The Age of Aquarius meets the Age of the Terrorists

The naïve optimism of the hippy generation boggles the mind. No one dislikes the idea of universal love and peace. But that assumes that there is no evil. The unbelievable culpability of the generation of love stems from the fact that this generation’s parents fought against Hitler. They should have understood that unreasonable evil exists. We understand that the Woodstock generation needed a place in the sun and were overshadowed by the greatest generation. It makes sense that they needed a spectacular War with higher ideals than their parents to stake their generational claim and so fought against all they called sinful in an impure world. But, their doing this with an ignorance of history has created cultural ripples that endanger our very survival and it is time to grow up.

Our current generation faces a threat very similar to Hitler and the NAZIs in content, radical Islam. The proponents of this vision play hardball in an attempt to place an authoritarian theocratic stranglehold upon us. Were the Islamic vision implemented it would have many of the same odious features as NAZI Germany had. It would put a stranglehold on all freedom of speech, it would put women even farther back than NAZI Germany in terms of feminist freedoms, and it would give little men the power to brutally exercise violent authority over their enemies. One could hope that this Islamic vision would only include the traditional second-class citizenship given to non-believers in their societies, called dhimmitude. But NAZI Germany and Muslims allied over their hatred of Jews. A second holocaust, or at least the destruction of Israel, would not be unlikely if the power of Iran’s ruler, Ahmadinejad, and his ilk spread. And like NAZI Germany, when the radical Muslims take over the moderates will not dare voice dissent.

Barak Obama wholeheartedly embraces the sixties generation’s ideals. When spoke in Egypt and Turkey, he pleaded for the kindness and understanding from the Muslim world. Obama decided to go after those who used waterboarding on three terrorist and give the mastermind of 9 – 11 Sheik Khalid Mohammed a civilian trial to improve our image abroad. The concept is that if we are seen as loving, they will not hate us and we can all live in harmony. This might work with people that might already love us. But hateful evil monsters bent on our destruction cannot be reasoned with. The thought of reasoning with Al Qaeda or Hamas, like reasoning with an evil madman like Hitler, shows a naiveté that is pathological. Bad people can only be reached through inflicting pain. Bad men only divulge information with torture. And, in war even innocent people get hurt.

Multiculturalism is a manifestation of the same 1960s mindset that convinces Barak Obama that we can “all just get along.” In this vision all cultures can find peaceful coexistence because they all, deep down, believe in love, human rights, and the dignity of the individual. Its slogan “celebrate diversity” affirms that all cultures are essentially good and that, ironically, no diversity exists. In its darker side it goes back to the 1960’s anti-modernity, anti- western stance and blames us for not being the angels it expects all people to be. It lionizes the non-western as its founders lionized the Vietnamese as they fought us. Well, the North Vietnamese were violent warriors who turned their nation into a living hell after we left. All that is non-western is not good. To challenge the dominant unreal and dangerous 1960s cult of multiculturalism we need to spread the name of its opposite, culturism. Culturism acknowledges that sometimes cultures can be evil and unreasonable and must be dealt with as such. It recognizes that not all is peace, love, and flowers. As such it helps remind those who still carry the 1960s peace and love torch that their parents confrontation with evil was not a one-time occurrence.