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Obama and Sarkozy at NATO conference (archives)
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West’s decline underway

Op-ed: Western civilization seems to have lost desire to stand up to external, domestic enemies

Part 1 of article

 

“Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder,” wrote British historian Arnold Toynbee in the middle of the 20th Century. At this time it appears that Western civilization no longer has the strength, desire and willingness to stand up to its external enemies and especially to face liberal leftist elements within it that do everything in their power to render it powerless.

 

And so, it took NATO a week to issue the “brave” statement that it will not interfere in the Libyan carnage, it took nine days for the president of the American superpower to condemn the massacre in the country, and the UN secretary general needed 10 days to call for a Security Council session in order to mull “far-reaching” steps such as sanctions against the Libyan regime. This is more or less the amazing effort that the West, with its great military might, was able to produce in the face of a nutty leader and a military that is no match for even a tiny part of NATO’s force in Europe.

 

Even if part of the explanation for the West’s tendency to talk much and take little action thus far has to do with the desire not to be perceived again as dictating regimes to the Arabs - or with the need to ensure the ongoing flow of oil from Libya – the essence of the explanation stems from the helplessness and haplessness of a large, confused and neutered body that has undergone (and continues to undergo) accelerated de-heroization processes since the end of World War II.

 

And so, at this time it is very difficult not to lavish upon many Western leaders “praise” for their weakness, inaction, and blind compliance with liberal public opinion, whose autoimmunity is being fed among other things by a reckless civil rights discourse, baseless post-colonial conclusions regarding the West’s blame for the Levant’s backwardness, misplaced guilty feelings over “unfriendly hospitality” accorded to Muslim immigration (that is, invasion) in Europe, hollow rhetoric about force not solving anything, and noble ideals regarding the ubiquitous desire for global peace, fraternity, and reconciliation (Muslim fanatics included.)

 

Moreover, when a (still) hegemonic civilization such as the West is afflicted by symptoms of Abulia (a mental disorder manifested by lack of will or initiative); when the radical liberal bodies within this civilization keep on eroding its stamina; when the international legal system is increasingly being shaped in line with these bodies while curbing the ability of states (such as Israel) to engage in an effective campaign against enemies of the West; when the press praises these notions; when public opinion within this civilization is becoming increasingly less tolerant to the price that must be paid in order to maintain its superiority; when many of its leaders are afflicted by pathetic, embarrassing feebleness; and when its rivals (like Islam, whose philosophical thought in recent years has often focused on the West as a materialist, decayed and corrupt civilization destined to pass from this world soon) do not rest – it’s a little difficult not to notice more than just initial buds of Western decline.

 

Part 2 of article to be published Wednesday

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.02.11, 00:40
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