From Neocons to Fascists to Communists to the Religious Right, the enemies of Liberalism have one thing in common: They all believe the sky is falling.
Every belief opposed to liberalism believes itself and its principles to be under siege, and on the verge of extinction. This fear of dying off is omnipresent, regardless of how powerull or all-encompassing their power may be. This can be most easily seen in the fundamental contradiction of fascism; even though the "master race" is destined to rule the world, it must exterminate all "inferior races" for its own safety. But if the "master race" is truly superior, why would it need to kill off its enemies? Wouldn't the passage of time simply reaffirm their supremacy if their ideology were true? Communism is just as paradoxical: the worker's revolution is somehow simultaneously inveitable and under threat.
Modern Neocons and religious conservatives have adopted a very similar message and belief. Western civilization, they are convinced, is on the verge of being blown to bits, either by terrorists (neocons) or by the libertarianizing of personal behavior (religious right).
The religious right position, being based on dogmas that are gradually being discarded, is somewhat more understandable, although their argument that western civilization is defined by religious dogmas is tenuous at best. Even if religion as the religious right defines it disappears, it seems certain that a new, more open spiritualism will take its place and provide a new kind of moral force, one bound more by compassion and less by dogma.
The neocon position, however, is far stranger in its logical gymnastics. It seems to believe that small bands of terrorists, by murdering civilians in ultimately cowardly acts of defiance to the prevalent geopolitical climate, are capable of destroying the western world. This simply flies in the face of logic. Terrorism is never utilized by a group with power, precisely because it is cowardly. The fact that Islamic extremists are reduced to terrorism speaks volumes about the degree to which their beliefs, in a geopolitical sense, have been marginalized. Terrorism is the death throes of Islamic fundamentalism, not the sign of its rebirth.
There is even (in the form of the DLC) a faction of liberals who have accepted this Chicken Little theory. They claim that liberalism is on the verge of extinction, which is ludicrous.
This paranoia and siege mentality are, in a word, preposterous. The United States is not the Rome of 470 AD, about to crumble to bits. Terrorism is not the sign of Islamic fundamentalism's resurgence, but in fact is a sign of its desperation, it's utter powerlessness in any legitimate sense. America would do well to ignore these Chicken Littles and their preposterous prophesies of the downfall of western civilization, and instead to embrace the liberal belief in positive growth and reform.
Wake up neocons. The geopolitical sky isn't falling. The environment and the poverty gap will both bite us before we suffer Rome's fate.
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