ON THE FREEDOM FRONT: IS THE WEST LOSING THE BATTLE?

ON THE FREEDOM FRONT: IS THE WEST LOSING THE BATTLE?

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© May 3, 2009

“Why do the media (and others) not jump all over vile, hate-filled pronouncements by imams and mullahs the way they do controversial, though far less outrageous, comments by Christian leaders such as James Dobson and Pat Robertson? Why, in short, is ‘Muslim extremism someone else’s fault’? As to hypocrisies: In the United States, a Koran flushed down the toilet is pursued as a hate crime, while a crucifix placed in urine is hailed as a work of art. In Norway, Muslim women can be kept as virtual prisoners in their homes, but a Norwegian attempting to draw attention to the condition risks being prosecuted.”

Roger K. Miller, a novelist and freelance writer and editor.

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REFERENCE: The writer to follow here was responding to my blog entry: “The More Things Change The More They Remain The Same” (April 28, 2009). The writer makes reference to the Memories’ List. It is a network of mainly people from Iowa spread across the country if not the world who are given an opportunity to express their views on nostalgic or current topics. Dr. Donald Farr, an organization-industrial psychologist, and former NASA scientist has availed his time to this purpose.


A WRITER WRITES:

Jim,

You've got it there in a nutshell!

In '70's parlance, it represents a Win-Win, symbiosis, whatever... leastwise the utter antithesis of our recent "race to the bottom."

Henry Ford still had plenty left, didn't he? Ponder today's uber rich, trashing Obama's efforts & whining about taxes (the lowest in decades)-- while their $$ is often undeclared, still more is 'sheltered', and w/ legit write-offs (read 'Perfectly Legal'). These people pay way less than their 'brackets' would indicate, and sometimes nothing at all. - Grr-rr!

I agree man isn't inherently greedy, but so many become greedy. I’d say the tendency’s there; ergo, r-e-g-u-l-a-t-i-o-n is necessary... for everyone.

Odd, isn't it, that during Ike's time-- when taxes truly penalized personal wealth beyond a millionaire cap, there wasn't such a huge need to acquire... why bother, if you were just going to pay 90% in taxes. May as well enjoy life, consume, and draw accolades for 'putting back,’ also known as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. -- Again, a Win-Win.

The folks who don't support national healthcare, as a humane entitlement (bad word!), ought to consider it's a Win-Win economic decision too! It'd remove a huge load off business making our U.S. labor far more competitive while encouraging older workers to retire early (ergo, making jobs for younger ones),

AND (done right), perhaps allow us to recoup some of the waste & fraud that the healthcare corpocracy now causes (which makes us pay twice as much as other rich countries for healthcare, while still leaving 50 million uncovered!)

I'm still ruminating on the Memories’ Lists latest! My God, well-off people are losing their homes after losing the jobs that paid the freight. It's not rocket science to know those already marginalized (retarded, sick, or with no skills or family resources) would get 'flushed' too? Don't conservative "Christians" believe in compassion anymore?

Be well too!

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DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

In a clipped but highly energetic style you have touched on a number of soft spots in the American firmament. It would take an entire missive to respond to them. Surfeit it to say here, your awareness, passion and humanity are highly visible and appreciated.

I wager to differ with you on the Don Farr Memories’ List. It is what is missing in our society – healthy CONFLICT! That is "managed conflict," which is polite, and is expressed, not after it has become hot with distemper, but when it is felt. We are not a United States of Harmony, but a United States of individual ideas and opinions, but committed to supporting a common good.

As for the Memories’ List, I know some expressions frustrate, others anger, and still others cause those listed to threaten to leave the list. They want confirmation of their views, not open discussion of contrary views. They want to be confirmed not criticized or, indeed, marginalized. I smile to myself as I know Dr. Don does his level best to keep the heat down on what he passes on, often deciding against passing on my missives. I understand and approve.

You see I salute him for the yeoman like job he does for so many who might otherwise dry up like prunes. When you encourage people to state their views, whatever those views might be, you put them in touch with their hearts, and they see "in the open air" how they feel if not why they feel so.

These are good people, hard working people, who pushed the bale, toed the mark, and took authority at its word. To listen to some of them you would think they had deep prejudices. I don't think so. They are red, white and blue Americans and mainly Christians.

When they criticize the President of the United States or the First Lady, they are conservatives speaking, mostly I suspect, as Republican conservatives, who have no current leadership. They are filling the vacuum with their views. They are also mainly Protestants who are still fighting the last election.

This is not new. Democrats have done it for years as well when not in the Executive Branch. I suspect, too, that they are mainly senior citizens who have been loyal to a political ideal. It confuses them when America refuses to stand up for itself as they expect.

Sure, sometimes they are terribly blunt but remember most of them (I am guessing) never took the art of expressing themselves in words too seriously. We that use the pen a lot often hide behind words in expressing ourselves. They do not.

One of the nicest things that has happened in this electronic age is the Memories’ List. I'm serious.

As for this economic meltdown, it is hard for people who resisted putting on airs, spending their last dime to look good, and saved for a rainy day, to feel much empathy for people who gambled on the future, and lost. Now, these same hard working people, who sacrificed instead of gambled on the future, see they and their children must pay for these profligates. It doesn’t make for happy campers.

They write to me, too, and have little sympathy for high rollers anywhere. So, people are losing their homes, so what, they say. Where their sympathies are is with renters who landlords go belly up.

They represent an incongruity in a nation that has become endemically passive. Passivity, as you know, is my major concern. We have a silent invasion in our American culture and they are speaking out about it perhaps crudely, but thank God they are adding their voices.

It is people on Don Farr's Network, I believe, that have built America as far back as the 17th century (1634), when the Pilgrims came here to be individuals, to practice their faith without punishment, and to speak their language, English, without apology.

In the 18th century (1776), church and state were separated and the United States of America was created, a Christian nation but a nation tolerant of other religions, a nation built on an idea of life, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness for all.

People on the Don Farr Network are not pundits, not intellectuals, not change makers, but Americans of the common good who feel in their bones their freedoms are in jeopardy, and they are. My wish is that more pundits and propagandists would listen to these voices, voices that have no hidden agenda but speak their hearts.

I don't expect most of these people to be mesmerized by my missives on my blog (www.fisherofideas.com), but that does not change the fact that I am one of them, reared out of the same soil. I have had people write and say they start reading a missive of mine, come to a passage they don’t like, and delete the whole thing. That is all right. I am not running for public office. I am one person with a view, and only one person. If that view does not play well with a person, all I ask is that he or she understand why, which puts them better in touch with themselves.

Nor do I expect them to read all the books I do to which I refer to in my missives. I do wish them to be cognizant of a few voices “out there” attempting to cut through the malarkey. Such a voice is Bruce Bawer's SURRENDER: APPEASING ISLAM, SACRIFICING FREEDOM (2009).

We forget that the Islamic Moors possessed and ruled 80 percent of Spain by 910; by 1150, they were driven to less than half of Spain, and by 1492, when Columbus was discovering America, were confined to mainly Gibraltar.

I can remember how fascinated I was in fourth grade at St. Patrick's Grammar School reading about the art, architecture, mathematics, science, and literature that the Moors brought to Spain. What I wasn't taught, which I learned much later is how the Moors installed Islam and its tenets on a Christian people and attempted to conquer Europe. Nor was I taught how Charles Martel of the Franks, called "Charles the Hammer," saved Europe from total domination by Islam in 732. It was a remarkable victory, and were it not to have happened, western civilization could have been crushed forever.

We face the same threat now only in a less obtrusive sense.

I confess I write a lot about FREEDOM. I see it threatened, not with a bloody invasion but with a silent invasion of hyper anxiety exploiting our complicit passivity, our obsession with being politically correct in apologizing for being an English speaking and Christian nation, not wanting to offend any other religion.

Tolerance for other religions does not demand we apologize for ours, or for our culture or for our English, for our individualism, for our rights and privileges of men and women alike, and for our rule of law governed and directed by a republic independent of a theocratic authority.

This freedom is in jeopardy. This is real. An illiberal democracy has silently invaded Europe as well as the United States, and nothing is being done about it. There is no Charles Martel about.

Fareed Zakaria addresses this problem in "The Future of Freedom" (2003), but he does so politely. Bruce Bawer in "Surrender" (2009) is not so polite. Earlier Bawer wrote a book called "While Europe Slept," in which he claimed Europe underestimated the extreme threat not only of jihadists or “Islamofascism,” but also of Islam itself. Today, Europe can be seen to be caving in to Islamic demands.

To put it bluntly, people on the Don Farr’s Memories’ List don’t apologize for Christmas. People of the Jewish Faith have gone along with this tradition in celebrating their Holy Season without strive. Nor have the Jewish people resented speaking English in America, but came from countries across the globe and learned the English language. We are a richer society because of Jewish contributions without losing the integrity of our common culture.

We are a Christian-Judaic society and culture, and people who wish to live in our society, as have immigrants for centuries, have had the freedom to practice their culture in the privacy of their homes or their respective communities. What Bawer is saying is that they have no right to replace our culture with theirs, or demand unrealistic concessions that might make them more at home in our culture.

If Bawer is right, and I hope he is not, the road to our perdition is paved with wrong-headed good intentions, which he sees gaining exponentially.

Perhaps an unintended consequence of the Dr. Donald Farr Memories’ List may be that of a tool to assist in saving America as we know and love it.

Be Always well,

Jim