A Stinker at the 'Thinker

I often find pretty good articles over at the American Thinker, but I found a real travesty over there today that pretty much illustrates the philosophical bankruptcy of the conservative movement. In Ward Churchill is Right. Partly., Christopher Chantrill starts off making a valid point about the war with Islamofascism: that America is an empire. But his attempt to explain how our nation got to be that way is, in the immortal words of Toby Charles, "High, wide, and not handsome at all!"

Here is how he explains why the West is so powerful.

The West is powerful because it relies on a Hayekian spontaneous order, the result of millions of decisions by millions of little men and women. It is the American settler moving west and compelling the U.S. cavalry to come and rescue him from irate Indians. It is the humble clerk of the East India Company who got a military friend to teach him a bit of soldiering and then went out and conquered Bengal. It is the young bookkeeper getting interested in the barrels of Pennsylvania oil being traded by his employer, Hewitt and Tuttle, commission agents of Cleveland, Ohio.

This sort of Hayekian thinking has even seeped into the military. Western generals now train soldiers to be “self-reliant, self-confident, dedicated, and joyful in taking responsibility” instead of just fodder for artllery.

Let us speak truth to ourselves. Our double-entry bookkeeping, our self-government, our rule of law, and our limited-liability companies are more than mere wonders of the world. They are more than innocent inventions; they are the terrifying force multipliers that made us into world conquerors and world benefactors.

This is all true, but I somehow don't think the Founding Fathers got together and decided that they wanted to "rely on spontaneous order" to forge a great nation. Psst! I believe they were victors in a war they fought -- at enormous personal risk -- in order to protect their individual rights. This phrase is never mentioned.

Rather, Chantrill, who sees this war as some kind of sectarian squabble between Christians and Moslems, seems to assume that our entire modern society somehow emerged, fully formed, from the thorn-encrowned head of Christ! He then almost immediately lapses into a really weird fantasy about Chinese Christians, of all improbable heroes, somehow completing our world conquest! The whole thing has to be read to be believed, but this excerpt is choice.

Then there are the Chinese. Their house church people are planning to launch 100,000 Christian missionaries upon the world. They have developed a narrative about Christianity as a westward moving religion. It got started in Palestine and then moved west to Europe, to America, and to Asia. The destiny of Chinese Christians, they believe, is to bring Christianity westward across Asia and "Back to Jerusalem."

No need to use our noggins in this war! Those "house church people" (whoever the hell they are) will step up to save the day! Leaving aside the fact that the Chinese Christians are hostage to a totalitarian state which is hostile to the United States, pray tell, Mr. Chantrill, where in the Bible did God put forth the principles behind "double-entry bookkeeping, ... self-government, ... rule of law, and ... limited-liability companies?" The many pronouncements against avarice would seem to rule out the alpha and the omega of these, whilst unquestioning obedience to God would seem to rule out self-government. That would leave only "rule of law," wouldn't it. Isn't that what Sharia is?

No religion is capable of giving our civilization the backbone it needs to win this war, and no religion gave us what tactical advantages we now enjoy for that matter. The sooner we realize this, the better.

-- CAV