Review: What's So Great About America
Published August 31, 2002
D'Souza, of course, provides, in his final chapter, a battle plan - a way to answer the critics of the West. I will leave it to you to read his book and discover his thoughts. I have my own ideas, which do not depart greatly from his.
For the multiculturalists, I say we must sharpen our reasons, our logic and our understanding of the West. We can win the persuasive argument, but for the Islamists, persuasion alone will not be enough. We must also address their theology.
For theology, I turn to what I was taught about the nature of evil. And I strongly believe in this concept. The question is asked, "Why does God allow evil to exist?" The answer is that God does not allow evil so much as he permits freedom. Because God is love, God is free. You cannot have coerced love. We are created in God's image. Therefore, we are free. God wants us to be free so that we may be free to love him. We are, then, free to love or free to hate. We are free to do good and free to do ill. We may choose virtue or we may choose vice. Evil is only manifest through the actions of people. If people did not choose to hurt each other, then we wouldn't even understand the concept of evil.
Freedom, then, is essential to being virtuous. Where the Islamist say virtue is more important than freedom, we must answer that without freedom there cannot be virtue (and this is where I get more D'Souzaian). Virtue that is imposed is not virtue at all. At some point soon, I will post this motto on my site: "Freedom is the greatest virtue and the greatest vice is hate."
That is our answer to the Islamists.
And I blog with this in mind. Not because most of my readers do not already know this, because I know many of them do, but because it helps to be reminded and it helps to become better equipped to answer our critics. As I posted before, Blogistan is all about freedom.
- Review: What's So Great About America
- Published: August 31, 2002
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- Writer: Walter Enderby
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Comments on this articleComments
Personal insults to little credit to your case. Surely someone from Canada should show a little more respect to the country that enables you to dwell in a socialist fantasyland but still live more prosperously than your cultural relations across the Atlantic. I'm married to a Canadian, and hasten to assure American readers that not all Canadians are as ungrateful as Chad Collins.
As it happens, D'Souza defends Western Culture as a whole, not just the United States in particular. I can only assume from your vitriol that you haven't read the book, or you would surely recognize and appreciate your very ability to spout such ignorance in a public forum without fear of midnight reprisals by religious squads ready to cut out your tongue for insolence.
Nobody is saying that the US is perfect and unblemished. I probably have a longer list of complaints than you do. What people are saying is that this world is a much better place for our existence, and listening to Islamist extremists' so-called "reasons" for hating us is like listening to a convicted serial killer's reasons for why he had to kill his victims. They simply don't make sense, they're usually not true, and it doesn't matter anyway.
It's a book review, folks, read the book if you're going to comment!
I enjoyed the book, but it really wasn't all that eye-opening or insightful. A lot of it was hashed out in one way or another in the blogsphere over the past year.
Having said that, the bits on Imperialism/colonialism and the differences between African-American and other immigrant perceptions of the USA were worth the price of the book. I wish they were longer.
re: chad's post.
this may well be true, but you should be careful throwing around loaded terms like that, especially when you're not providing any warrants at all to your claims. without them, people like me will dismiss your argument as a baseless emotional outburst. maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but there should be reasons why.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/334)
this article is a complete load of CRAP. the world (i'm from canada, mofo) does NOT hate you because you are free. on the contrary, they hate you because your leaders are terrorist, criminal scum, on par with your enemies. look around you, is it as FREE as you really think it is in the good ol' USSA. we're all wondering. i know good people come from your country.