The world's future is being decided at this time.
Such moments are extremely rare in history. And when they have
occurred, they have between two, not three, competing ideologies.
But there are now three ideologies competing to shape the future
of mankind. They are militant Islam, Western European secularism and
socialism, and American Judeo-Christianity and capitalism. The first is
being spread both peacefully and violently, the second is being spread
peacefully, and the third is not being spread.
Though most people ignore the fact, almost all of the world's
believing Muslims believe that all of mankind should be Muslim. This, in and
of itself, is not troubling -- after all, most Christians would like the
whole world to be Christian, and most Westerners would like the whole world
to democratic. What is troubling is that if only 10 percent of these Muslims
are prepared to use violence to impose their religion on others, we are
talking about 100 million people.
This is the reason about one million non-Muslim Sudanese have
been killed in the last 15 years -- because they are resisting the violent
imposition of Islam by the Islamic government in Khartoum. This is the
reason for the Muslim-Christian violence in Nigeria -- Christians there,
too, are resisting the violent imposition of Islam. And this is the reason
for Islamic terror -- to weaken those countries, particularly the United
States and Israel, that stand in the way of an Islamic takeover.
The second ideology seeking to dominate the world is secularism
and socialism as practiced in Western Europe and supported by educated
elites around the world. This is a primary reason for the anti-American
demonstrations in Western Europe and in the United States. They were far
more against America (especially the America of George W. Bush) than they
were against war. Most of these people could not care less about the wars of
the world. They have been silent throughout the mass murder of Sudan's
blacks, during the genocide in Rwanda, during China's crushing of Tibet, and
during Saddam's wars against Iran, Kuwait and Iraq's own Kurds. American and
European "peace" activists have found those atrocities and wars quite
boring.
Western European socialists and their American (and Canadian,
and Latin American) supporters are as passionate about secularism and
socialism as believing Muslims are about Islam. And they want to dominate
the world as much as militant Muslims want Islam to. Their vehicles are the
United Nations, the European Union, international treaties such as the Kyoto
Protocols, and international institutions such as the International Court.
Regarding the American way, there are serious impediments to its
success.
First, while the first two ideologies -- Islam and
socialism/secularism -- dominate many countries, the third ideology only
dominates one -- America. There is no other country that claims to be
Judeo-Christian and no other that has such strong support for capitalism and
small government (the opposite of socialism). Therefore, while both the
militant Muslims and the socialists/secularists have supporters around the
world, American values have few. That is why America goes it alone -- with
the partial exceptions of Israel and Britain, no other society has the same
values as we do.
Second, neither Judeo-Christian nor capitalist values are secure
in America. Many Americans, including almost its entire intellectual class,
are as hostile to Judeo-Christian and non-socialist values as the militant
Muslims and European socialists are.
Third, almost no one is teaching the next generation of
Americans (as almost no one taught the present adult generation) what is
unique, let alone superior, about American values. Our children are
overwhelmingly educated by people who believe in Europe's values, not in
ours.
As neither China nor the rest of Asia, nor Africa, nor Latin
America are offering an ideology that can dominate the world, either
Europe's, or the militant Muslims', or America's way of life will prevail.
But the American way can only prevail if Americans believe in
it. That is why, as important as the military and ideological battles
against militant Islam are, the most important battle is the ideological one
within America. But with America's universities, unions, professional
associations, mainstream news media, and one of its two major parties
ideologically aligned with Europe, and with big businesses constantly
undermining Judeo-Christian values, the battle within America itself for
America's unique values is far from won. And given that only America offers
a viable alternative to both militant Islam and secularism/socialism, if we
lose the battle here, humanity has a very dark future.
