Puffer Fish Jihadis

Our friend Charles just sent in the following letter on the nature of the jihadi rampage in France and across the world. It's an interesting take on our situation-- and theirs. In reading this we might keep in mind the history of totalitarian thought-control, looking particularly at Plato's Republic and The Laws. Nothing has changed in the philosophy of tatalitarianism from Plato's time till today. To show that is true one might look at the nature of the term "Byzantine." Follow up on that by comparing the intellectual systems concocted by the Soviet government, a hold-over and a remake of the Byzantine courts. This line of enquiry will give clear proof of the nature of the police state, a state in which the people are in jail-- literally. But more than that, we must look at the sophisticatiion of the police state as Charles points out: it is a system of carefully planned random violence leading to terror among the civility. One brief example from Poland, if I may:

A man was arrested at 2:00 am, hauled off into the night after a great deal of noise and commotion on the part of the police. His neighbours and mates all around expected to find someday that he was imprisoned or dead. But some days later he returned, having been found guilty of an actual crime. Within days of his return, he was presented with a refrigerator. To explain: Everyone in the building had an order years long for a fridge, and they all expected to wait many years still for theirs. The criminal got one on the spot. It is sophisticated state terrorism in action. The people, knowing the man had stolen a great deal of money, was arrested and released from custody, and was then rewarded significantly by the hand of the state. The terror resides in the confusion. Do you then go commit some greivous crime in the hope of reward? No. Do you continue on as before as a law abiding citizen? Yes, for which people were randomly arrested anyway. Life makes no sense, it all being random and terrifying. People are immoblised by it. No one knows what to do, so they do nothing but cave in and live till their time is come. The technique is Byzantine. The effect is terror. The result is submission.

Charles writes of the Islamic world-view and its effects on us as outsiders; how we live at the basic levels of Humanness unchanged from the beginning:
****

I am riveted by the apologist writing I'm finding, it's like a voice
from another world, the morals are so foreign to mine.

So far the most interesting observation I make about those authors
defending Islam's current treatment of women: they spend an inordinate amount
of time explaining the state of the world **before** Mohammad, [jahaliyyah: "The time of ignorance, i.e. before people had knowledge of the Quran.] and
little time on cultural comparisons *since* Mohammad. Their
approach is to rationalize the modern treatment by comparing it to
other 7th century (and even pre-7th century!) conditions!
Pathetic. Is this a similar tactic
used to justify their other objectionable customs?

Reading a book about women in Afghanistan under the Taliban, I came
across an illuminating personal anecdote. It really changed my view,
or maybe I
should say gave me a view from a new perspective, about the savagery
we saw last year in France's auto-de fe, and seemingly daily now as a
side-show to the anti-cpe riots.

I kept wondering, "what do they think they have to gain by this kind
of behavior, surely it just hurts them more than it helps?", and a
first-hand description of the Taliban's
method of operations provides the answer: conquer through fear,
control through intimidation, terrorize into submission.

The Taliban would repeatedly engage in spontaneous brutality, not out
of any provocation, but just as a matter of principle, to keep the
citizens terrified into submission. the seeming randomness
and lack of purpose behind the violence, was the major point of the
violence: terror as a means of controlling the population.

Thinking about this further, I've come to this analogy: It is similar
to the animal kingdom, in which many species puff themselves
up when confronted by a predator;
they can flare up their plumage or open up claws or tentacles,
putting on a display of force in order to intimidate the opponent
into retreat.

Is this not the exact same tactic
we are now seeing on display in Europe? Thinking of their behavior as
human behavior, it makes no sense; thinking of the behavior as animal
behavior, [ethology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethology] well, now we have a way of making sense
of it. (And what a sad conclusion this is for me to arrive at.)

There's a famously charismatic Australian naturalist named Steve
Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter", who has been on cable television for
years hosting nature shows, primarily for a young
audience. I can now see photos and videos of the current European
jihadists and hear Steve Irwin's off-screen narration, "Crikey, look
at me, look at how tough I am, you don't want
to mess with me!", as he so often does when he enthusiastically
explains the natural reaction of everything from snakes to crocs when
they're facing down perceived adversaries.

Charles
****

We are allowing our world to become an Orwellian nightmare, and it becomes so because we are afraid. We are victims of our own fear rather than any real danger from our enemies. I urge all agian to meet with your neighbours and commnity members to sit and openly discuss this problem of jihad and Left dhimmi fascism. As frightening and terrifying as our enemies appear to be, they are actually nothing much at all. We must give each other the confidence to confront the threats as they are and not as we might think they are. That will come if and when we meet and look each other in the eyes and know we are solid and true people.