Brussels in the War for Civilization

[Ed Hudgins]

Brussels in the War for Civilization

By Edward Hudgins

March 24, 2016 --

In the aftermath of the March 22 Islamist attacks in Brussels you’ll hear legitimate discussions about security measures, immigration policy, and Obama’s moral cowardice in refusing to identify “Islamists” as the problem. But the underlying cause—philosophy—should be the ultimate focus of our attention.
 

Western attitudes toward Muslims

The discussions after each attack like the one in Brussels always center on Muslims and Islam. Many say “Not all Muslims are Islamists or terrorists,” or “I work with many fine Muslims,” or “We need to ally with Kurds, Turks, and other nice Muslims to defeat ISIS and Al Qaida.” Some—Donald Trump most loudly—argue for keeping Muslims—or at least those from Syria—out of the United States until we can sort out who’s dangerous. And Trump echoes other when he asserts that "Islam hates us."

Most of these views center on political concerns: Will more Muslims in a country lead to an increase in acts of terror or violence, and calls for repression in order to accommodate Muslims' sensitivities? Will not criticizing Islam or Muslim culture best ensure that Muslims respect the liberty of others?

But politics is a reflection of underlying values, reinforced by institutions and culture. The political regimes in Western Europe—and, most notably, in North America— are based on the Enlightenment.
 

Our Enlightenment civilization

Our civilization is based on a recognition of the power of human reason to understand the world and to guide our lives. See Isaac Newton!

Our civilization is based on the freedom of individuals in society to think, speak, and inquire freely. See Voltaire!

Our civilization is based on the recognition that individuals are ends in themselves, that we each have our own goals and dreams, and in society with others we should have the right to do as we please, dealing with our fellows based on mutual consent. See John Locke!

Our civilization is based on the notion that the purpose of government is to protect the liberty of each individual. See America’s Founders!

Our civilization is based on separation of church and state. See the U.S. Constitution.

That’s why Ayn Rand called the United States, “in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.”
 

Muslims and modernity

Those who take Islam most seriously... (Continue reading here.)

[Brant Gaede]

You cannot argue religion out of a fanatic. You can keep them from invading Europe. That's up to Europe.

You cannot smash a religion without being totalitarian. You can smash fascism but you have to understand you are confronting fascism. That's the Caliphate.

As for Objectivism, it hasn't been able to get out of its own way. It was pretty good as far as it went in the 1960s considering what it was dealing with, but the intellectual component of the left evaporated leaving Objectivism with little to do out of its Ayn Rand construct destructively continued by her "intellectual heir."

The basic problem of the philosophy from the get-go--Galt's Speech--was its top-downism. After you read the sacred texts, you agreed with them or you were out (if you didn't keep your mouth shut.)  Our (Rand-Branden) job is to tell people what Objectivism is; it's yours to tell them that it is. There was money in the NBI approach but that excluded critical thinking. Critical thinking is too hard. Real individualism is too hard. Just go take the courses. Eat up someone else's critical thinking. Be enlightened.

Just as libertarianism is centered on politics, dying on the vine for lack of real philosophical roots, Objectivism is centered on morality and ethics, dying on the vine for lack of empirical investigation coming up with building blocks one can put on the foundation of rational self interest. The Randian heroes got a philosophy that matched up to them as they were depicted. The problem is they don't match up to real human beings and a lot of their human being.

Here is how philosophy will help destroy the fascism of the Muslim religion: indirectly through technology. Technology is revealing to the people of the world what is really going on in the world and how the benefits of Western Civilization courtesy of the Enlightenment make for a much better life, one way being the separation of Church and State.

The West cannot wage existential war against fascism without understanding how so much fascism is extant within its own sundry political borders. If it's not freedom it's essentially fascist. That's true of socialism, mixed economies, communism, Nazism, and the extinct classical Italian nation-state fascism.

--Brant