Daniel J. Pipes

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The Strange Logic is just altruism applied to warfare

Reader comment on item: Strange Logic in the Lebanon War

Submitted by Steve Rogers (United States), Aug 17, 2006 at 11:44

The "strange logic" of countries parading their suffering to get the moral high ground is just altruism applied to international affairs. The reason things are different now than say, 40 years ago, is that the Left has been pushing the idea that the welfare state model of government should apply at the international level - that's what the UN and "world government" is all about.

For the Left, the purpose of government is to sacrifice the successful to the pathetic, typically through redistribution of weath. The current state of international affairs is just the result of 50 or so years of campaiging to apply this same philosophy at the international level. The West (particularly the US) should be justifying itself based on its charter: respect for individual rights. But instead, the witless Right has accepted "democracy" as the legitimizing factor of government.

Consequently, we're faced with a terror state run by democratically elected terrorists that successfully claims the same moral legitimacy as the US. The Western world will be ground away if it cannot claim a moral right to exist based on its founding principles. In a world where moral legitimacy goes to the most pathetic, the West is doomed. The only way out of this is rejection of altruism as a moral standard.


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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