Useful Idiots Outside of the Orb
by Wayne Lutz
There exist legitimate political, philosophical and moral arguments against war with Iraq. Wrong-headed though those arguments may be, they are nonetheless deserving of a respectful hearing and civil retort, inasmuch as they are held in good faith. How sad for those who cling to pacifism as a moral principle, then, that they are drowned out of the debate by a cacophony of rabid anti-Americansim for its own sake - a shrill hysteria facilitated and amplified to obscene levels by the electronics of the sympathetic State media.
George Orwell wrote of the pacifists in England, "Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.''' The immorality of pacifism in response to evil was as evident then as it is today. The refusal of "principled" pacifists to acknowledge that distances them from reality.
In an imaginary, metaphysical orb that I shall dub The Sphere of Reality, principled pacifism would occupy a position on the outer edge of the sphere, well away from the center of gravity. Accepting my image, placing reality at the center of gravity and principled pacifism on the fringes, how much more detached from the center would we then find those who are so loudly arrayed against us - the leftover 60's radicals, the European Socialists, the academic and practicing Communists, the New York Times and Peter Jennings? In fact, they occupy no position in my Sphere of Reality, but float aimlessly, well outside of the orb.
Far from acting out of any motive remotely resembling principle, the forces and individuals mentioned above are driven by blind hatred for the United States and nothing more. None of those ideologies, institutions or individuals have ever been adverse to killing in all its forms - from the murder of an unborn infant up to and including mass starvation, torture and genocide - as a principled pacifist would be. It is only when freedom stands to benefit that they find themselves suddenly horrified by talk of war.
Principle, then, even misguided principle, demonstrated by consistency, would be a requirement for a position within the orb. But the Useful Idiots arrayed against the United States are anything but consistent, and regularly demonstrate their lack of principle by their hypocrisy and unabashed hatred. They form alliances between despots, murderers and sundry generic loons, yet are treated by the State media as if they were somehow deserving of enclosure in the orb.
Consider these disconnects from reality:
President Bush's various approval ratings soar in the polls by more than 20 points in one amazing night, January 28. In describing this unprecedented surge in support, and after citing the actual incredible poll numbers, Peter Jennings reports that "we found that people had not changed their minds in significant numbers." (NBC Nightly News, Wednesday, January 29)
A former Attorney General of the United States, Ramsey Clark, in attempting to defend radical Islam, compares Jesus Christ, in a country where 80 percent of the population identify themselves as Christians, to terrorists.
Washington Post television reviewer Tom Shales characterizes President Bush's call for an end to the practice of infanticide that is euphemistically termed "partial-birth abortion" as "a sop to the far right," which if true would place the 70 percent of the population who are opposed to that grisly procedure on the "far right" (making the "far right," in reality, the center).
The Socialist Party, with Tom Daschle and Teddy Kennedy leading the way, accuse Bush of a "rush to war" and of not having made a convincing case to the international community. Over 80 percent of the population disagree.
These same suspects, along with the academic Communists, facilitated by the State media, and the European Socialists repeatedly accuse the United States of acting "unilaterally" with respect to Iraq, as if Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, Australia, Turkey and Israel were potted plants.
Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal gets top billing at a "peace" rally.
Tom Daschle. Sean Penn. Hillary Clinton. Mumia Abu Jamal. Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and the Communist World Workers Party. Michael Moore and Sean Penn, Communists and Socialists, murderers and morons, floating around in the void, runny noses pressed against the outside of the orb, hurling invective at those on the inside.
Bummer.
Our guest columnist for this unique February edition of The Tocquevillian is Eleanor Ankrom, a young writer in Ohio who clearly occupies a firm position at the center of the orb. Eleanor brings us a view of the recent "peace" rallies from a rational perspective, strengthening our position that admitted communists, socialists, and "friends" of convicted cop-killers are motivated by something other than a desire for peace, in her op-ed, The Burgeoning Peace Movement.
Seated snugly in the proximity of Eleanor we find Gene Royer, R. Jones and Rhetorix, each occupying his or her own singular corner of the Reality center, each with a fresh perspective on the antics outside of the orb.
And while we ruminate on things unique, this edition of The Tocquevillian Magazine marks the beginning of a new style of on-line journalism, the news-opinion-weblog hybrid. There is so much information coming from our sources as such a rapid clip that we have moved to daily updates via the "TocqLogBlog." Much more than merely an on-line journal with a weblog attached, the New Tocq is a nonpareil blend, inundating you with constant updates from a cadre of intrepid reporters and social commentators, and inviting you to engage us in on-going dialog on the issues that affect us all.
I'm so excited I could gag.
Join us, read us, come back for more of a fiery new brand of conservatism - proudly partisan, muscular, and firmly ensconced at the center of the orb - that will leave you breathless as you tune in two, three, four times a day for your dose of Tocq!
©2002 The Tocquevillian Magazine