In 1940, George Orwell penned a review of Hitler's Mein Kampf which addressed issues in the West that are still present to this day. He stated the following in relation to western inability to understand Hitler's draw and the lure of Fascism:
"Also he (Hitler) has grasped (comprehended) the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all "progressive" thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers: tin pacifists somehow won't do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don't only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life."
So called foreign policy experts in the US and western Europe have yet to ever understand the mindset of so many in the world even when it's at their doorstep. We repeatedly fall in to the lie that "no sacrifice, total victory" can be a thing. History shows us that without sacrifice there can be no victory. We want safety, ease of existence and we wish to indulge to our heart's content in things that have no everlasting value in the pursuit of personal pleasure and growth. Only it's growth with no pain and no hardship because that would be too much to endure. Western culture has lost itself completely and it's not something that happened last week, last year or last decade. Hence the reality we have today that a nation with the GDP the size of Florida is creating so much pain and angst around the world. How can this be? Well the answer is because we made it so.
In the coming years and even now, we will wake up to the reality that our version of caring for the climate was importing what we need from despots and tyrants while pretending we have somehow done the noble thing to preserve our climate and resources. We're still doing what we do but we just ship it in and say we're making progress because we're not drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico of in ANWR. It's laughable. This year the United States is on its way to being a net importer of oil. We get all our technology from facilities across Asia (of which many are in China). We've never adjusted to the realities that have taken hold in Russia and China and at some point soon we're going to pay a horrendous price. It would be better if we started to be realistic about that now and then we could take steps to stave off this disaster. The thought at one time was the USSR died and Russia was going to join the civilized world and embrace the values of the West. We wrote that check, put it away, but never materialized. It was believed China was going to become a socialized free market state where business could be done on a grand scale. They welcomed our companies in with the lure of cheap labor and extremely lax environmental controls. In stead of seeing that along the way China stopped progressing toward our hopes and turned to authoritarianism we just kept on doing business there. Now we're trapped and China knows this. Just as Russia knows the West will scream and yell about this and then do absolutely nothing. Putin knows all too well about the "flexibility" of weak-kneed US Presidents and he knows when to strike.
At some point the West is going to have to understand its lost all sense of that which made it great. Guiding moral principles and an unflinching commitment to them is what allowed us to overcome so many of our horrible sins of the past. The West was never perfect or even good in so many ways. But when needed, it did stand up and save the world from tyranny on more than one occasion. We have never been able to conceive that we can't just spread the freedom around and people will embrace it. Something that wasn't earned has no value in so many areas of life. And here we are today, trouble is all around the world. The signs of evil on the march are everywhere and we are completely unprepared to face it. The West is so debt ridden with all its pie in the sky social spending that the fundamental duties of government have been neglected for far too long and we don't have the resources to fix it. We're all addicted to the good life without any sacrifice for earning it. It's going to be a painful lesson in the years and decades to come. It's such a shame the horrible leadership that brought us to this point has profited so greatly at our expense and will leave us to bear the cost. Our unwillingness to suffer for what is right and just is going to cost us dearly.
"Also he (Hitler) has grasped (comprehended) the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all "progressive" thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers: tin pacifists somehow won't do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don't only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life."
So called foreign policy experts in the US and western Europe have yet to ever understand the mindset of so many in the world even when it's at their doorstep. We repeatedly fall in to the lie that "no sacrifice, total victory" can be a thing. History shows us that without sacrifice there can be no victory. We want safety, ease of existence and we wish to indulge to our heart's content in things that have no everlasting value in the pursuit of personal pleasure and growth. Only it's growth with no pain and no hardship because that would be too much to endure. Western culture has lost itself completely and it's not something that happened last week, last year or last decade. Hence the reality we have today that a nation with the GDP the size of Florida is creating so much pain and angst around the world. How can this be? Well the answer is because we made it so.
In the coming years and even now, we will wake up to the reality that our version of caring for the climate was importing what we need from despots and tyrants while pretending we have somehow done the noble thing to preserve our climate and resources. We're still doing what we do but we just ship it in and say we're making progress because we're not drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico of in ANWR. It's laughable. This year the United States is on its way to being a net importer of oil. We get all our technology from facilities across Asia (of which many are in China). We've never adjusted to the realities that have taken hold in Russia and China and at some point soon we're going to pay a horrendous price. It would be better if we started to be realistic about that now and then we could take steps to stave off this disaster. The thought at one time was the USSR died and Russia was going to join the civilized world and embrace the values of the West. We wrote that check, put it away, but never materialized. It was believed China was going to become a socialized free market state where business could be done on a grand scale. They welcomed our companies in with the lure of cheap labor and extremely lax environmental controls. In stead of seeing that along the way China stopped progressing toward our hopes and turned to authoritarianism we just kept on doing business there. Now we're trapped and China knows this. Just as Russia knows the West will scream and yell about this and then do absolutely nothing. Putin knows all too well about the "flexibility" of weak-kneed US Presidents and he knows when to strike.
At some point the West is going to have to understand its lost all sense of that which made it great. Guiding moral principles and an unflinching commitment to them is what allowed us to overcome so many of our horrible sins of the past. The West was never perfect or even good in so many ways. But when needed, it did stand up and save the world from tyranny on more than one occasion. We have never been able to conceive that we can't just spread the freedom around and people will embrace it. Something that wasn't earned has no value in so many areas of life. And here we are today, trouble is all around the world. The signs of evil on the march are everywhere and we are completely unprepared to face it. The West is so debt ridden with all its pie in the sky social spending that the fundamental duties of government have been neglected for far too long and we don't have the resources to fix it. We're all addicted to the good life without any sacrifice for earning it. It's going to be a painful lesson in the years and decades to come. It's such a shame the horrible leadership that brought us to this point has profited so greatly at our expense and will leave us to bear the cost. Our unwillingness to suffer for what is right and just is going to cost us dearly.
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