Cultural Survival Skills

Grave Danger For Western Culture.

The following is a reblog from 12/7/09, I have modified it only slightly.

Victor Davis Hanson, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College.

Dr. Hanson recently published an article entitled, The Future of Western War, in Imprimis, which is a publication of Hillsdale College.

In this article he asserts that human nature is a constant force and therefore, there will always be war. The evolution of war (clubs to warheads) in Western Culture is discussed and “Western Ideas” are defined to:

“include a commitment to constitutional or limited government, freedom of the individual, religious freedom in a sense that precludes religious tyranny, respect for property rights, faith in free markets, and an openness to rationalism or the explanation of natural phenomena through reason.”

Dr. Hanson concluded that these Western Ideas have produced more wealth and population welfare than anything ever before. He further asserts that Western Culture has also produced superior fighting and defense capabilities and asserts that civilian involvement in planning has been important in developing military excellence. Moreover, “reason and capitalism” have provided Western Thinking with superior technology and weaponry. He also notes that Western armies have been generally impatient, “They tend to want to seek out and destroy the enemy quickly and go home”.

When the focus is upon today, he argues that new Western technological inventions are rapidly adopted by less advanced , non-Western militaries. For example, as he put it, “someone in the Hindu Kush tonight can download a sophisticated article on how to make an IED.” And further, non-Western countries can now massively benefit from the fact that Western societies need great quantities of “strategic materials” and that “these materials produce tremendous amounts of unearned capital in non-Western countries.”

He concludes that, “the West’s enemies now have instant access to knowledge and tremendous capital.”

Dr. Hanson then describes five traditional checks on the Western way of war that have become stronger in modern times. These are the following:

1. The “tendency to limit the ferocity of war through rules and regulations.”

2. “there is no monolithic West.” He gives as an example, “The U.S. and its allies can’t even agree on sanctions against Iran.”

3. Dr. Hanson calls the third check, “parasitism”, noting that is hard to invent and construct new weapons, but very easy to buy or steal and use them.

4. There is the “ever-present anti-war movement in the West.”

5. The most serious check on the Western way of war is what Dr. Hanson calls “asymmetry. He notes that, “Western culture creates citizens who are affluent, leisured, free and protected.” He concludes, “And it’s not easy to convince someone who has a good life to fight against someone who doesn’t.”

Dr. Hanson argues that all of these five checks on Western warfare are “Magnified in our time.”

He then comes to a very grave conclusion.

“We who created the tradition of Western warfare are very reluctant to resort to it due to post-modern cynicism, while those who didn’t create it are very eager to apply it due to pre-modern zealotry. And that is a very lethal combination.”

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I recommend that you carefully read Dr. Hanson’s entire article at:

https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2009&month=11

Keep Dr. Hanson’s concluding remarks in mind as you consider the “politically correct”, socially experimental, and self-deafeningly “humane” ways in which our precious human energy and tax monies are being spent during what appears to be our movement into World War Three.

All of this at a time that our military has now been worn-down and exhausted by many years at war.

• The movement to invite openly sexual gay/lesbian personnel into our military.
• The expenditure of millions of taxed monies so our submarines can accommodate female crew members.
• Our military is now preparing to court martial three Navy Seals who went on a hazardous mission to capture a terrorist alleged responsible for killing, burning and hanging the corpses of Americans from a bridge over the Euphrates river in Iraq. The charge is that they hit this terrorist “in the gut” during the capture. Other reports are of a bloodied lip.
• Moving Islamic terrorist prisoners from Guantanamo into our home-land prisons.
• The assault on public displays, words, and symbols of our Judeo/Christian heritage.
• Our failure to stop the flood of illegal aliens and to eject those who have taken-up residence in America, with tax-based public assistance.
• Our Government’s insistence upon giving the Islamic Terrorists who helped to destroy the Twin Towers in New York City, full citizenship rights in a court trial in New York City. Thus providing them an international forum to further slander America, recruit more fanatical terrorists and stir up more hatred of us. There is no precedent for extending citizen legal rights to terrorists in America.
• Our National movement away from a free market economy towards increased socialism along with powerful governmental actions that extend our deep economic recession.
• Our governmental reluctance to ruthlessly seek and destroy the terrorists who are dedicating their lives to destroying us.
• Our government’s refusal to identify Islamic Terrorists as America’s mortal enemies.
• Apologizing to the world for our National pride and feelings of exceptionalism.
• The dominance of “political correctness” which stifles our ability to discuss our own self-destructive governmental or citizen behavior patterns (i.e., irresponsible sexual behavior, violence, profanity, pornography, etc.). For example, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hason, in spite of showing alarming indications of his radical Islamic beliefs and sympathies, was allowed to remain in the Army. He later shot and killed 13 soldiers, wounding 30, at Fort Hood.  Even our military is infected with political correctness, with predictable results.
• Releasing Islamic Terrorist Prisoners from Guantanamo, many of whom have rejoined the Islamic Terrorist Jihad against the Worlds “Infidels”.
• Relieving sanctions and playing “soft-ball” in negotiations with Iran as it  continues to make progress towards nuclear weapons and vehicles to deliver them.
• Betraying the security needs of Israel, an old and strong ally, now under mortal threat in the Middle East.

This is only a partial list of what I consider to be deadly concerns. There is also a long list of domestic threats to our survival that I will not attempt to enumerate in this context (violence, drug abuse, overflowing prisons, child abuse and neglect, births to unmarried mothers, America’s declining birth rate, a shrinking middle class, a stagnant economy and much more).

At the national level, our government’s behavior is now a cascade of irrational and self-defeating actions. I fear that our condition is more lethal than is indicated in Dr. Hanson’s excellent and informative article.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D.

12/7/09 , Reblogged on 2/2/15