Irony and liberalism.

Lawrence Auster has an interesting post on the four American yachtsmen who were captured and shot by Somali pirates on February 22. He quotes from a New York Times story that has this quote from one of the friends of the older couple on board, Scott and Jean Adams:

The irony of all this is that Scott and Jean, like so many of us out here cruising the world, are out here to meet the people, learn about their culture and help those we meet in whatever way we can," said Mr. Allen.^[1]

I doubt the accuracy of the claim that rich people fulfilling their dream to take off for years to visit exotic places and ply the seas aboard well-equipped, custom yachts have a serious objective to help those they meet that goes much beyond patronizing local businesses and paying local taxes. In the instant case, the Adams did intend to distribute a great many Bibles along their route and their appearance at remote churches and Scott Adam's teaching and preaching were beneficial and, I'm guessing, more than what the normal cruising yachtsmen did when they stopped somewhere.

The irony to which Allen refers is an apparent irony, which I render as, "There was great good will toward people everywhere in the hearts of the victims at the time of their capture and just prior to their deaths and yet . . . and yet they were killed by some of those very people." A finding of irony here, however, requires seeing the situation in the most general way possible: man and woman have desire to help all men yet a man kills people who have a wish to help him. This is like finding irony if a doctor is mugged in the hospital parking lot. "His work serves mankind but a member of the human race attacked him."

If one is more particular in the choice of group, we see there is no irony at all: yachtsmen who help certain people likely to appreciate their help in certain situations are killed in a different situation by certain people who are barbarians and were never intended to be objects of naive and foolish benevolence.

Mr. Allen's entitled to have me not pick apart a casual remark, especially when he's lost his friends under such miserable circumstance. The view expressed does, however, seem a lot like the liberal view of current problems. E.g., "the United States is defined by and vindicated by immigration, for are we not a Nation of Immigrants and welcoming of all who come to our shores (and deserts), and yet . . . and yet we see that many immigrants are not grateful or a positive benefit to the country. Oh, how can this be? Are we not people of good will?"

This is stupefying irony to liberals, the irony existing only because of an inability to perceive the particular, actual nature of many immigrants who

• ignore our laws;
  
• take jobs from American citizens;
  
• populate our streets and jails with MS-13 gang members;
  
• plot to diminish American sovereignty;
  
• murder our citizens;
  
• abuse our freedoms until they can be destroyed with a primitive, incoherent, incomprehensible legal code; and
  
• clog public streets with their mass prayer gatherings in observance of a quasi-religion that is beyond bizarre.

If a nativist, traditionalist, or conservative indulges in abstractions at this level of generality -- e.g., all Muslims should be removed from the U.S. -- well then it's Katie bar the door and hell to pay. But the opposite position is taken with abandon. Prudent, high-level generalization that contains a negative view of other cultures or countries is the essence of Racism but absolutely asinine views of other cultures or countries are wisdom itself and lead to enrichment of our deficient native culture.

It's a cliche these days, but . . . what could go wrong?

The real irony is that these U.S. citizens (who were aware of but inexplicably indifferent to the risk to them) would be captured by pirates freely operating in the very same waters patrolled by U.S. warships. Another irony is that citizens of Somalia are a piratical scourge to peaceful, inoffensive American citizens (and maritime travelers in general) and yet Somalians are at this moment permitted by the U.S. government to emigrate to the U.S. despite the enormous risk that the barbaric ways of this ghastly primitive country will come with them.

My favorite irony, while I'm on the subject of irony, is the fact that we have hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the world but -- when day in and day out there is an actual invasion of the U.S. in progress -- there is no U.S. military presence on the southern border. Not one troop, male or female, homosexual or normal, Guardsman or regular unless, that is, you count the occasional dispatch of a clerk typist, cook, or supply clerk needing to be baby sat by actual border interdiction officers and thereby hindering their efforts.

Notes
^[1] "Four people on yacht killed by Somali pirates." By Lawrence Auster, View from the Right, 2/24/11.

Revised 2/25 to substitute, "which I render as" and correct spelling error. Col. B.