The Moment Of Truth For Root Cause Politics - Road to the Middle Class

AS WE LIMBER up to deal with the Islamist threat, writes Emanuele Ottolenghi, we need to deal with the problem right at the heart of our Enlightenment project.

On the one hand we have the benign belief in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the context of an eternal optimism. But there is also the dark side, of the French Terror of 1793,

of the tyranny of ideas over the liberty of men, of the totalitarian regimes that sprang out of Enlightenment philosophy no less than liberal democracies did.

Over the years our lefty friends have learned to deflect attention from the bloody side of the Enlightenment. They excuse it with their “root cause” analysis. Violence is a product of oppression and unmet grievances.

Grievances arising from the troubled Middle East feed into terror. Solve them, and there will be no terror.

But why should the specific grievances of Muslims deserve any special privilege?

Should anger at high taxes, inefficient health care, poor environmental standards, or disagreeable op-eds solicit “understandable” similar responses?

Should the lefty Guardian change its editorial policy to appease the rage of right-wingers who are enraged by the opinions of its lefty pundits?

The “root-cause” argument boils down to excusing the inexcusable.
...
As for those who have “unaddressed grievances,” one thing should be made clear: as children of the Enlightenment, we believe that some values are universal, both rights and duties. Therefore, we believe in reciprocity. Those who renege on this social compact and choose not to play by the rules are beyond the pale. They must be treated accordingly.

The dirty little secret of the last century is that our lefty friends have often used the “root-cause” argument in their naked grab for power. They excuse the threats made by their violent supporters but exoriate “hate speech” in right-wingers.

But now the game is up. In the rise of Islamist fascism we have arrived at the moment of truth for “root-cause” politics and its excuses for the inexcusable.

We believe that the lefties are wrong. We believe in the West that we have a process that is adequate for addressing grievances. It is called the rule of law and the democratic process. We believe that people with grievances who resort to violence “must be treated accordingly” as thugs and fascists.

The problem we have right now is that our lefty friends are not yet willing to admit this. The result is that millions of people will be killed.

And that is an outrage.

Sphere: Related Content |

Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

TAGS

Faith & Purpose

“When we began first to preach these things, the people appeared as awakened from the sleep of ages—they seemed to see for the first time that they were responsible beings...”
Finke, Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990

Mutual Aid

In 1911... at least nine million of the 12 million covered by national insurance were already members of voluntary sick pay schemes. A similar proportion were also eligible for medical care.
Green, Reinventing Civil Society

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

Living Under Law

Law being too tenuous to rely upon in [Ulster and the Scottish borderlands], people developed patterns of settling differences by personal fighting and family feuds.
Thomas Sowell, Conquests and Cultures

German Philosophy

The primary thing to keep in mind about German and Russian thought since 1800 is that it takes for granted that the Cartesian, Lockean or Humean scientific and philosophical conception of man and nature... has been shown by indisputable evidence to be inadequate.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Meeting of East and West

Knowledge

Inquiry does not start unless there is a problem... It is the problem and its characteristics revealed by analysis which guides one first to the relevant facts and then, once the relevant facts are known, to the relevant hypotheses.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities

Chappies

“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.” —Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

Democratic Capitalism

I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Action

The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness... But to make a man act [he must have] the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Churches

[In the] higher Christian churches… they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Conversion

“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Living Law

The recognition and integration of extralegal property rights [in the Homestead Act] was a key element in the United States becoming the most important market economy and producer of capital in the world.
Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital

mysql close 0