Cynicism and idealism are two sides of the same coin. Cynics are not normal people who evolved that way, but tend rather to be frustrated idealists. In both cases, they are not seeing the world as it is. Both are errors, in their own way.
It seems to me a core problem Sybaritic (I am almost tempted to say Decadent) Leftists have is that they feel that life is supposed to be easy, that violence and horror are supposed to always be far away, and that some simple “fix” will make everything OK. All it takes is a little policy tweak, some government program, and everything will be the way it was always supposed to be.
If, for example, we ban “AR-15’s” (which is a stand in for every scary looking weapon, since the weapon used in Orlando was not an AR-15), then violence will cease. At least, we will have “done something”. But if I first cut my finger trimming vegetables, then react by cutting it off entirely, that too meets the standard of “doing something”. Doing nothing is self evidently always better than doing the wrong thing. Doing the right thing, of course, is better yet. But the difference is one of perception, of wisdom, of discrimination between good and bad ideas, which are in continual circulation and competition.
Realists, among whom I would class myself (and of course the term is entirely dependent on the idea that these ideas are accurate, but defensible because it inherently involves a practical impulse which looks, always and carefully, to the RESULTS of different ideas, making it a world view capable of evolving positively), see that the history of humanity has been a long, hard struggles to emerge from the primordial ooze, that life has been filled with violence, poverty, disease, and injustice since before the beginning of history (which itself began as a record of war), and that what we have built is AMAZING, but perishable. Everything good which has been built, at such great effort, can be destroyed, and destroyed quickly and almost entirely.
Thus people who recognize the value of what has been achieved must at the same time recognize all the many very human impulses which seek to destroy it, which have always sought to destroy it, and which have been countered and defeated only at great cost of life and human misery.
Evil is not some immanent and unknowable force “out there” (although it may be that too): it is, rather, the result of conscious policies, enacted by people with names and histories and addresses, who in most cases believe in what they are doing deeply, and who in almost all cases openly proclaim their intentions. The Communists did. The Nazis did. And the Islamists are. They are saying: we want to conquer the world. We want Europe to come under the yoke of Islamism and Sharia. We want America to come under the yoke of Islamism and Sharia.
The reason Cultural Decadents refuse to see this is that admitting this would require altering a fundamental tenet of their universe, which is that people are supposed to be happy by nature, and that only small factors, only temporary and easily overcome misunderstandings, prevent this from happening. This is myth, both in the sense of being false, but more importantly of being an organizing force in lives lived flippantly, sybaritically, and uncritically.
They resent those who intrude on their happy dreams with reports of violence and famine and death. And they blame those people, because it is EASY. It is the indignation of an over-indulged child at the responsibilities of life.
Is it not much safer to blame conservatives for all violence in the world, than to try to understand the ACTUAL root causes, particularly if they lead to the need for hard decisions, for the choice of violence over ease, for moral ambiguity and the errors which attend all wars?
We are in a culture war, one in which one side chooses to deny human history, and the other to protect humanity from the very forces the first denies. Islamism is but one of our enemies. Globalists–which is say aspiring tyrants who view the final conquest of the planet Earth as possible in our lifetime–are another. They in fact are the larger enemy, since they support the first. It is no accident that so many radicals are being spread like leavening among the masses of Europeans.
I am watching two parallel narratives emerge from the same set of events. They are radically disconnected. They have NOTHING in common. They arise from completely differing world views, completely different assumptions about the nature of life, of violence, of virtue, of duty, of history.
For those with eyes to see, this is a truly astonishing time. I suppose in some ways, all times have been astonishing, but it really does seem we have reached a point where we really must accept and value and improve upon the progress we have made–the REAL progress, in the recognition of universal human rights, political and social pluralism, of respect for actual difference, of effective and free economic systems–or in the end lose all of it. Both are possible. One or the other, seemingly, will happen in the next 20-30 years, with the major turning points being reached much sooner.
