Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Islamist Totalitarianism

Geek with .45 is conversing on "Manifesto: Together facing the new totalitarianism". Geek has this to say (with some paragraphs changed):
They plead to the same dark forces they decry "for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas."

That's not how it works.

You do not plead for freedom of speech and expression, especially from those who believe that killing and arson is a reasonable response to cartoonery.

You assert that the condition of freedom exists, and then you act accordingly.

You stand up on a soapbox, and you speak. You speak, and you stand prepared to use whatever force is necessary to keep speaking. You speak, until the only way for them to silence you is to try to kill you. And if somebody tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back.

And beyond that, you stand by. You stand by your fellow man when he ascends the soapbox to speak, even if you don't agree with what he says. You stand prepared to use whatever force is necessary that he can keep speaking. You stand by him as he keeps speaking, until the only way they can silence him is to try to kill him. And if somebody tries to kill your fellow man for speaking his conscience, you do your fellow man a favor, and you try to kill them right back.

At the end of the day, as Col. Cooper observed, "an unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not defeated by fleeing from it".
I pray that speech will be all that is necessary. But in my heart I fear that stronger and dirtier means may be required.

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