We're all bored, just as bored, even more bored, than you are with Islam, and Jihad, and with having to listen to solemn parsing of speeches by Bin Laden, or Ahmadinejad, or Mahathir Mohammed, or with having to analyze some promise made by Hosni Mubarak or Pervez Musharraf or Mahmoud Abbas. Why should primitive peoples with primitive belief-systems take up our time? Because they can. Because they must. Because the Western world made a big mistake, over the past four decades, and now it is paying for it. And the Western world will, if something is not done, pay much more for that big mistake of letting into its midst, at the moment of maximum sentimentality and softness in the collective Western brain, people who do not and cannot wish that Western world, its legal and political institutions, well.[1]We're fond of the mold analogy as readers know.
The Pakistani government's July 3 attack on the Red Mosque in Islamabad is a good example of how to deal with homegrown mold. But it's a rarely chosen option in this world. The U.S. involvement in Iraq served an initial salutary purpose -- and still does -- in the daily grinding up of assorted jihadis who choose to migrate there to exercise their "personal oblivion" policy option. Overall, however, it's still an example of allowing the mold to fester and spread. (See our "The elephant in the living room.")
Oddly, some who would find it odd not to take out the garbage under the sink at home find it supremely boring to do the same kind of simple maintenance work when it comes to understanding and dealing with the true monsters of this world. Robert Spencer discusses[2] this kind of necessary tedium (quoting Mr. Fitzgerald) and takes John Derbyshire to task for his boredom with parsing the Koran and the examining the sordid details of Mohammed's creative incentivizing of rape, rapine, and conquest.[3]
Unfortunately, paying attention to Nascar muscle cars, retarded ball players, or movies about serial killers and neo Nazis will win out over paying attention to what is both sordid and dull. Most will prefer distraction and fairy tales to mounting an effective defense against Muslims, let alone to merely identifying them as the Main Enemy. ("Moderate" Muslims, i.e., pseudo Muslims who do not adhere to the fundamental tenets of Islam, are free to explain in the comment section below in what way they -- individually -- adhere to Western culture values and laws that are fundamentally inconsistent with Muslim doctrine.)
Americans will pay good money to see 10 movies about serial killers and Nazis as though these are ubiquitous threats between Seattle and Key Largo. Racist white people and criminal businessmen are also everywhere to be found and no small number of films and TV dramas exist to remind us of these ever present dangers that jointly and severally delay the arrival of government-sponsored happiness, safety, and health care. These will occupy American minds hour after hour.
The Wide Awakes (if we may borrow that phrase from the excellent blog of that name, see sidebar) and the people who otherwise keep alive the prickly notion of "Don't tread on me" as a national attitude (preferable, that is, to exponential and logarithmic perseveration over "offending" someone) -- these stalwarts will go on doing their duty, doing the dirty job of keeping book until the next Muslim outrage serves to nudge citizens away from their fascination with stupid dog tricks. Temporarily, of course.
For the time being, bet on distraction as the national choice.
Will the fireworks today represent explosions of American energy or a vast slow national implosion?
To us, the answer to that question is just not that clear.
No, it isn't.
Notes
[1] "Fitzgerald: Is anyone else getting bored?" By Hugh Fitzgerald, Jihad Watch, 2/28/07 (emphasis added). The superb Fjordman admits to a similar annoyance at having to spend time refuting a flawed and irrelevant ideology such as Islam (but sees the bright side in it). "Is Islam Compatible With Democracy?" By Fjordman, Gates of Vienna, 4/20/07.
[2] "John Derbyshire is bored." By Hugh Fitzgerald, Jihad Watch, 7/3/07.
[3] Best done with a long stick while standing upwind.
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