Someone of the Left wrote recently about some comments of mine a relatively standard Leftist response. I took some time to reply. Here it is, first, the Leftist. For the most part, I left the spelling as it was written.
{T]he biggest issues are missing from [An Préachán]s analysis. they are: slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism. trillions spent on arms race, and now trum [Trump] wants to colonize the space. terrorism has cost europe 200 billion euros in ten years, fine. how much is the worth of all the human and material resources stolen from Africa? a thousand times as much? ten thousand times as much? and now these poor africans are trying to cross the med. just for the opportunity to make a small living for themselves and their families that they left behind. the truth is the only way to save white man's honor a small bit is a massive marshall plan type of program in africa to stop the desperate migration. the ultimate truth is that we have created a barbarian civilisation based on money and power run by ignorant and selfish people like trump. it cannot last, it is sooner or later doomed. this utter nationalism and global capitalism is a disaster: the inequality is unbearable, the rich are getting richer, some are getting crumbs, and the poor are getting poorer.[name]
My rejoinder:
In
response, I'd express a couple of basic ideas. First, in general, one
has to deal with the world as it is, not as one wishes it to be. Second,
an individual may well feel responsible for their ancestors' wretched
behavior, and try to do something about it, sure, but depriving your own
children in order to repay strangers for some ancestral sin won't sit
well with your children.
This is just human nature.
Then, as for past colonialism justifying current invasions, consider:
According to a recent report,
Chinese investment in Africa could create national economies entirely dependent
on China.
Although infrastructure projects can create jobs,
provide an opportunity for skills development and the transfer of new
technologies, Chinese
loans amounting to more than $86 billion bring dangerously high
levels of debt that can prove unsustainable for vulnerable African nations.
The lure of short-term benefits for developing or
troubled economies while masking long-term burdens is exactly the scenario now
playing out in Pakistan, which is becoming progressively subjugated
by Chinese loan-based investment
Africa faces immediate, dire,
chilling "recolonization" by China. This is extremely important to know
about and to call everyone's attention to.
Besides
this, Africa has myriad problems we can't solve. One small example:
South Africa is driving out its Whites. Someone might say, "Good! They
deserve
it!" but only a certain type of mind will agree with you. Everyone else
sees such a development as both unjust and "racist". Also,
as noted above, Africa is being exploited today -- and the Chinese are
big into that.
They're investing heavily in Africa, and have a military base somewhere
in the Horn of Africa now. The point: Does anyone think the Chinese give
a damn
about "past wrongs" or "colonialism". (Try going to their embassy and
protesting their actions.) True, they too were taken advantage of in
that way in the past, just look up the Opium War for an example of
Western perfidy. But the Opium War doesn't mean modern Britain should be
invaded by the Red Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Of course, perhaps you'd still rather live as a subject of the Red Dragon than as a British colonial. Fine. But that's your decision. Others don't have to take it, and it is unjust to force it on them.
More
generally about "nations" and "nationalism": People are born into
nations that have languages and culture, both language and culture being
traditional and rooted in the soil and also in their ancestors' past
lives and in the lives and experience of the current generation. It's a
holistic experience to be Irish, or German, or Magyar, or whatever. You
can't just tell them to forget it, pack up, move aside, go away as their
nations now belong to X, or is it Y? Maybe Z. Whoever, someone who able
to make a claim that their ancestors were taken advantage of in the
past. But beware: people will react very negatively to that.
That's a great way, in short, to start a revolution. And get yourself in serious trouble with everyone around you.
Also, there's no argument in: "My grandfather owned your grandfather, so I have to give you my house." You, yourself, if you
want, can do that, but then the obvious question is, (again, as noted
above) where do your wife and kids live? You usurp their rights to an
identity. Not to mention a home. And what would your brothers and
sisters say? And as noted, try to do that to your neighbors and they
might attack you.
Bottom
line: One generation can't owe its contemporaries for previous
generations' sins. First of all, it is simply unjust. But practically,
who could possibly determine how much would be owed, and then who would
have the power force the redistribution? And then, thirdly, to whom
would such redistribution go? Fourthly, who could handle the social
upheaval and civil war that would result?
Yet
it is the inherent injustice of the idea that prohibits it. An
individual is owed the respect every human owes another, and that
includes respect for their person and their private property; without
respect for private property, we have nothing, because all we have can
be taken away. Also, it is theft to take from someone who has done
nothing wrong, even if one's ancestors manifestly did not show the
natural respect one human owes another.
Example:
How could I, being Irish, demand of the English (many of whom are of
Irish descent) that they give me a bunch of money because they starved
my ancestral family to death, all except for the two who escaped, one to
American and the other to Australia?
Then
there's slavery today. Sex slavery (usually). We need to stop that
before we pontificate on reparation for our ancestors acts. In England,
now, today, literally thousands of young English girls have been treated
as "sex slaves" by Muslim immigrants and/or their English-born
children. That's not something from the past, but all too very much in
the present. Or would you dare to consider such repeated rape a good
atonement for England's rule of India (and Pakistan)? A just
comeuppance?
Far
more to the point, [the author] brings ups slavery and colonialism. Islam was
essentially -- aside from its famous handful of philosophers who managed
to exist for a time after the Asherite takeover -- was a slave-trading
empire. From the very beginning, it was all about slaves. Entire peoples
were moved about the Middle East by Muslim rulers of various dynasties,
and the great city of Alexandria, a wonder of the ancient world and the
only purely intellectual and commerce-founded city in the ancient
Mediterranean world, in one generation was turned into a fishing
village. The Arab conquerors didn't know how to govern it, or even what
it was for. So, when the populace rebelled (they were famously hard to
rule) the emirs killed off a third of them, sold another third directly
into slavery, and moved the rest to their new Egyptian capital city of
Cairo.
Problem of what to do with Alexandria solved.
Also,
something most of you don't know about: the Viking Age was funded by
Arab silver. Arab slave markets on the Black Sea and the Caspian paid
Swedes to run newly acquired slaves down the Russian rivers from the
Baltic. The Norwegians and Danes captured the slaves in Western Europe
and ran then over to the Swedes in the Baltic. So on and so forth.
In
other words, why bemoan "the West's" "slavery, neo-colonialism, and
imperialism" when it has always been a central element to Islam, and
even humanity in general. They've always done so. They still do so. Act
today to stop it today.
Finally, as for Trump being, as the Leftist puts it: "ignorant and selfish", well, guess what? Black Americans are doing much better financially under Trump than they ever did
under Obama, and indeed, all Americans (legal ones) are doing much
better financially under Trump. Jobs, money, companies, all are "coming
home" to America, and Trump's popularity keep rising. It's not super
high, of course. But it keeps rising slowly. National feeling is strong.
And that's just natural, too.
Pretty good for a guy both ignorant and selfish.
An Préachán
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