Another Inauthentic Muslim Gives Islam a Bad Name

I have no idea who Oswald Spengler is.

1- Not unfounded but, as with most things, possibly exaggerated. It is no great secret that the wanton consumerism that people claim plagues the U.S. today has been around since the Colonial era.

Here’s a fun example- The boycotts throughout the prelude to the U.S. Revolution were never really successful in practical terms. For all their patriotism, people didn’t seem to want to give up their various British imports.

2- Possibly.

[quote]magick wrote:
I have no idea who Oswald Spengler is…

[/quote]

I have profound disagreements with Spengler on many things but much of his critique of modernity and his vision of the death of European civilisation was prescient. Definitely worth reading if you think along similar lines about Western civilisation.

[quote]
2- Possibly.[/quote]

Interesting that these nutcases are radicalised into Islam. You’d think under normal conditions you’d see people like this radicalised in the opposite direction, ie radical European traditionalism in defence of European civilisation. I think the reason they go the other way is quite clear. As I explained, traditionalism is completely dead in Western civilisation. There are no traditional power structures to defend. Even the church is now an organ of neoliberalism and radical egalitarianism.

What really shocked me was when Spain pulled out of Iraq after the bombings in Madrid. Spain was the last bastion of European/Catholic traditionalism. I always thought that ultra-conservative Catholic traditionalism still had strong support - at least in regional areas of Spain. Incredible what can happen to a country in a couple of decades. It seems like the “republicans” aka anarchists and Communists won the ideological war long after they lost militarily. Same thing that happened with the West; won the Cold War but lost the ideological war.

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Interesting that these nutcases are radicalised into Islam. You’d think under normal conditions you’d see people like this radicalised in the opposite direction, ie radical European traditionalism in defence of European civilisation. I think the reason they go the other way is quite clear. As I explained, traditionalism is completely dead in Western civilisation. There are no traditional power structures to defend. Even the church is now an organ of neoliberalism and radical egalitarianism.[/quote]

For all I know the guy could have bought into propaganda.

He may have believed that Western culture, and Christianity along with it, is dooming the world and that Islam can save it.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the type. Those who get completely disillusioned with whatever they know turn to the polar opposite in blind delusion. My guess is a lot of the Europeans/Americans going to fight in the ME are like this. Delusional young fools.

[quote]magick wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Interesting that these nutcases are radicalised into Islam. You’d think under normal conditions you’d see people like this radicalised in the opposite direction, ie radical European traditionalism in defence of European civilisation. I think the reason they go the other way is quite clear. As I explained, traditionalism is completely dead in Western civilisation. There are no traditional power structures to defend. Even the church is now an organ of neoliberalism and radical egalitarianism.[/quote]

For all I know the guy could have bought into propaganda.

He may have believed that Western culture, and Christianity along with it, is dooming the world and that Islam can save it.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the type. Those who get completely disillusioned with whatever they know turn to the polar opposite in blind delusion. My guess is a lot of the Europeans/Americans going to fight in the ME are like this. Delusional young fools.[/quote]

I disagree with the idea they’re attracted to the “polar opposite” of what they’re disillusioned with. What they’re attracted to is radicalism itself in any form. One of the books that had the most profound impact upon me when I was growing up was Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer:

Hoffer’s book analyses exactly what we’re talking about: what sort of people are drawn to “mass movements” and why. One of the things Hoffer described is how disillusioned young men in post-WWI Germany were attracted to radicalism itself and that the actual ideology is secondary. So the Nazis and Communists, who most people understand as polar opposites ideologically, actually attracted the exact same people. They were competing with each other for the young, angry demobilised men. And these men would often switch their allegiance from the Communists to the Nazis and vice versa. The ideology was secondary. They really just hated bourgeois liberal democracy.

Today there is no radical movement to speak of that can attract these types other than radical Islam. There is no counter-force to radical Islam. Radical Islam is the only mass movement currently in existence that opposes liberal democracy.

Here’s a replay of what happened when Vickers took down the shooter

This guy is like Liam Neeson in Taken

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I disagree with the idea they’re attracted to the “polar opposite” of what they’re disillusioned with. What they’re attracted to is radicalism itself in any form.[/quote]

Ya, I agree with you.