Jeff Goldstein over at Protein Wisdom has had a LOT of pieces on the difficulty of dealing with leftist criticism.

The problem, so far as I can understand, is that rhetoricians and critics of a leftist stripe tend to commit themselves to an anti-intentionalist fallacy. They ignore the purposed meaning of the actual words said by the person or work they are analyzing, in favor of what the choice of words supposedly reveals about the author - inevitably some form of prejudice or bias that is not PC.

The primary assumption is that language that CAN be used to express prejudice CANNOT be used for any other purpose. Hence the recent pillorying of Tony Snow for his use of the term "tar baby" - which had not a fucking thing to do with black people, but you would never know that from the foofaraw that followed.
Rorschach | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 2:05 pm | #

The Organization of Islamic Conference, with 57 Muslim states for members, was ultimately behind the cartoon controversy and obvious dhimmification effort, according to Nat Hentoff. From "The Cartoons Conspiracy: The story behind the story of the furor over the Muhammad cartoons" by Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice, Feb. 20, 2006 http://www.villagevoice.com/news/ 0608,hentoff,72237,6.html

66~~~~~~~~~~
Eibner and his colleagues also redeemed thousands of slaves who had been taken by the genocidal National Islamic Front government in Khartoum.

What John Eibner told me is also partly in a letter from him to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, which I have not yet seen reported in the press:

"The role of the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), representing 57 Muslim states, in creating a climate for violent confrontation over the cartoons [was shown when] the OIC set the stage for anti–free speech demonstrations at its extraordinary summit in Mecca in December 2005. The Muslim states resolved, through these many demonstrations, to pressure through a program of joint Islamic action, international institutions, including the U.N., to criminalize insults of Islam and its prophet. [Emphasis added.]

"In its final resolution, in Mecca, the OIC focused on the satirical caricatures of Muhammad (published in Denmark in September), which are now being used as a pretext for acts of violence.

"On the 4th of February—the day the mob violence commenced—the Organization of Islamic Conference described publication of the caricatures as acts of ‘blasphemy.' Blasphemy is punishable by death, according to Shariah law."

With the game plan set at the Mecca summit, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and Qatar (and its Al Jazeera network) went on to feed the flames. There was indeed outrage, but there had been no such outbursts in those countries when the Egyptian newspaper Al Fager published the cartoons on its October 17 front page!

The Organization of Islamic Conference's goal is to inhibit criticism of Islamic jihadism by threats of violence. It's beginning to work. On February 9, the European Union called for a voluntary code of conduct to avoid offending Muslims. On the same day, Kofi Annan agreed with an OIC proposal mandating that a revised U.N. Human Rights Council "prevent instances of intolerance discrimination, incitement of hatred and violence . . . against religions, prophets, and beliefs." The language is intentionally very broad.

This would enforce censorship by U.N. members and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations there) against purported defamation of Muslims in print and other forms of speech.
~~~~~~~~~~99

The appropriate response to all Muslim complaints, ginned up and otherwise, about insults to Mohammed, is the sustained & relentless demand for the complete abolition of Shari'a everywhere immediately, with penalties including imprisonment for those who attempt to enforce it.
ForNow | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 3:27 pm | #

That chart is amazing and explains so much. You are right that these four tenets of the left really took off after the cold war ended and communism was seemingly completely discredited. Even Fukayama thought it was the 'end of history'--little did we know that the socialists wouldn't give up so easily; that this puruit of utopia was in their blood; and that they would do and say anything to bring about the revolution anyway.
CharlesJ | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 3:57 pm | #

If you study the history of gnosticism, you will realize that this heresy, described so well in your chart, will never ever die. It's built into our DNA apparently. Ever since Eve ate the apple, humans have tried to create "heaven on earth" with tragic and genocidal effects. Hell, even old-fashioned gnosticism is back with the DaVinci Code mania. You can try to attack the roots of this vile weed with reason and rationality, but we will never succeed in erradicating it. Socialism = gnosticism = death.
2 + 2 = 5 | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 4:15 pm | #

As Berne and Harris might put it, the modern Left seems to be stuck in a permanent "Me = OK, You/Them = Not OK" cycle... they use their supposed victimhood as a bargaining chip to make their opponents into victims.
Rorschach | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 4:32 pm | #

"That chart is amazing and explains so much." I second that opinion.
ELC | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 4:49 pm | #

Superb post and chart, Doctor. I think we're seeing a variation of 'Creative Destruction', the economic model promulgated by Joseph Schumpeter that describes what happens when innovation is on the move. Older and slower companies fail and fall as the new, energetic ones move in.

In this case it's a cancerous malignancy, similar to the AIDS virus, that challenges us. But the sick Islamofascists cannot destroy what is truly healthy. We will be either renewed or destroyed by this threat, and it's our choice, a "forced choice".

Face it: Our Western Tradition was catastrophically ossified by 1914. The simple assasination of a minor figure from a royal family caused the whole house of cards to collapse. World War I, and tens of millions were slaughtered. Bolshevism thrived in the chaos, and the first modern totalitarian state was hatched.

Then, grotesque mismangement of the American economy and trade policies brought on the Great Depression, Naziism, Fascism,; and even St. Franklin Roosevelt couldn't bring it to an end. Another world war.

The sickness has been with us for a very long time, but I sense a final breakthrough is at hand, because it must be at hand. Necessity dictates that there must be a final solution, or a final conflagration.
M.Capulus | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 5:02 pm | #

What the left seems to not realize the most is the fact that as they continue on their course of destruction, it can only end in consuming them.

And they will be consumed no matter which side of the current Islam vs the-rest-of-the-world wins. (And it will be US. It will be ugly, but we shall win. )

Anybody willing to understand that Senator McCarthy was correct yet?

He knew what was brewing in Hollywood, too.


.
The Machine | Email | Homepage | 05.31.06 - 10:00 pm | #

How can a Cuban official travel safely to Iran? Sharia is quite clear that although a Jew or a Christian may be allowed to live under subsurvience, an athiest must be put to death. Many American athiests seem to have this bizarre notion that 'they don't have a dog in this fight' and that by not being a Christian or a Jew they evade Islamic wrath and guaranty their own safety when/if sharia law comes to their land.
JimO | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 12:15 am | #

The Hicks book is great and crystal clear; highly recommended. He's got some articles up at The Objectivist Center, but I can't find my links.

As long as capitalism continues to reward merit, people without merit will continue to hate capitalism; "for he that cannot possibly mend his own case, will do what he can to impair another's." That's from Francis Bacon's essay On Envy. He was talking about eunuchs, but it goes for liberals as well. (Heh. Indeed.)
Brian | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 12:56 am | #

Yet another example of the misappropriation of words in MSsob rhetoric:

> Turning to the membership of both countries in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as a favorable ground for collaboration at the international level, he said, "Seeking justice is the common feature of all the world's freedom-seeking nations Based on this fundamental principle, Iran, Cuba and other NAM member states can start extensive cooperation and modern movements at the international level.

"Seeking justice" and "freedom-seeking nations". Uh-huh. Yeah, THOSE words apply to Iran and Cuba.

*Right*.
Oh Blutige Hölle | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 2:03 am | #

Atheists never have a dog in any fight. They believe that by not believing they are immune to being persecuted. Fortunately for them, their lack of religious principles does tend to sink them to the bottom of every terrorist's list of enemies.
Cuban Patriot | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 2:44 am | #

One of the reasons so many faiths (at least in the West) decry idolatry is that when an ideal becomes more important than people, carnage ensues.

Eastern faiths tend to deal with this in a different way, being somewhat more authoritarian by nature. The origins of Western faiths are fairly well tinged with an egalitarian, almost anarchist strain, even though most did not follow that path (Quakers and Muslims both deprecate central authority in favor of dispersed experts).

ANYWAY, Islamic schools of Jurisprudence have turned this on its head, replacing the idol with the book and the idea of the prophet.

In other words, Buddhists found a way (mostly) around the carnage without abandoning the idols, while Muslims found a way around the idols without abandoning the carnage.
Merovign | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 4:10 am | #

In Hick's diagram that you reproduce, "Change Ethical Standard" refers to the mutation of "From wealth is good" to "Wealth is bad" and "From equality of opportunity" to "equality of outcome".

However, these are wishy washy classifications. The real change in ethical standards it the mutation from using the word "morals" to the word "values".

What the hell are "values"? Values have no objective point of reference. Morals do.

The word values was coined by Nietzsche (I think), to avoid having to use the word "morals". He understood the difficulty in maintaining morals when you throw away an objective point of reference. Hence the wishy washy word "values".

Difference?
Values = wealth is bad, equality of outcome
Morals = wealth is good, equality of opportunity

Oh, and by morals, I mean those rooted in the Judeo-Christian God.
Manny C | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 9:41 am | #

Doc, have you ever read the 1930s-vintage pulp adventure fiction of Robert E Howard? Though best known these days for Conan the Barbarian, he was actually one of the most prolific popular writers of the period.

And a recurring theme through much of his stories (not just Conan) is that the Civilized Man is always doomed to fall before the axes (and now scimitars) of The Barbarian.
Headless Unicorn Guy | Email | Homepage | 06.01.06 - 12:52 pm | #

fttttttttttttvy4ctitaizutuistauYURYTUSGFDYTVRTYC
fyhjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj | Email | Homepage | 06.08.06 - 1:53 pm | #

It's a pity that chart doesn't go into the interesting (and terribly ironic) tendency of the Left to lapse into fascism. Much as Leftists hate to admit it, (and they hate to so very very much) Hitler and Mussolini were some of the world's first "socialists".
Randy Rager | Email | Homepage | 06.17.06 - 7:46 pm | #

Never mind Castro and the Iranians, what about...

John ("I'm a war hero") Kerry?

(1) [intro., to topic]
"At the center of the controversy is one Hassan Nemazee, listed as a Vice-Chair by the Kerry campaign, and identified by CBS News as having raised more than $500,000 for the campaign.
Nemazee has served on the Board of the American Iranian Council, the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC), and the Asia Society, all of which favor negotiations with the mullahs' regime and eventual normalization of relations with Iran."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focu...s/1249569/ posts

(2) [with links to more details]
http:// powerandcontrol.blogspot....connection.html

(3) [regarding sleezeball Nemazee's CAIRyesque dirty tricks]
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Arti...le.asp? ID=14977

(4) [why NOT trust the mulahs with nukes?]
"John Kerry and John Edwards Iran policy proposal has raised eyebrows around the world, offering to give the Iranian hardliners nuclear fuel in exchange for a promise to drop their enrichment program."
http://www.captainsquartersblog....ives/ 002682.php

(5) [one more for good measure]
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ new...RTICLE_ID=40911

OR, WHAT ABOUT BIG AL (I'm a sore looser) GORE?
(1) [where's Michael More when you need him?]
The Saudi Arabia seminar that was addressed by former Vice President "Al Gore over the weekend in a speech that criticized the U.S. [see:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/...12/ 220618.shtml ]
for being too tough on Arabs was sponsored, in part, by Osama bin Laden's family."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/...13/ 182926.shtml

(2) ["10 questions for Al Gore, the Saudi whore": Yoohoo, Michael More, where are you?]

(3) [Ooops, there's that Nemazee guy again!]
"One of the largest political contributors to Kerry and Gore has been Iranian Hassan Nemazee,..."
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Arti...le.asp? ID=21290

Nope, all we have to do to find lefitsists in bed with Arab cockroaches is to look under a rock in our own back yard.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 07.10.06 - 10:19 pm | #

Sorry, that...

"(2) ["10 questions for Al Gore, the Saudi whore": Yoohoo, Michael More, where are you?]" should have referred to this link...
http://www.yourish.com/2006/02/13/726
ytba | Email | Homepage | 07.10.06 - 10:23 pm | #

And, speaking of "mental states"; the fact that the leftist slimeballs can be within reach of elected office by deviating so drastically from all historic norms...
http:// www.conservativetruth.org...editorial.shtml
...and by using dirty tricks...
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/.../29/ 95942.shtml
...(with the help of their MSM propaganda brownshirts)...
http://www.renewamerica.us/colum...wambough/ 050107
...what does that say about the collective health of America?
ytba | Email | Homepage | 07.10.06 - 11:31 pm | #

The "Change Ethical Standard" derivatives need some work.

First, equality of outcome has ALWAYS been socialism's mantra. So no arrow from "Change Ethical Standard," it is the continuous holdover that combines with other things.

Second, "wealth is good/bad" is off the mark, as Marxism has crusaded against private wealth since Day 1. What it now crusades against is PUBLIC wealth, i.e. production. This should read "From production good to production bad," in order to make the shift fully apparent.
Joe Katzman | Email | Homepage | 10.30.06 - 12:34 pm | #

First class commentary! Thank God for the internet!
Nikola
http://serbialives.blogspot.com/
Nikola | Email | Homepage | 11.24.06 - 3:46 pm | #

bull shit
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 02.16.07 - 12:52 pm | #

You have a very good list, but it is incomplete. Athough, the Cuba variant is a start.

Don't forget the Baran-Wallerstein revision of original Marxism, as discussed here:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Arti...cle.asp? ID=4954

Essentially, it also leads to terrorism.

Call it the "Wait for the Third-World to Revolt." The beauty of this variant is that the third world is full of violence, so if any of that contacts with the First World, you have the revolt. This is why Chomsky et al. look at 9-11 as a result of immizeration.
joeindc44 | Email | Homepage | 02.17.07 - 7:01 pm | #

Great column. In relation to what you wrote, check out my latest blog entry at http://soundedgood.blogspot.com/...e-of- truth.html. I point out a few "Inconvenient Truths" about Gore, Cullen, and Branson, and whacko-environmentalism. Enjoy!
A.C. Cargill | Email | Homepage | 02.19.07 - 12:05 pm | #

"Bernard Lewis has done more to mislead the West (and the White House) about the true intent of Islam than any other single group or entity."
Solroni | Email | Homepage | 12.23.07 - 8:49 pm | #