Originally Posted by
Tuvok
I left my liberal idealism behind a long time ago in favour of a realisation of pure truth. The truth is that the west is the most powerful civilisation on Earth by far. Our civilisation believes in and fights for human rights. Our civilisation believes in an accountable government that can be thrown out by the people without fear of being squashed by tanks or killed with mustard gas or ak47s or rockets. Where other countries have to engage in civil war to overthrow the current government, we simply hold a vote of no cofidence. Our women are equal to the men. We accept immigrants from all over the world seeking a chance at a fair life. Our laws are based on reason and our justice system is not contaminated by religious doctrine. Yet still there are people even in our own land that seem to think we are the villains just because we have the courage to stand up for what we believe in.
Self-hating apologist westerners have no place in the world, because they are so caught up in their own self-righteousness and idealism that they fail to realise just how advanced we are as a society. This is not the year 1,000,000 AD, this is 2012 AD. Humanity is not a utopia yet and there are still irrational, terrible people out there. Get out of your dream world and realise that you cannot defeat the enemies or threats of the west armed with nothing but good intentions. The west is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it is the damn best chance this world has at achieving the goal of freedom and peace for everyone. Hating on the west is ultimately self-destructive. You must face reality. The middle-east simply cannot be trusted with nuclear weaponry. You think they have the right to develop it because we have nuclear weapons? Wrong. We have proved that we will not use nuclear weapons against our enemies. Do you honestly believe fanatically religiously motivated nations possess the same amount of restraint the west does? Even if they do, do you have faith in the security of said nations and the integrity of the leaders to not allow these horrendously destructive weapons to fall into the hands of people who place no value on the life of a human?
What I have is not a god complex, it is a realism complex, something which dreamers like yourself lack. I am the real dreamer here, because I envision where humanity will be millions and billions of years from now. Our progress will be stunted by people who cannot recognise what our best chances are at this moment in time. I applaud your good intentions, but you need to be practical. The fact that little girls are being killed in afghanistan simply because they believe in education for women should tell you how backwards nations like these are. And clearly the decent, upstanding muslim citizens don't have the will to stand up against this tyranny otherwise they would do so, therefore we are left with no choice but to take a harsh stance against this archaic way of life and make it very clear that we will not allow such people to pose a threat to our citizens and the people across the world we desire to protect from them.
Power is power, and we have it in spades. How lucky for the world that the west is the most powerful civilisation. South America seemingly revolves around the drug trade, Africa contains countless nations caught up in individual wars led by psycopathic warlords, the middle east oppresses its women and enslaves itself to a religion, China still to this day suppresses its own citizens and Russia locks up pop singers in a siberian prison. My point is you don't realise how fucking lucky you are to be a part of the west, and yes everything could be so much better but we are dealing with humans and not fairies so it is time to get fucking real about this situation before we get so entranced in our fantasies that we end up falling behind.
The west in its current state is only a stepping stone. The future of humanity has much more in store for it than this. But the west is necessary for the progression of mankind, it is a means to an end and not an end in itself and that is what I believe. I am not a patriot of the west. I am someone who sees the world for what it is, and sees the west as this world's best hope at this moment in time. I challenge you to give me a better example of a civilisation that stands for human rights and progression, then you can tell me the west isn't worth protecting vigourously.