How Liberalism has become the new Fundamentalism

Over this weekend I was foolish enough to open the paper and read several articles detailing the growing rift between the Liberal Democrats in America who support Bernie Sanders and the Liberal Democrats who support Hillary Clinton and the views of both groups’ Jewish constituents which seems more and more to favor the Palestinian Narrative.

Ever since the publication of Edward Said’s Book “Orientalism” there has been a marked change in the public view towards Arab culture.

Said paints the picture of a growing, rich culture whose only wish is to embrace and be embraced by the Western world.

This image that Said painted has become the Hallmark for modern “Liberals” and “Progressives” everywhere. Orientalism’s fictional narrative of Multiculturalism and view of the Middle East are taken as holy writ. Those who oppose the ideas that peace can be achieved through compromise, as described in the book, are viewed as heretic Conservatives, racists bent on keeping hate and war alive.

Another book whose influence can be said to be corrupting the effort to peace is Jimmy Carter’s “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” an offensive work of fiction by the former president based on the delusions gathered around the theory of modern liberalism, which blame Israel for committing cultural Apartheid, attributes the continuing violence to the Israelis unwillingness to exchange land for promises of coming to discuss whether peace is an option.

Those leading the charge are students, both here and overseas.

Freedom of Speech has suddenly become offensive to these students, who champion it in so many other situations.

Israel, the bastion of these morals in the middle-east has become the target enemy in Said’s narrative. After all, the existence of Israel as a western democracy directly challenges the right of the easterners to have a theocracy. A form of Government which we have seen work so well in places like Iran and Syria…Trying to understand this “progressive” narrative I’ve tried to recreate it as simply as I can for anyone who hasn’t read the book. These are its precepts:

Westerners are evil and have no right to impose their sense of morality on anyone else.
In any struggle between two forces, the force with the higher mortality is always the victim (A blatant misconception as Germany had the highest death rate in WWII)
Conservatives and Fundamentalists who hold on to Western deals are evil.
Israel’s supporters are conservative.Ergo Israel is an evil Apartheid state.

The fact that this accusation of Apartheid is a complete falsehood and is offensive to anyone who understands anything about true apartheid is insulting is another matter.

I find that now it is the modern Liberals who have turned their backs on open discourse and the spreading of the truth. The promulgation of Orientalism has bred an understanding which has grown and festered into hate filled blogs attributing the worst possible traits to anyone who disagrees with the writer, the excision of all rational discussion, the abolishment of the principle of “Freedom of Speech” by forcing people to post “Trigger Warnings” on anything they write and the unabashed use of college campuses “Safe Spaces” and as places to breed hate and racism under the guise of “Protecting neutrality” when the only real purpose of these locations is to create locations where anyone who disagrees with the current Liberal narrative is not allowed to enter or even to ask legitimate questions.

Now “Moral Relativism” is the language of the day. No longer can we entertain or oppose an idea, now we MUST accept it as a universal truth.

There is no more “Fair Debate” as we used to know it or Free Speech as we know it, there is no more “Debate” to be had when half of the conversation storms off refusing to even listen to what the other has to say.This video of MP George Galloway Storming out on an Israeli speaking at Cambridge, is just one of the many examples of this. We’ve come to a point in time where we refuse even to listen anymore and that is where the trouble that is complicated becomes impossible.

We’ve chosen camps, declared ultimatums, thrown down the proverbial gauntlet and effectively said “My way is right and anyone who challenges this is an evil conservative!”.

This is the crux of the matter, it’s center, we all believe deep down that we are the ones with the clearest world view and you know what? That’s fine, so long as a willingness to compromise and discuss things with one another still exists.

We can still be right about how something should be done and also accept that those doing it have a right to do it wrong. Like it or not people have a right to be mistaken. Yes, Freedom of speech protects the equal right of someone to say something offensive.

On Passover we discussed the four sons and one might ask “Why is the second son considered evil? All he is doing is saying that maybe other opinions have value”. The problem is, in accepting other values we have no choice but to compromise our own. Our values can be talked about, they can even be flexible on some points, but we cannot give up our core values, we cannot sacrifice our safety and that of our children for “Political correctness” because like it or not we live in a world where not everyone shares our values of freedom.

We need to accept that Multiculturalism doesn’t work and we need to accept that and move on.

Outside of Israel, the modern progressives and liberals no longer wish to hear opposing opinions, especially if they have to do with our basic rights.

It’s come a time where Fundamentalism and Liberalism have become mixed.

The truth is that in the end Labels no longer hold true.

It’s time to stop labeling one another. Education can only come from actively seeking out those who have differing opinions from us and having rational discussion with them.

Some things we can agree to disagree about, we need to accept that one person’s differing opinion on one subject does not equate a differing opinion on EVERY subject.

It’s time to stop fighting and start listening to each other and also start listening to a bit of old advice, that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

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Many thanks to Prager University for it’s educational videos which I referenced it this article and my Grandfather for his excellent critique and to Bill, who has been a teacher, guide and friend through more than I deserve.