This is a response to Fjordman’s fine post at Gates of Vienna Wednesday. Fjordman points out that he has been a critic of the dissolution of Western Society, but that he’s offered few solutions — so in his preliminary post he names a few. I am quite hopeful that he will create a new manifesto for Europe, but the first draft is a bit weak as manifestos go.
I would agree with him on some, and disagree on others but to understand the disagreements, you need to look long term, and you need the basis of my conclusions. Fjordman bases his conclusions on the thesis that the problem is Islamic Imperialism coupled with the decline of the west in the face of a dire enemy, and he sees the decline as both societal and governmental.
The real problems are quite complex, and the real solutions have to be multiplex, persistent, and robust. Simple defensive measures will not do by themselves.
Islamic countries are mostly feudal, and the wealth they have is either concentrated in the hands of tyrants or an established state elite. At least half of the Islamic people live in the midst of death, dust, poverty, ignorance, disease, and despair. Suicide can be appealing when that’s what you have to look forward to.
Stated simply, most Islamic countries are 1/3 to 1/2 energy, liberty, capital, and knowledge poor in varying portions of each depending on which state you look at.
Meanwhile the west has an abundance of all four: Liberty, Capital, Energy, and Knowledge. Some might argue with me regarding energy abundance, but all of the energy we need is there if we have the will to produce it. Nuclear, Solar, Wind, Hydro, Geothermal, Biofuels, hydrogen, and even oil and gas are all there if we just invest, but we won’t invest until it becomes appealing.
It becomes appealing when gas and oil from the dictators becomes too expensive, which it now has. Not just in terms of dollars, but in terms of who and what we are supporting when we pay those dollars.
Fjordman’s post creates a defensive posture but in the end it’s a delaying tactic, not a strategy to win. (part one of the strategy)
President Bush’s policy of taking the war to the terror states combats part, but not all of the problem. With the war, the fighting is on the soil of Islam, not here. Whether the people of Iraq and Afghanistan take the opportunity to become free and sovereign individuals is up to them, (part two of the strategy)
I won’t count it as a loss if they don’t. In the end, you get the government you deserve. If you wish serfdom, slavery, and to be a charge of the state, that’s what you get.
To ensure that the mideast doesn’t accept that ugly fate we must not only export democracy and freedom, but also capitalism, cheap energy, and knowledge. If we fail to do that, these problems will last much longer. (part three of the strategy)
I propose that we must do all three to win.
The islamic states are oil and gas rich, but energy poor. Their societies are very low energy compared to the West, and that is a problem. The energy resources of the Mideast are held in the hands of a very few, and that capital is concentrated rather than dispersed and working as it should be in a free Capitalist society.
Think a moment just in terms of global warming– whether man made, or just the solar max coupled with longer cycle effects, the heat is undeniably higher now near equatorial regions. If you have no air conditioning, and no refridgeration, then how appealing can your home town be with summer temperatures of +100 degrees Fahrenheit?
Much of the Mideast is desert, poor place to create a future of wealth for your family. It doesn’t have to be that way however.
So to answer Fjordman’s post, you must say that Fjordman is right, but state it in simpler terms: Europe must finish ripping out the roots of Marxism, destroy it tree and branch. It is the rot of socialism he rails against, it is the inherrent weakness of reason akin to Weimar Germany that makes the opportunity for dangerous ideologies.
That is not enough however. Europe must also bear arms, they must stop paying off the dictators, the tyrants, the would-be caliphs and instead fight them at every turn. In a past war the would-be Caliphs tried to hold trade in the Mediterranean hostage, and it will get there again if Europe allows it.
This time the straits of Hormuz, the oil and gas lines to Europe, and the trade routes to India, China, and Russia will be the strangle points. Wars are always economic as well as military in the end. So strengthening of Navies and Air forces is also a must, as well as adamant resistance to the slow strangulation that Iran will attempt.
When tyrannies who export terror rise, they must be deposed. Europe must strengthen ties with the countries who have escaped from Communism, they must aid them to arm themselves, and they must make them a bulwark to the east.
Fjordman proposes free speech, but Europe must see that the weakness in modern society isn’t just lack of free speech, it’s lack of firm support for individual rights. This is the fault of socialism, and the failing of reason in Europe. Individual rights must be written into the constitution of the EU, not group rights. not state rights, not regional rights. The individual rights of the people must be paramount and protected, not the rights of the masses. It’s a fatal flaw.
With individual rights firmly protected separatist enclaves cannot survive.
So to sum up I propose a tripartite strategy: We must depose the tyrants over time, if that takes some wars, then so be it. We must defend against Islamofacism at home, it’s a dangerous ideology that cannot be protected under the guise of “multiculuralism” (simply the new cloak of the communists.)
We must continue to excel in science and technology, we can get to a point where energy is so cheap and abundant that there isn’t reason to leave the mideast, for it will become paradise again.
Over time we will win: the lure of freedom, the fact that capitalism is a primal force of human nature which cannot be overcome, and the will to a better future will vanquish all.