The End of Tolerance?
As 4 more bombs cripple London's transport network and futher deepen the mental scars of millions of commuters, perhaps it is time to ask whether the events of July 2005 will mark the end of the long reign of tolerance as our age's cardinal virtue.
Tolerance is essentially a fair weather friend. Its vacuous smiling indulgence of personal morality is ill equipped to stare down the threat of the jihaders whose eyes and hearts are cauterized by the assurance of virgins and paradise. It is also unable to offer us any protection. So today, we hear reports that the security services have asked to be allowed to detain terrorists suspects for up to 3 months. This will, no doubt, raise the hackles of Locke's disciples but in the face of mortal threat, the individualised, random nature of which is impossible to downplay or dismiss whatever the statistical chances, what else can you do?
Good old Tony is still clinging to a faith in reason and technology. The Guardian reported that he is planning on implementing the correct machinery and to face down the terrorists with reason. Reason and technology - Blair is stuck with the redundant faith of the West and in a sense all of us are. While our most sophisticated weaponary has faced down pretty much all national threat, we have woken up and realised that reason is simply not going to do it anymore. Without the liberal consensus, reason lacks any kind of moral, spiritual clout - it punches against a shadow boxer who simply won't stand still to be hit. It is somewhere else completely.
And so our weapons are redundant - unless you happen to agree with the constructive suggestion of Thomas Tancredo to bomb Mecca (no joke) if America is attacked again. What is more frightening is that this isn't some redneck from Oklahoma but a Senator sitting on the Committee for Foreign Relations. And it seems as though the distilled wisdom of the French Revolutionaries, the American founding fathers and the writers of the Declaration of Human Rights is unable to defend us.
Things look bleak to me.
Tolerance is essentially a fair weather friend. Its vacuous smiling indulgence of personal morality is ill equipped to stare down the threat of the jihaders whose eyes and hearts are cauterized by the assurance of virgins and paradise. It is also unable to offer us any protection. So today, we hear reports that the security services have asked to be allowed to detain terrorists suspects for up to 3 months. This will, no doubt, raise the hackles of Locke's disciples but in the face of mortal threat, the individualised, random nature of which is impossible to downplay or dismiss whatever the statistical chances, what else can you do?
Good old Tony is still clinging to a faith in reason and technology. The Guardian reported that he is planning on implementing the correct machinery and to face down the terrorists with reason. Reason and technology - Blair is stuck with the redundant faith of the West and in a sense all of us are. While our most sophisticated weaponary has faced down pretty much all national threat, we have woken up and realised that reason is simply not going to do it anymore. Without the liberal consensus, reason lacks any kind of moral, spiritual clout - it punches against a shadow boxer who simply won't stand still to be hit. It is somewhere else completely.
And so our weapons are redundant - unless you happen to agree with the constructive suggestion of Thomas Tancredo to bomb Mecca (no joke) if America is attacked again. What is more frightening is that this isn't some redneck from Oklahoma but a Senator sitting on the Committee for Foreign Relations. And it seems as though the distilled wisdom of the French Revolutionaries, the American founding fathers and the writers of the Declaration of Human Rights is unable to defend us.
Things look bleak to me.
posted by chris at 8:30 PM
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