tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524934.post8142664554612757536..comments2023-10-07T23:38:41.904+08:00Comments on An American Expat in Southeast Asia: Laohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06746323559308496625noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524934.post-54810845696199174032007-02-25T02:40:00.000+08:002007-02-25T02:40:00.000+08:00But in reality, whatever may be true about democra...But in reality, whatever may be true about democracy and totalitarianism, it is not true that they are the same. It would not be true, even if British democracy were incapable of evolving beyond its present stage. The whole conception of the militarized continental state, with its secret police, its censored literature and its conscript labour, is utterly different from that of the loose maritime democracy, with its slums and unemployment, its strikes and party politics. It is the difference between land power and sea power, between cruelty and inefficiency, between lying and self-deception, between the S.S. man and the rent-collector. And in choosing between them one chooses not so much on the strength of what they now are as of what they are capable of becoming. But in a sense it is irrelevant whether democracy, at its highest or at its lowest, is ‘better’ than totalitarianism. To decide that one would have to have access to absolute standards. The only question that matters is where one's real sympathies will lie when the pinch comes. The intellectuals who are so fond of balancing democracy against totalitarianism and ‘proving’ that one is as bad as the other are simply frivolous people who have never been shoved up against realities. They show the same shallow misunderstanding of Fascism now, when they are beginning to flirt with it, as a year or two ago, when they were squealing against it. The question is not, ‘Can you make out a debating-society “case” in favour of Hitler?’ The question is, ‘Do you genuinely accept that case? Are you willing to submit to Hitler's rule? Do you want to see England conquered, or don't you?’ It would be better to be sure on that point before frivolously siding with the enemy. For there is no such thing as neutrality in war; in practice one must help one side or the other.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524934.post-56150518059154750922007-02-21T02:46:00.000+08:002007-02-21T02:46:00.000+08:00George Orwell was a socialist and fought on the Co...George Orwell was a socialist and fought on the Communist side during the Spanish Civil War. Nice try, though. And if liberty and justice are decadence then I guess we are pissing off the world's Islamic extremists. (Funny, my Muslim neighbor downstairs hasn't offered to bomb me yet.) But you know something? I WANT to piss them off. And you can't have it both ways. Either you consider their views to be contrary to American values or you don't. If you consider them contrary to American values then you certainly wouldn't want to pacify Muslim extremists, now would you?<BR/><BR/>By the way, Christianity is also a political system, of which this Pagan is continually reminded every time I read the damn paper or watch the news. A pox on all your houses.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com