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Which just happened to remind me of Eric Raymond's excellent "Suicidalism" which ends with the italicized quote below. You need to go RTWT especially his list of what the memes are.
Stalinist agitprop created Western suicidalism by successfully
building on the Christian idea that self-sacrifice (and even
self-loathing) are the primary indicators of virtue. In this way of
thinking, when we surrender our well-being to others we store up grace
in Heaven that is far more important than the momentary discomfort of
submitting to criminals, predatory governments, and terrorists.
The Communist atheists of Department V understood that Christian
self-abnegation tends to inculcate a cult of self-sacrifice even among
Westerners who are themselves agnostics or atheists. All the
propagandists had to do was make the case that the value of
self-abnegation applies to culture as well as individuals. By doing
so, they were able to entrench the idea that suicidalists are morally
superior to non-suicidalists.
They did this so successfully that at least one major form of
Western self-abnegation seems to have developed as a secondary
phenomenon: “deep environmentalism”. I can’t find any sign that this
traces back to the usual Stalinist suspects, but it is rather
obviously a result of generalizing suicidalism not just to culture but
to species.
I think it’s important to understand that, although suicidalism
builds on some pre-existing pathologies of Western culture, it is not
a native or natural development. It is an infection that evildoers
and their dupes created and then spread as part of a war against the
West; their goal was totalitarian control, and part of their method
was to talk the West into slitting its own throat.
Al-Qaeda’s goal is the restoration of the Caliphate and the
imposition of shari’a law on the West so that the Dar al-Harb is
abolished and absorbed into the Dar al-Islam. In other words,
totalitarian theocracy. Western suicidalists have transferred
their allegience from Communism to Islamofascism without a hitch.
They’re doing their best to see that we lose — and their
best is rather more effective than any bombing campaign.
Thus, to defeat al-Qaeda, stopping the suicide bombers is
not sufficient. We must recognize, condemn, and reject the
suicide thinkers as well.
Stalinist agitprop created Western suicidalism by successfully
building on the Christian idea that self-sacrifice (and even
self-loathing) are the primary indicators of virtue. In this way of
thinking, when we surrender our well-being to others we store up grace
in Heaven that is far more important than the momentary discomfort of
submitting to criminals, predatory governments, and terrorists.
The Communist atheists of Department V understood that Christian
self-abnegation tends to inculcate a cult of self-sacrifice even among
Westerners who are themselves agnostics or atheists. All the
propagandists had to do was make the case that the value of
self-abnegation applies to culture as well as individuals. By doing
so, they were able to entrench the idea that suicidalists are morally
superior to non-suicidalists.
They did this so successfully that at least one major form of
Western self-abnegation seems to have developed as a secondary
phenomenon: “deep environmentalism”. I can’t find any sign that this
traces back to the usual Stalinist suspects, but it is rather
obviously a result of generalizing suicidalism not just to culture but
to species.
I think it’s important to understand that, although suicidalism
builds on some pre-existing pathologies of Western culture, it is not
a native or natural development. It is an infection that evildoers
and their dupes created and then spread as part of a war against the
West; their goal was totalitarian control, and part of their method
was to talk the West into slitting its own throat.
Al-Qaeda’s goal is the restoration of the Caliphate and the
imposition of shari’a law on the West so that the Dar al-Harb is
abolished and absorbed into the Dar al-Islam. In other words,
totalitarian theocracy. Western suicidalists have transferred
their allegience from Communism to Islamofascism without a hitch.
They’re doing their best to see that we lose — and their
best is rather more effective than any bombing campaign.
Thus, to defeat al-Qaeda, stopping the suicide bombers is
not sufficient. We must recognize, condemn, and reject the
suicide thinkers as well.
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