[lit-ideas] Re: Is Hizbollah a Resistance Organization or not?
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 21:43:35 -0700
?Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is
not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres.?
With this as my standard, being Presbyterian, how can I be expected to have
a record of the Leftists on Lit-ideas? I keep hoping that the Leftist
language and arguments will be changed, and a new conservative
reasonableness will prevail. This is naïve, my conservative atheist friends
assure me. People don?t change. But is that true? The Neo-conservatives
were, most of the early ones, Trotskyites. Christopher Hitchens was a
Trotskyite. David Horowitz was once a Leftist, and I was as well. We would
all agree, of this I have no doubt, that the patois is unmistakable.
Is it infallible? Perhaps not, but if one hears it day after day from the
same person, the likelihood that a person is not a Leftist seems more and
more remote. For example, I usually put Irene in the Leftist camp, but she
often says things which are un-leftist. I think of Dispensationalists when
I think of her. I have argued with a number of them. ?Ah, I say after
listening to them argue, I see you are a Dispensationalist.? ?A what,? they
invariably ask?
?A Dispensationalist. You are using arguments that originated in the
Christian viewpoint called Dispensationalism. Its founder was John Darby
who founded the Plymouth Brethren, who came over here, influenced Scofield
to write his reference Bible and Chafer to write his Systematic Theology.
Dallas Theological Seminary cranks out Dispensational preachers every year.?
?That?s got nothing to do with me,? he or she will reply. I never heard of
Darby. Yeah my pastor graduated from Dallas, but that don?t mean nothing.
I just believe in the pure word of the Bible and not no sect called
Dispensationalism.?
Since I have had that argument scores of times with similar people who don?t
know the sources of their beliefs, I rapidly bow out as gracefully as
possible and as quickly as possible try to change the subject. Some
Dispensationalists I have gotten to know more thoroughly, and when they hear
from me more of the details about what Dispensationalism consists of they
invariably pick something out and say, ?hey wait. I don?t believe that.?
And indeed there is something they disagree with. They don?t subscribe to
the entire Dispensationalist package, but does that mean they are not
Dispensationalist? I tend to think of them as inconsistent
Dispensationalists and Irene as an inconsistent Leftist. But as to someone
who doesn?t write much, it is harder to tell -- not that I?m trying hard to
tell -- I may notice that they insult Eric and praise Omar. That may mean
that they agree with Omar but not Eric; however they write so little, how
can one be sure -- even if I wanted to be; which I don?t.
There is no need to attempt to trace the history of Leftism at the present
time as far as I can see. But it has been observed by several writers that
modern American Leftists are siding with Militant Islam against Israel and
against America. There is a whole series of arguments that have been
advanced by the Leftist/Islamists, for example 1) America had 9/11 coming.
They deserved it. It is good that they now know how it feels. 2) American
policies caused Militant Islam to react. America caused Terrorism. 3)
America has no interest in the welfare of Arabs. There only interest is
oil. 4) American government does what big business tells it to. 5) America
does what Israel tells it to. 6) Israel does what America tells it to
[note: consistency is not necessary to Leftism/Islamism]. 7) Saddam Hussein
was a creature of the CIA 8) Osama bin Laden was a creature of the CIA.
The list is much longer but these come to mind at the moment.
Why is Leftism siding with Islamism? That is an interesting question and I
have heard several theories about it. My own favorite is that the Leftists
learned to hate America during the Cold war when they supported Soviet
Russia and the Communists. This wasn?t a crude sort of support. It was
more intellectual, and they typically distanced themselves from Stalinism
but they supported the Communist Party Line fairly consistently. And here
again, one who has been Leftist can recognize the patois.
It has been said that when the Soviet Union collapsed the pentagon and its
right-wing supporters had to frantically search for a new enemy. I would
not use the word ?frantically,? but to some extent this is true. The
pentagon must ?war game? against the most likely enemies. China moved up to
the top immediately after the fall of Soviet Russia, and now Militant Islam
is up there as well. We build weapons to fit the most likely scenarios.
That is only prudent.
Something similar occurred (in my theory) with the Leftists after the fall
of the Soviet Union. The epitome of Leftism had fallen, but the hatred of
America remained. And then along came Islamism and as we all know, the
enemy of my enemy is my friend. There followed hugs, kisses, hand-holding,
all the rest.
Note that I have not lumped ?Liberals? in with ?Leftists.? Paul Berman has
a problem with some Liberals who seem to have sided with the Leftists. See
his Terror and Liberalism. I am not taking that up here. David Horowitz
has described the current love affair between Leftism and Radical Islam in
his Unholy Alliance, Radical Islam and the American Left. It is the David
Horowitz sort of thing that I have in mind here.
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Mike Geary
Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 8:24 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Is Hizbollah a Resistance Organization or not?
LH:
>The Lit-Ideas Leftists aren?t as articulate....
Just curious. Whom do you list among the Lit-Idea's Leftists? Come clean,
now. You've been spouting that label for years, but no one I know thinks
they're the one. We all keep looking over our shoulders. Tell us who it
is, damn it!
Mike Geary
Memphis
(can't be me, this is the South)
Other related posts:
