A Fool’s Paradise Is a Wise Man’s Hell
? Thomas Fuller
The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen incredible progress in science, technology, art, philosophy, morality, and more. Not only that, but we can
access all that knowledge and wisdom from a device we carry around in our pockets. We have even transcended modernity according to many progressive thinkers, and moved into the “post-modern” era. There is no need for a religious messiah; we have carried ourselves into paradise, albeit a fool’s paradise. Truly these are enlightened times; the realization of humanity’s universal values.
These enlightened values are a force in themselves. John Kerry, the American Secretary of State reacted to Russia’s invasion of the Crimea by telling Russia “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext.” The times, according to Kerry, dictate behavior. In a similar fashion, the new Prime Minister of Canada, when asked why a fifty percent female cabinet was important to him said, “Because it’s 2015.” President Obama, reacting to the Islamic terror attacks in Paris stated that “this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.”
It seems those values aren’t so universal.
Muslims make up over twenty percent of the earth’s population. While we can assume that most don’t support violence on the scale of the Paris attacks, if we look around at the world’s Muslim-controlled regions, we can see that they operate with different values than the ones adhered to by Secretary Kerry, Prime Minister Trudeau, or President Obama.
But it would be wrong to assume that the problem is simply Islam. Christianity, followed by Islam, developed the concept of the religious enemy (in contradistinction to the political enemy). All non-believers are sub-humans, and bereft of rights. In early Spanish South America, for example there was a
“…common practice of snatching [native] children from their mother’s arms and throwing them to be devoured alive by dogs, or smashing them against the rocks and throwing them to die in the mountains. The usual way to kill native leaders was in groups of thirteen, in honor of Jesus and the twelve apostles!”
The rape, torture and mutilation of native women by the Spaniards differed little from ISIS’ contemporary treatment of Yazidi and Christians. This contrasts with the Biblical rules of war for dealing with captive women, where such women were given a month to mourn for their captivity, and could not be sold or enslaved. And even the idea of
capturing a woman was considered evil. It seems that a set of morals accepted over three thousand years ago is more enlightened than the values of a large part of humanity today.
Morality is not linear and progressive, especially if we are charting the behavior of mankind. It is a jagged line, soaring to phenomenal heights and astonishing depravity. We cannot expect the passage of time to elevate people’s behavior. There are no universal values that we all share, whether in the realm of political autonomy or the human right to life. It’s a fool’s paradise to think otherwise. Ask Vladimir Putin about the Crimea. Ask ISIS about the rights of captives. Ask a Muslim imam for an 
unqualified condemnation of the Paris terror attacks. To use “universal values,” the “twenty first century” or the year being 2015 to formulate strategy is to walk from a fool’s paradise straight into the hell of Paris, Madrid, New York, Washington, or Buenos Aires… A wise man understands we are already there.
Your comments are welcome
I am less keen on the colourful description of brutal acts, past or present, but some of your observations hold water. I think this is a slow moving world war. I think the liberal values are a catch 22 for Europe. They are so liberal as to slide into a civil war that will end European life forever.
The bad guys are local. They are Europeans. They are taking over, like water lilies on a pond. Soon the entire pond will be covered. But it is already too late. There is no military solution. You can bomb ISIS in the middle east, but you cannot uproot it in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, London. It is too late.
The cult of death has little to do with religion. Allah is window dressing. These are nihilist bad people who are addicted to violence and mayhem. Young people join them because they promise a life devoid of rules. All is permitted. It is oddly liberating (for bad folk) to kill and pillage and rape, and to be valued for mayhem. They are anti-civilizationists, not religious fanatics. They use 21st century technology to their advantage, but stone age morals that seek to destroy all in their path for no real gain other than a letting loose of all civilization’s constraints.
This will not end. This is a new “normal” we must accept. There can be no solution to this problem. You cannot throw money, tanks, bombs at the problem.
Unless you institute an immoral dictatorial murderous world order, as evil as the problem we seek to confront.
The left has brought this on us through mass immigration and accommodation of foreign, barbaric beliefs and practices. They ensure that our responses will not only be feeble but also enrage our enemies. Defeating a backward and fanatic enemy is childs play compared to dealing with the destructive forces of western socialism.
Would you wear a T-shirt with a Mohammad cartoon printed on it?
You might in Montana. Don’t try it in Mecca.
Why?
Because, Islam trains a small number of its most devout believers it’s OK to kill. And Islamic killers have been trained to kill anyone who insults Allah and/or Mohammad.
In Montana you’d have a good chance none of these Islamic killers would see you.
In Mecca you wouldn’t last five minutes. One of Islam’s killers would come from out of nowhere and kill you. It is that simple.
You don’t believe me? Ask any Muslim!
Read how Islamic theology slowly eradicates what preceded it.
http://islamsfatalflaw.blogspot.com/
Science and technology have advanced rapidly in recent years but not tolerance for the other, whether the other is of a different nationality or of a different religion. Perhaps the availability of enlightened information on the Internet will help but there is no evidence to support this.
The idea of taxonomy of species is a relatively recent addition to western thought.
“For the cristiano viejo it was axiomatic that morality did not apply to the “other.” The theological basis for such a view becomes obvious upon considering that, in the eyes of the Church, “love” does not apply to members of other religions. Christianity was the first religious system (followed by Islam) to introduce the idea of religious enemy (in contradistinction to the political enemy, which is a Jewish concept) whereby all non-Christians are regarded as sub-humans and bereft of rights”
–Chacham Jose Faur
“Ask a Muslim imam for an unqualified condemnation of the Paris terror attacks.” OK, so ask any imam from the tens of thousands of them around the world. I’m pretty sure you’ll find someone to give an unqualified condemnation. The fact that you wrote this kind of line is proof that this article is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on “savage” Muslims. Judging 1 billion people because of the fanaticism of a few?! Not a Jewish concept…
“We cannot expect the passage of time to elevate people’s behavior” – sure we can. Just look at the Western world over the past few centuries – increasingly universal rights, universal suffrage, reductions in open racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, more protections of minorities by the law, etc., etc. Again, to judge 1 billion people based on the “behavior” of clearly “unelevated people” is ridiculous…