Neo-isolationism
Just as bad as neo-conservatism
“Seems like old times…”
It seems like the 1930s. “America is sick of foreign wars. Let them fight, it’s none of our business. All wars are bankers’ wars.” (Tell that to the victims of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome, China, Arabia, Mongolia, and so on.)
“One small minority group - those who may not be mentioned! - profit by inciting whites to fight, because before this small minority group came to Europe, whites lived 100% at peace with each other and the rest of the world. All the world’s troubles have their origins with this malicious small minority group” - that same small minority group who gave white Europe their religion…
“Avoid foreign entanglements!” The parting words of President Washington died in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The day that would live in infamy should have taught conservatives a lesson about technology and geography.
Most conservatives have internalized the lesson that there is no isolation from the world’s events. But there is an ongoing current of grinding resentment, focused obliquely on the Jews, that we are forced to engage with the world’s events. “If only it weren’t for those neo-cons (you know, the Jews), we could live blissfully in fortress America, and let the rest of the world go to perdition.”
The rest of the world came knocking yet again on September 11, 2001, and still the paleo-cons have not learned. The Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China were and are nothing more than a continuation of the old Russian and Chinese empires, wearing communism as a fig leaf to disguise their imperial ambitions.
“We are tired of forever wars!” You may be tired, but the West’s enemies are not tired. They are driven by manic hatred. Do you plan to rewrite the Qur’an, teach it to billions of Muslims, and anathematize the original?
Please consult my last post on this Substack: “World”. Study the maps and charts. They are very important if you want to discuss the state of today’s world.
Please also read my Wordpress blog post: “The Geographical Pivot of History”. It is very much current.
https://surakblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/08/the-geographical-pivot-of-history/
I am fearful for the future of America and Western civilization. God has allowed terrible disasters to befall the Jews, always saving a remnant; but those who persecute them have fallen into the trash heap of history.
This history is on my mind as I witness the growing popularity of the Tucker Carlson - Candace Owens style casual style of hatred: “faux sophistication”, in the words of Ben Shapiro. (It should be noted that Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro both generously helped to build Owens’s career. No good deed goes unpunished.) “I’M not going to get sucked into someone else’s TRIBAL war (and you know what TRIBE I’m talking about!).”
It fascinates me that such people describe themselves unironically as Christian. Really? Does the parable of the good Samaritan mean anything to them?
I once asked a Christian friend what the lesson of the parable was. She replied uncertainly, “It means that Samaritans are good people…?” Permit this Jew to expound on this parable, as would have been done commonly 2000 years ago.
The parable teaches two lessons. 1) Judge a person by the content of his character (actions), not the color of his skin (ethnicity or religion), echoed 1900 years later by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2) You are obliged to assist a person in distress.
The second lesson is the one relevant for our foreign policy. We are not capable of acting alone as the world’s policemen; and our actions have not always been purely motivated anyway. It doesn’t matter. You do what you can. The teachings of the Fathers (an ethical tractate in the Talmud) asserts, “It is not up to you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it altogether.”
To ignore Russia’s ongoing predations and annexations of more and more European territory, and to ignore the jihadists’ ongoing war against all other religions, coarsens us. They are not tired of forever wars, nor is China. The Chinese-Russian-Islamic alliance is quantified in my last post, “World”, and poses an existential threat to the West’s survival.
“You go fight them!” I am too old and have never been a physical warrior. The leadership of today’s armed forces has been corrupted by cultural Marxist social experimentation and outright politicization. I fight daily in the halls of academia, having lost multiple jobs. And yet - I fight!
It is not necessary to adopt the neo-conservative view of free (unfair) trade or of nation-building. We can be strong enough to deter aggression, as President Reagan was (except in Beirut) and as President Trump was.
I once said on the old Wordpress blog that what we need is not paleo-conservatism or neo-conservatism, but rather ortho-conservatism. That is what I will be looking for in the 2024 presidential candidates.
Until next time.
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
Or, the corollary in our modern perspective is, “victim hood trumps personal responsibility as long as you can get away with it”. But can you get away with it out in the real world, in the forest or on the street? There seems to be a countervailing consequence to Civilization, a kind of mathematical equal-and-opposite pathology to living the harmonious good life. This yin vs. yang or Heaven vs. Hell results from wanting to extract “the good life” out of living (consciousness) and is what you would anticipate from a species of Star Stuff that expects more for less. We have become spoiled and indulged by a Marxist doctrine of victim hood where making others wrong substitutes for earning our just rewards. Do you blame your parents for how you turned out in life, or do you thank your ancestors for bringing you life? Explain how you would be here without them. A believable lie smothers a painful truth. “Entitlement” is a dirty word; it is up to each individual to not be fooled by every deception the criminal element in humans can invent. It’s called “gaming the system” and it’s nice work if you can get it. What doesn’t kill you makes for a great story afterwards, not an excuse to be a parasite. The Lord helps them that help themselves, so make it happen for yourself and others while you still can, and stop making others wrong. When you point to finger of blame, there are three more pointing back at you.
Thoughtful post Surak as usual.
I have one comment in regards to this:
“The second lesson is the one relevant for our foreign policy.”
The first lesson must also be taken into consideration too, and I believe that might be the reason why western foreign policy tries to constantly appease and discourage fighting back against terrorist regimes.
Yes come to the aid of those who need it but we fail to judge the actions of those countries who attack.
As a result we blame ourselves or the strongest nations.
I was out with my grandchildren and a family friend, just 10 years old, who, on seeing a Palestinian flag on a car asked me “How can someone support them, they are like Hitler”
There’s hope.