ON THE NEED TO BREAK THE MOULD

Nothing hurts more than a broken paradigm.

Nothing threatens more than a challenged belief system.

Nothing angers more than a disobeyed taboo.

There's a millenium coming - and the world is starting to change.

Anyone notice reports of the frenzy surrounding the Hindu deity

that started to drink milk? That's the shape of things to come.

There will be other miracles, other portents, other happenings.

Many will be believed. Superstition, irrationality, fundamentalism,

fanaticism; the quickening of things spiritual and the return

of religion as a power. Count on it.

Prophets will appear, and charlatans. Witchcraft will be taken

seriously again. Sages will be listened to, and lunatics. It'll

be a time of emotion; of chanting crowds harangued by demagogues;

of angels, demons, saints, spirits and martyrs. Craziness will

alternate with fervour in the glazed eyes of the mob. Count on it.

There's a comet coming - traditional harbinger of doom and

disaster. A comet at the end of the millenium. How will that

affect the mood?

I fear the rational world is unprepared and vulnerable. It

has lost its self-confidence, its sense of righteousness, its

moral sense of self. Just look at Bosnia.

The rational world has gone soft - like Rome before the fall, it is

weak and decadent; rotten at the core and ripe for attack. And this

at a time when barbarians will be arising with renewed strength and

vigour all over the world - and Yea Mrs. Robinson in xyz Connecticut,

there's a mob of them just down the street.

There is yet hope for Western Culture.

Where are we now as we move toward the bright but frightening

prospect of a new millenium? In what do we still believe - what are

the moral guide-lines that are to guide us through the turbulent times

ahead?

For the all-too-many, religion has become something of a charade -

to be paid lip-service to, if not scorned as superstition. Those who

still *believe* are feeling their helpnessness in imposing a sense of

moral righteousness on a rudderless, chaotic society grown decadent.

Verily "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled

with passionate intensity".

I wrote this letter in response to a Mr. Flynn, a committed catholic

railing despairingly against the Kaos.

"Bernard Flynn makes a good point concerning the decadence of

Western culture, with licence masqerading as freedom, and painted

creatures shrilly asserting their "rights" to graphic pornography,

casual sex and effortless abortion.

In days gone by, religious morality served as a brake on the

perversion of freedom, and enabled such civilizations as Victorian

Britain to reach the very heights of man's potential. With due

respect to Mr. Flynns' religious convictions, a state-enforced

theocracy (or any other system of state-enforced morality) is not

the answer. Twentieth century experience has proved beyond any doubt

that the state does nothing well, except systematic killing and

oppression.

There is yet hope for Western culture, with its now all-but-

forgotten roots in individual liberty and economic freedom.

The Japanese call it Bushido. The Chinese call it Face. The new

renaissance men of Western culture will call it Honour.

If a 21st century renaissance of Western culture occurs, it will

be characterized by the highest degree of individual liberty, and the

(one hopes) final demise of statism. This freedom will be

circumscribed in the physical sense by a cast-iron interpretation of

the rule of law; and in the moral sense, by a code of honour based on

the recognition that every individual is unique, capable of rational

thought, and endowed with practically limitless potential.

Time to break the mould! Away with political correctness, I say,

AWAY!!! AWAY with soft apologies for economic success. Economic

success is a function of FREEDOM, pure and simple, within the

constraints of a just and righteous system of LAW. The poor countries

are poor BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT FREE, and for no other reason. Let the

free countries not apologize for their wealth and their freedom. They

are wealthy BECAUSE they are free. And is freedom not good? - let's

hear the arguments AGAINST freedom!

AWAY with affirmative action AWAY!! Freedom is possible only if all

men are equal under the law. Affirmative action is SYSTEMATIC RACISM,

nothing less - and is racism not evil? - let's hear the arguments FOR

racism.

AWAY with soft, effeminate treatment of those who break the LAW.

The law is simple in its fundamentals: Thou shalt NOT kill! Thou

shalt NOT steal! Thou shalt NOT rape, assault, or bear false witness.

Respect your neighbour's person and his property, and the law leaves

you alone. Break the law, and you get trouble. What could be

simpler?

AWAY with interference in the marketplace; with welfare; with

subsidies; with counter-productive handouts. The truly needy are a

cause for YOUR direct personal attention, and for MINE. AWAY with

tarriffs and import duties and export subsidies and licences and

permission from some-or-other useless government bureaucrat who should

be out there earning an honest living.

Let me assert my profound belief that the turbulence of the

millenium is indeed about to usher in a neo-renaissance of Western -

perhaps global culture. The internet will be - indeed already is -

the catalyst. We will see the death of that squalid little creature,

Nietszche's "last man". We will see, as you put it "bullet-proof

egos" stalking cyberspace like Tyrannosaurs. We will see, as (I think

- maybe I'm wrong) Stychnine put it "new cities arising", with

sherriffs, villains, heroes and wanabes strutting their brawn. We

will see artists vying with poets vying with neo-philosophers vying

with strong spirits of no particular persuasion. We will see a new

non-linear science of complexity revolutionizing the hitherto "soft"

disciplines of sociology, psychology and economics. We will see the

triumphant return of the Western Canon. We will see Ayn Rand

vindicated and Human spirit triumphant. We will see new belief

systems, new moral codes, new religions.

On the outside, once again, will be the eternal zork, new-won

literacy no longer a ticket of admission. We will see a class-split

compounded by the devastating impact of the Bell.

We will see the final demise of statism. We will see democracy as

an end in itself (rather than a means to good government) losing its

appeal. We will see moral relativism conquered; fascist-feminism

discredited; statism and control in its every manifestation utterly

sunk to the bottom of the sea.

We will see wondrous things, o reader. We must act to make them come

about.

AWAY with Socialism in all its manifestations. It DOES NOT WORK! It

harms those it is meant to help. It interferes with freedom. It

hobbles growth. It cramps the HUMAN SPIRIT. AWAY with it I say

AWAY!!!

LIBERTY under LAW is just and righteous, and the organic, natural path

of humankind; and freedom is worth fighting for.

Otherwise I fear the turbulence of the millenium will usher in a new

age of darkness.

Thank you for putting up with this. It IS the truth.

Grantland