And So It Begins?

[Colonel Rebel]

Blacks cheered on 9-11, side with Al Qaeda?

"Voting in a corrupt society adds more corruption," he added. "America has to commit suicide if the world is to be a better place."

Unfortunately this was the first clip I read this morning. I'm not sure what the rest of you objectivists think about this, but the first thing I thought of was that this was an attempt to instigate more racism and classicm. I'll go into how after some of you have replied to this. A perfect, yet subtle, attempt at Marxist Classism?

[tommyedison]

Blacks cheered on 9-11, side with Al Qaeda?

Unfortunately this was the first clip I read this morning. I'm not sure what the rest of you objectivists think about this, but the first thing I thought of was that this was an attempt to instigate more racism and classicm. I'll go into how after some of you have replied to this. A perfect, yet subtle, attempt at Marxist Classism?

And then people say that Ayn Rand was fighting a straw man!

[y_feldblum]

And then people say that Ayn Rand was crazy!

[Montesquieu]

This rapper thought it was "justice" on 9/11 because the guards at the world trade center wouldn't let street trash like him in the buildings. Yeah, this guy is a real douchebag.

[oldsalt]

As I sat before my television on the morning of September 11, 2001 and watched the horror unfold, two thoughts occured to me: The first was that we were at war. The second came in the form of an alarm bell ringing in my head; "Now we'll see," I thought. Like most alarm bells, I didn't yet know consciously what I meant by that statement. It took me a while to fill in the blanks.

So much is wrapped up in what happened to this country during the Viet Nam war. It wasn't just the war; though that was a big part of it, losing the war was an effect caused by the deeper problems that came about when the New Left, led by the old progressive intelligensia in education, took over the universities (which promptly capituated) and the Civil Rights movement. After we surrendered in Viet Nam, the country was exhausted from a decade of war, riots, burning cities, and Watergate, and would not ask the crucial questions about how we had come to near anarchy. Everything was swept under the rug, while the New Left graduated from college and entered into their preferred occupations: Education, politics, psychology, sociology and ecology. The issues which confronted the country were allowed to be defined by these people, who were proud and confident after such stunning successes as ending the war and bringing down Nixon. The Right was left utterly demoralized.

So, here we are, fighting another war while scratching at the walls of the politically correct, environmentally friendly, multi-cultural abyss, populated by every kind of newly minted victim of the New Left (which, in its latest incarnation, is defined by Transnational Progressivism -- see Europe). Much of the country has been disarmed by government education and years of unquestioned acquiescence to the piece-meal degradation of the best of Americanism. Those on the Right are turning to that old time religion in search of values, and are threatening to throw out the secular baby with the bath water. The New Left has lost the intellectual war and is once again turning to overt violence -- true to its birth. Objectivists are a small minority, too small yet to be politically effectual. Though this is changing, I am concerned that our voice will be drowned out in the din of the War of Altruistic Power between the mystics of muscle and the mystics of the mind.

And then, of course, there's that third bunch of mystics trying to kill us all, regardless of of party affiliation. That we are having so much trouble even defining the war is a consequence of the failures of the Viet Nam era.

The little piece of flotsam quoted in that article above represents one more piece of the puzzle defining what the alarm I heard in my head on 9-11 signified.

Edited October 15, 2004 by oldsalt

[Thoyd Loki]

Christ, my boss worships this KRS-1 guy. He's always telling me what a genius this guy is and all. You wouldn't believe my ability to not listen to a word people say! God, I work in a looney bin!

[Dagny]

In high school we were all required to take the Golden State Exams for all our subjects. For history our test essay question was whether or not the United States was correct in going to Vietnam. At first I was ready to spew all the stuff my history teacher had infiltrated our minds with...peace protests...etc. But then I thought that I wanted to express my own thoughts on it and for the first time asked myself what I really did think of it. I wrote an essay saying that the United States was completely correct in going to Vietnam. That to uphold its ideals against Communism was the correct thing to do ...especially since it was in danger of spreading. It was the only state test I didn't get High Honors on. I always thought I hadn't made my point clear enough but now I wonder if it was because it was a state test probably graded by very liberal test examiners. I'm sure everybody else wrote how awful the United States was for going to Vietnam.