Boreal

Better Red Than Dead Redux

In the 1960s and 70s, when the Cold War was at its height, on many campuses there was a defeatist philosophy embraced by many students and academics who saw nuclear confrontation with the Soviets as suicidal.

Some called this defeatist philosophy the better-red-than-dead alternative. These advocates of no ideology is worth dying for wanted Canada to get out of NATO and embrace many of Communism's anti-democratic ideals as a means of saving Canadian lives and setting an example for the world.

I see a reflection of that defeatist attitude and lack of resolve in support for Western civilization’s current struggle with the vanguard of an army of religious fanatics who would see democracy replaced by a fascist theocracy.

Islam, not unlike twentieth century Soviet-style communism, presents those who value their liberty and right to choose with a stark choice: come over to our side or be killed.

Western democracies stared down the Soviet threat, although it was a near thing. We were fortunate that  NATO in general, and the Americans in particular, did not buy into the argument of the better-red-than-dead crowd.

We face that same harsh choice today.

Do we fight and die to prevent a new Dark Age descending on the world from which humanity may never emerge, or do we just let it happen by offering only token resistance if it will save a few lives in the short term, as some politicians would have us do.

The Greeks and Romans of antiquity, the Greeks in the vanguard, gave us the concept of democracy, the foundation of modern medicine and modern science, a philosophy or a way of questioning the world around you and the world beyond, the idea that liberty is humanity’s most precious possession, ethics and morality that comes from within.

These precious gifts were temporally lost during a period in our history known as the Dark Ages (400-900 AD). Islam (610-632 AD) is a product of that ominous period. Islam wants to turn the clock back to the time of its birth; a time when ignorance was bliss and superstitions ruled the minds of men.

If Islam is successful in re-creating the world of the Dark Ages then the March of Civilization will effectively come to an end.

The end of civilization is bound to witness the mass slaughter of countless millions who value their liberty and freedom more than their lives by those who will see it as their sacred duty to butcher those who will not submit to the Will of Allah.

Some, like the former better-red-than-dead crowd would see us retreat from the fight as if our civilization was not worth dying for.

Bernard Payeur, June 19, 2013