Hooliganism elevated to political ideology

I have so far declined to post on the latest islamist controversy, but after a mob decided to burn down the Swedish and Danish embassies in Syria yesterday, I think it is about time to say a few things about islamism and political ideology.

To me, it has been self-evident since the Muhammed cartoons in the Danish daily Jyllandsposten first stirred controversy that the degree of action taken by governments in muslim countries would be a measure of how silly they are, and how bad they are for their people.

Modern civilization is based on an absolute order of rights, where individual human rights to life, property, speech, association and free exchange are primary. Any individual or individuals who want to curtail these rights of others by means of force are breaking the laws of a civilized society, and should be punished to uphold order and guarantee continuous freedom. This is a necessary condition for a just society, and society cannot revoke these rights and still be considered humane. Various argument can be made on why this type of society would lead to the most efficient production, or the most happiness, or whatever other measure one could think of to justify in quantitative terms why such a society is good. But fundamentally, it is a moral question, based on the a priory conviction that no man should be simply the means of another man's will, without the right to decide on his own.

Radical islamism is not compatible with this conviction, and is thus not compatible with modern civilization or with freedom. It has to be combatted reactively by punishing those islamists who realize their threats of violence. It must also be fought proactively, within the boundaries of modern civilization. One of the most important acts in this regard is for those who love freedom and mankind to state so openly and freely, even if this implies that they are threatened or hurt.

Now, we cannot expect that all of those who live, and live well, protected by these laws of civilization realize this and take a firm stand on ensuring the continued protection of the individual. Here in Sweden, we have communists, socialists, violent anarchists, fascists, neo-nazis etc. whose principal political struggle is to end these rights. In the muslim countries of the Middle-East, the official governments are based on a denial of the rights of civilization. It is therefore not strange that these groups have decided to join forces, either to fight on the same side against civilization or to fight each other with the sole objective of eradicating each and everyone who does not agree with themselves.

This would all have been extremely horrible, had it not been for how pathetic it all is. WW2 was a fight between 2 powers who fought against civilization, and Allied forces who fought for it. The result was a draw, and the cold war continued the fight until the Soviet Union died of stagnation. The 20th century is the story of where these ideologies lead people and mankind. But we will not make the same mistake, and the muslim world and the anti-civilization groups are too weak to really hurt the thrust of civilization. They will lose, although there might be considerable blodshed before they're done for.

When we get scared, the only thing we really need to do is to watch these enemies of civilization, when they go about their business. The stand in great masses, chanting, screaming and burning things. They run around and destroy, and say that they will kill everyone who opposes them, and that some metaphysical construct that they put their faith in has told them to do so. They are without individual will, individual though, individual reasoning. They are thugs, hooligans, mindless and without honor or integrity. Such an enemy will never win over civilization. The only thing we can do is to treat them as a nuisance. If they abide by the rules, we leave them alone. If not, we punish them and stop them. The ones who have gone too far, we cannot hope to win back. The others, we can only win over by showing a good example.

The example we need to show is that of pride and justice. We are proud to be men, not thugs.

That is the only thing we need to do, that is the only thing we can do.