MUST READ!
Very seldom do I use the phrase "Must Read" - in this case, I believe that Tony Blankley (a former guest on MTNP) really brings home the point that is about as clearly as anywhere else that I have read. His article nails it (emphasis mine):
Perhaps the greatest secular gift to the world by Judeo-Christian civilization is its seminal concept of the individual, which it raises above the tribe or the collective. In Genesis, we are told that man is made in the image of God. Deuteronomy tells us that "each human by his own sin is to be judged" and "do not punish children for the sins of their fathers." And of course, the biblical life and teachings of Jesus reflect the deep importance of the individual. Thus was planted in the soil of the West our uniquely heightened respect for the individual.
It is impossible to imagine Western civilization -- and particularly America -- without the existence in our culture of the instinctive respect for the individual to offset the more general human instinct to be subordinated in the tribe or the group.
Conversely, there is no more dangerous incubus inserted into a Western nation than hostility or indifference to the inherent value and rights of the individual.
But radicalized Islam places little value on the individual, while holding up for supreme value the interests of the group, particularly their view of the group called Islam. And it is this aggressive, assertive insistence by radicalized Muslims in the West to subordinate our inherent rights to their collective demands that slowly and more or less quietly is forcing Westerners to take sides in the radicals' demands.
As we have commented here before, it is this idea that the collective should be preeminent before the individual that lessens (and not enhances) our absolute measure of freedom. This is the preeminent war between the West vs Islam (and secondarily, the lurch towards the socialistic "herd" mentality of the Liberals vs the individualism held up by the Conservatives).
Yes, I will allow that there are times when even Conservatives realize that voluntarily banding together is an essential way to solve a problem. However, that is generally for a short duration and / or a specified purpose. It should never be confused with the Leftist claims of "we're all in this together" or "it is for the common good" or (as Hillary is wont to say) "shared responsibility". The way that these prhases are used is to promote "groupness" over "individualism"; it then places one's freedoms at the behest of the group leaders rather than from our God (Whom, as our Founding Fathers wisely knew) who has given us our freedom (and not "the group").
Comments
Posted by: Michael Kitch | April 24, 2008 11:29 AM
Posted by: Michael Kitch | April 24, 2008 11:29 AM