quite nicely with yesterday's Reformation article.
I find it interesting and not at all coincidental that churches are being attacked in the present environment.
Mr. Steyn, one of the interviews that I saw on your show (about a year ago) that got me following you more closely was when you had Jordan Peterson in for a chat. In other talks that he has given he has discussed the above quote, along with many other things, and how it pertains to the events of the last 100 years or so. He also has a new book coming out soon that is available for pre-order. The book is titled "12 Rules For Life - An Antidote To Chaos".
https://jordanbpeterson.com/12-rules-for-life/
I think it would be great if you could interview him again, both as a follow-up to where things have gone for him a year after you last met and also to discuss his new book. He is someone that has actually taken it upon himself to try to not only identify the root cause of the mess we find ourselves in these days, but to formulate an organized response.
What can you say? I can't remember who said it (it may have been Norman Podoretz) but someone around 2000 made the observation that , "Evil Has Fallen on Hard Times." This didn't mean that there wasn't plenty of evil about but that we, particularly we in the West, were unable to acknowledge the concept anymore.By 2000 every evil act had a "root cause " or could be explained by evildoers diet, or upbringing or whether he/she got stood up for their senior prom.
That applies today but with a twist. Over the last ten years seen the idea of "evil" has been weaponized and propagandized as a tool for attacking those who are impure in political thought, deed and doctrine. Thus Donald Trump is "evil" for any number of reasons, none of which has cost any lives. If you oppose abortion then you are "evil" for denying a woman her right to choose. If you oppose carbon offsets then you are evil because you hate the planet. On the other hand, if a conservative calls someone or something evil then he/she can be counted on to be viciously attacked as some sort of religious nut.
I don't have the full facts about the nutter in Texas but, in the end, will we classify this guy as "evil?" Probably not. When the dust settles his actions will be "explained" and the only evil component within the story will be the fact that he had access to guns. He will be forgotten, discarded or at worst analyzed. In a way he will have gotten off the hook for his actions. Gun manufacturers will not be so lucky.
I am not a particularly religious person and regret it. It seems that the recognition of evil in society and the righteous condemnation of it has been pretty useful in advancing civilization over the last several thousand years. I don't mean the progressive, leftist propaganda-driven concept of evil but rather the inner reflection that evil is a real thing of which nearly anyone is capable. And this also means a recognition of customs, traditions and, yes I'll say it, faith, that has been used to keep evil in check. Those who intentionally do evil are invariably narcissists whose own needs take precedence over everything else. That need may be a desire to be a martyr for Islam or to obtain some form of satisfaction by rubbing out those you believe have "wronged you." The forces that have kept this sort of thing in check for millenia seem to be breaking down.
One of my favorite books is "Understanding Hitler" by Ron Rosenbaum. It is an analysis and summary of all of the different theories that underlie the search for the REASON that Hitler did what he did. Did Hitler become Hitler because a Jewish doctor botched the care of Adolph's dying mother. Did Hitler do what he did because he was impotent or suffered an early and permanent injury to his genitals? Rosenbaum discusses all of them. The one school of "Hitler Studies" that stood out for me was that headed by one scholar who said that IT WAS WRONG to try and "explain" Hitler and the attempt should not be made. He was simply evil and any attempt to explain him was ethically compromised from the start. The phrase used was "To Explain is to Forgive." Hitler does not DESERVE forgiveness any more than the Las Vegas shooter, the bike path killer or the lunatic in Texas. Evil is something very feral, very dark and beyond politics or propaganda. Maybe we should just accept it and also accept that, given the trajectory of society and the world today, there is going to be a lot more of it. (Sorry to respond at such length.)
I wouldn't mind the attempts to "explain" Hitler if they were not barely disguised attempts to "explain him away" and give a bad name to persons who have injured genitals or are the sons of victims of incompetent doctors.
"The supreme good is the cause of every being ... [;therefore,] ... there is no one first principle of evil, as there is one first principle of good." (Aquinas, Summa Theologica Q49.3)
I also agree with Stanton Samenow's view that it is more useful to understand the What of criminality than the Why.
That's why I used the phrase, "To Understand is to Forgive" in a somewhat pejorative sense. The mere act of trying to explain evil due to the evildoers economic, social, psychological or similar "circumstances demeans the concept of evil and, at the same time, demeans the concept of "good." When you say "They are both sides of the same coin (a dull cliche') or that "There for the grace of God go I" you are letting evil off lightly and diminishing the struggle that we should all make to attain righteousness.
As to Hitler or Stalin, I agree. I belive Rosenbaum would agree too. The search for "reasons" is a sterile exercise in the face of such monstrous evil. It is only to be remembered, not explained.
I was about to criticize your misuse of the concept of forgiveness, because forgiveness is something that cannot be given unless it is asked for (and preceded by contrition and confession).
But on further reflection, I realized that your point holds up. If rationalizing evil is a sterile exercise, then so also is offering forgiveness to an evil person a sterile exercise if that person has not shown contrition for his evil nor asked for forgiveness.
I see the question asked by silly reporters to victims of crime on TV all the time, "Have you forgiven him?" or "Can you ever forgive him?" What I want to know is if the murderer, rapist, or terrorist even acknowledged that he did something wrong, never mind went as far as actually ask his victim(s) for forgiveness. In most cases, the answer is "no" and "no", so asking the question is a waste of time. TV reporters get away with it because they know that most people in the audience do not know what forgiveness actually is.
My wife says The Entertainment Industry's chickens are coming home to roost.
It always is puzzling that Islam and progressives should be so strongly allied, especially when imams are tossing gay men off buildings and honoring honor killings of women for whom they demand genital mutilation. The fact is that the left has always seen Christianity as one of the last effective bollards left in preventing Muhammadan conquest of the West, while the left sees the retention of faith in a Christian God as the critical obstacle to the establishment of a progressive utopia. After all if you believe in God you won't generally have much reason to believe in or be dependent on the state. So as noted here, progressives feed the Islamic crocodile, hoping somehow to avoid being eaten. Progressives ally with an ideology, Islam, which is clear on its willingness to take on the Crusaders. The fly in the ointment, for progressives, is that the moral vacuum which progressivism must create is a breeding ground for loneliness, dysphoria and disaffection.
The hedonism, liberality and isolationism of mainstream culture leaves many Westerners ungratified. In such situations the uncompromising strictness and discipline of Islam may become more attractive. We previously had such discipline in Christian Churches but no more. The Catholic church has historically been the bulwark against the advancement of Islam and deranged secularism, but since the arrival of Pope Francis, Church leadership appears increasingly willing to abandon the barricades. The Vatican is propagating what appears to be local pastoral sentimentalism over the traditional "love the sinner, hate the sin" Catholic teaching that rested on a belief in truth, reason, and the existence of good and evil.
The dying Christian West faces the worst of both worlds. There is a daunting enemy at the gate, but the enemy within has been hard at work. "He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear."
Marty-you have made many salient points here. So, I actually don't think it's puzzling at all that there is currently a progressive-Islamic alliance. The left has always aimed its guns at Western culture and religion, and allied with the most nihilistic anti-Western forces in order to accomplish total destruction. It used to be communism, now it's Islam. They've have much success destroying the family, so now onto the next project and the next phase of destruction. I think men are the current target.
I don't think they are feeding it with the hope of being eaten last, I think they are just in the business of supporting the most anti-Judeo Christian forces on the earth. You are absolutely correct that the hedonism of the West leaves many unsatisfied and I think Islam has a corner on that market as well in many parts of the dissatisfied Western world.
The migrant invasion of Europe, mass Islamic immigration to the West and a retreating social justice Catholic Church are more nails in the Western coffin.
Laura,
I do wish that there were far more women with your depth of thought and reasoning, because our civilisation is decaying at a rapid rate, and to turn this around peacefully, we require convincing women to stop voting left and soaking in mainstream media propaganda as just the most basic starting point.
From my personal experience, it's largely a futile exercise. I'm heartened though to see you write with such clarity of thought, and that you offer such an unashamedly strong defence of our civilisation against those within and without, who would destroy it. Bravo.
Hi David, thank you for your kind words. Pop culture and feminism have made several generations of women miserable, lonely, angry and normalized buying cat food in bulk instead of diapers. Sad!
So true Lauren. Nail on the head yet again. What a great club this is to be a part of
Apologies, Laura.
Note to self, don't submit comments using my phone
speaking of amoral Wil... https://goo.gl/rN2wPj bigotry against Christians is and will remain the last acceptable bigotry...
I recall vividly that for several DAYS following 9/11 that drivers were so deferential and courteous to one another that traffic at 4-way stop intersections slowed, as everyone encouraged the others to go first. In conjunction with the eerie absence of the usual overhead air traffic, the fleeting courtesy was striking. Author Walker Percy cites similar fleeting, sad manifestations of generic and broad-based morning after JFK's assassination. I haven't noticed anything like that lately. Instead, the focus nowadays is on the protracted no-show of the long-expected but never seen "anti-Muslim backlash" by the "far-right White supremacists" who themselves remain so relusive as to call into question the magnitude of that threat.
A telling moment showing the almost total disconnect between the vast conservative hinterlands and big city Statists was an interview between ABC's Robin Roberts and the Texan who chased the killer in his pick-up truck (along with another armed citizen).
Roberts (incredulously), "What were you thinking when you went after him?"
Texan (not understanding her surprise), "When I heard he just shot up a church, that's all I needed to know."
I'd rather have him around in an emergency. The big city person would be "sheltering in place" while holding up their iPhone to video the mayhem.
Real Men versus Pajama Boys. My kingdom for a real man!
And thus, Robin Roberts, trying just to seem out of place to be seen as better than the residents in the vast conservative hinterland, unwittingly making an argument for the 2nd Amendment.
This disconnect helped save us from Hillary, so thank you, Big Media!
Big City Person Survival Guide:
1. Shelter in place.
2. Hold up iPhone to capture mayhem.
3. Wait for person of toxic masculinity to rescue you.
4. Post to YouTube and Twitter.
"I confess to a certain resentment at this."
So do I!
I'm sure we've all noticed how, when news of yet another heinous act breaks and we wait with baited breath for the killer's identity, we find ourselves hoping and praying it's not someone who distracts for the reality of Islam's encroachment on our civilization. And then when it turns out to be a fella with as Irish a name as you can get, and all the smug CNN talking heads smile in that told-ya-so way, well, I almost want to despair.
But it's all tied up together, isn't it? The same Godless, morally adrift culture that opens wide the gates to Islam is also host to senseless acts of violence on country music fans and small town southern Christians. And instead of owning up to this sad truth, we'll squabble over guns.
I think it is no coincidence that jihadis do so much recruiting inside prisons.
It certainly is all tied up together as you note. Absolutely inseparable.
Welcome to the post-Christian world. Gonna be bumpy ride.