11 September 2012

On not forgetting that we have an Enemy



A 9/11 note from Instapundit:

And here’s a passage from Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies.

Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe …
They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours.

I would add:  When a society loses the ability to remember its past--discards its grounding in history--and lives its God-given freedom as an entitlement, that society has put a loaded gun to its head.  The 9/11 terrorists pulled the trigger. And we're still cleaning up the mess.
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4 comments:

  1. Good stuff ... thanks for the reminder. I wrote a short bit on my blog, for I do a certain thing every year to keep the memory fresh in my mind.

    Take care.

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  2. In place of a multifaceted rant --especially against Christians who refuse to see Islam for what it is and has always been--, I will simply say to you and Mr Harris, Amen!

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  3. Anonymous10:01 AM

    The enemy is within.

    Americans need to wake to realize that the actions of the US government abroad are tantamount to military imperialism. And before someone snaps back, with the Pavlovian reaction learned watching cable news, that the victims are not guilty, they are not, but the the victims or the American people should not be confused with the US government. The US government is an indirect accomplice in this tragedy and has also turned on the American people, as can be seen at any airport or in the letter of the law, such as the Patriot Act or the NDAA.

    God, deliver us from Caesar!

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  4. Anonymous10:55 AM

    A video you should suggest to your brother Friars, especially those entranced with the theory of the "Abrahamic" faiths:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y&feature=g-all-f

    The speaker leaves out one hugely important reason why we Westerners will not confront Islam: race. Although a religion, it is coded as a non-White race and therefore granted the suicidal and insane immunities, deference and license that Whites now believe we owe to the non-White "Other".

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