May 12, 2006

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD FOR PRESIDENT--OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION!

        Horsefeathers finds Liberal aversion to religion---with the politically correct exception of Islam--amusing. This is because we regard contemporary Liberalism as itself a primitive faith, having much in common with Islam. True believers in each are impervious to rational argumentation and become enraged and belligerent when their beliefs are challenged. Their shared craving for power over the lives of their fellow human beings is palpable, as is their fascination with and yearning to submit to tyrants (see Jimmy Carter) or to the will of Allah. Since the true believers in the Church of Liberalism are weak and immature, they enjoy vicarious participation in the power and control wielded by tyrants, hence their affection for Stalin, Mao, Che, Fidel, et.al. Like children they overestimate their strength in order to compensate for their real impotence and lack of intellectual comprehension. Liberals and Islamists share a conviction of their special virtue and benevolence. They're so convinced of their righteousness that it becomes a moral duty to convert or destroy those who disagree. Not for them the modesty or self effacement of the Christian or the Jew or the Buddhist who knows how far short he falls of the ideal life. No need to spell out rational positions when you know you're just smarter, kinder, just a flat out exemplary human being. After all, you're in touch with your feelings, and you know, in the words of the late lefty Reverend, William Sloane Coffin, "The heart is a little to the left."
        In a liberal therapeutic culture, "feelings" supersede rational thought as a measure of authenticity. In Oprahworld, the land of arrested development, feelings are the great equalizer. In the American world of grownups, feelings are valued less-skills, knowledge, individual motivation play a larger role in success and help differentiate people from one another. In the real world we're not all equal. In the realm of feelings, we all have an equal claim on the world's empathy.
        Were it not so serious, Mr. Ahmadinejad's letter would be a laugh out loud funny appropriation of the Western therapeutic mode of thought. At one point it reads like a letter from the President of the American Psychiatric Association, rather than the President of Iran. "For some years now", he writes, "the people of your country and neighbors of world trouble spots do not have peace of mind. After 9.11, instead of healing and tending to the emotional wounds of the survivors and the American people -- who had been immensely traumatized by the attacks -- some Western media only intensified the climate of fear and insecurity -- some constantly talked about the possibility of new terror attacks and kept the people in fear. Is that service to the American people? Is it possible to calculate the damages incurred from fear and panic?" Send in the PTSD therapists! Idiotic as he may seem, how different is this Islamo-nutter from Barbara Streisand and the Hollyweird band of Bush haters? He writes as if he'd just finished a book about getting in touch with your feelings, perhaps written by one of those legendary Islamic "scholars", and decided to reach out and appeal to the American therapist-in-chief. Just like our entertainer celebrities and New York Times Op-Ed columnists, the most idiotic views can be aired, but if they're in service of "feeling" the pain of one or another group, then they must deserve our respect and gratitude.
        Both contemporary Liberals and Islamists believe in what they insist, despite all the evidence, is an achievable vision. Both involve submission of the individual---to sharia law or to the Collective, expressed through such institutions as the EU and the UN. Then human nature will be transcended and peace will reign. Each requires scapegoats--Israel and those Zionist neo-Cons are the most convenient explanations for the failure of utopia ever to arrive.
        No wonder Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter reads like it came out of the DNC, filtered through the New York Times editorial board. He, like them, possesses a grandiose sense of his own benevolence, although he sounds a little more willing to forgive and forget, if only the infidel President would submit to Allah. The tone of condescending smugness, however, is identical. Of course, should the President stubbornly resist the benevolent call of Islam, then Jihadi barbarism will be justified. This fits well with the therapeutic stance of liberals, for whom the worst Jihadi savagery is a regrettable, albeit understandable result of early mistreatment, racism and imperialist exploitation. Liberal utopianism, with its vision of a transformed human nature finds a natural ally in Islamo-Fascism. They both require suspension of the critical faculties and submission to clerics---the new Liberal clerisy consisting of the media punditocracy and the liberal arts faculties of our universities. Just like Islamo-fascists, liberal academics demand conformity of thought while proclaiming their virtuous tolerance. So too with elections; the left is all for elections, except when they lose, in which case the election was 'stolen'.
        Where can we find the origins of such primitive belief systems? The clue lies in the childlike modes of thinking they manifest, which resemble the everyday thought processes of the very young. Horsefeathers would therefore call Liberalism and Jihadi Islam religions of arrested development. Adults who adhere to them are grown up versions of those whining kids in the schoolyard who wanted a "do over" when they forgot to swing at a called third strike. They were the kids who blamed their teammate for missing the last shot when they neglected to screen the defender. It was always someone else's fault. They were the ones always demanding a better grade than the one they earned. They were slavish little test takers who, while they might have been verbally adept, were always eager to find out and produce what the teacher wanted. Mathematics and science threatened their narcissistic self-regard and were therefore avoided. Seducing the calculus teacher with your verbal skills was not going to happen, hence our typical wordsmith intellectual knows next to nothing about Science, the greatest cultural achievement of modernity. In short, they never grew up and permanently envy and resent those who did.
        We can understand why contemporary liberals are sorely lacking in patriotism and what we would call, in another age, 'honor'. Why do they manifest so little Americanism---the patriotic conviction, rooted in historical knowledge, of the greatness of this country? Why are they so lacking in gratitude towards the country that has tolerated their whining and rewarded their blubbery movie making and book writing and TV blathering, their efforts to blame everyone but themselves for our problems? It's because they remain those self absorbed children who never got over the hurdle of realizing they were not so special. America is just not as great as they are. It's very painful to anyone to realize the world can get along just fine without them, but for children that's an especially painful blow. In some it leads to growth, in others to permanent resentment. All Islamic countries are stuck at about a 12th century level of intellectual and moral development. They envy and resent America for having left them far behind, while creating a better life for the average individual, and a model for the world. Just as Islam resents us for our achievements in all spheres of human endeavour, so too with contemporary liberals. America does not reward the childhood whiners, the sore losers, the teachers' pets, with its highest honors. It may shower ample material rewards on a Michael Moore, but in its heart of hearts, America knows Michael Moore is the boy who hid behind mommy's skirts, the first to head for the exit door when the fight began. He's the one who, the next time a United 93 is hijacked, will try to ingratiate himself with the terrorists and empathize with their grievances. "No, no, no-let's not roll" will be his plea.
        If sharia law ultimately prevails in America it will be thanks to the shared fantasies of Jihadi Islam and contemporary Liberalism.