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An open letter to Europe -- Herbert E. Meyer
[Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special
Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the
CIA's National Intelligence Council. His DVD on The Siege of Western
Civilization is a nationwide best-seller.]
November 11th, 2004
Hi. Are you nuts?
Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of
President Bush has been so outrageous that I'm wondering if you have quite
literally lost your minds. One of Britain's largest newspapers ran a
headline asking "How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?", and
commentators in France all seemed to use the same word - bizarre -- to
explain the election's outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors
of
Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that "Bush belongs at a
war tribunal - not in the White House." And on a London radio talk show
last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who
voted for him as "stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian
fundamentalists."
Of course, you are entitled to whatever views about us that you care to
hold. (And lucky for you we Americans aren't like so many of the Muslims
on your own continent; as the late Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh just
discovered, make one nasty crack about them and you're likely to get six
bullets pumped into your head and a knife plunged into your chest.) But
before you write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested,
Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a
Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso - and who
inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined,
host 25 or 30 of the world's finest universities and five or six of the
world's best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting
competitions, have built the world's most vibrant economy, are the world's
only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed
on
the moon and sent our robots to Mars - may I suggest you stop frothing at
the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that
you find so silly and repugnant?
We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion
should remain at the center of life. We are a Judeo-Christian culture,
which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments,
not suggestions. We believe that individuals are more important than
groups, that families are more important than governments, that children
should be raised by their parents rather than by the State, and that
marriage should take place only between a man and a woman. We believe
that
rights must be balanced by responsibilities, that personal freedom is a
privilege we must be careful not to abuse, and that the rule of law cannot
be set aside when it becomes inconvenient. We believe in economic
liberty,
and in the right of purposeful and industrious entrepreneurs to run their
businesses - and thus create jobs - with a minimum of government
interference. We recognize that other people see things differently, and
we are tolerant of their views. But we believe that our country is worth
defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we
will go after them with everything we've got.
If these beliefs seem strange to you, they shouldn't. For these are
precisely the beliefs that powered Western Europe - you -- from the Middle
Ages into the Renaissance, on to the Enlightenment, and forward into the
modern world. They are the beliefs that made Europe itself the glory of
Western civilization and - not coincidentally - ignited the greatest
outpouring of art, literature, music and scientific discovery the world
has
ever known including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Bach,
Issac Newton and Descartes.
Europe is Dying
It is your abandonment of these beliefs that has created the gap between
Europe and the United States. You have ceased to be a Judeo-Christian
culture, and have become instead a secular culture. And a secular culture
quickly goes from being "un-religious" to anti-religious. Indeed, your
hostility to the basic concepts of Judaism and Christianity has literally
been written into your new European Union constitution, despite the Pope's
heroic efforts to the contrary.
Your rate of marriage is at an all-time low, and the number of abortions
in
Europe is at an all-time high. Indeed, your birth rates are so far below
replacement levels that in 30 years or so there will be 70 million fewer
Europeans alive than are alive today. Europe is literally dying. And of
the children you do manage to produce, all too few will be raised in
stable, two-parent households.
Your economy is stagnant because your government regulators make it just
about impossible for your entrepreneurs to succeed - except by fleeing to
the United States, where we welcome them and celebrate their success.
And your armed forces are a joke. With the notable exception of Great
Britain, you no longer have the military strength to defend
yourselves. Alas, you no longer have the will to defend yourselves.
What worries me even more than all this is your willful blindness. You
refuse to see that it is you, not we Americans, who have abandoned Western
Civilization. It's worrisome because, to tell you the truth, we need each
other. Western Civilization today is under siege, from radical Islam on
the outside and from our own selfish hedonism within. It's going to take
all of our effort, our talent, our creativity and, above all, our will to
pull through. So take a good, hard look at yourselves and see what your
own future will be if you don't change course. And please, stop sneering
at America long enough to understand it. After all, Western Civilization
was your gift to us, and you ought to be proud of what we Americans have
made of it.
Herbert E. Meyer
Highway of Life
[Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special
Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the
CIA's National Intelligence Council. His DVD on The Siege of Western
Civilization is a nationwide best-seller.]
November 11th, 2004
Hi. Are you nuts?
Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of
President Bush has been so outrageous that I'm wondering if you have quite
literally lost your minds. One of Britain's largest newspapers ran a
headline asking "How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?", and
commentators in France all seemed to use the same word - bizarre -- to
explain the election's outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors
of
Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that "Bush belongs at a
war tribunal - not in the White House." And on a London radio talk show
last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who
voted for him as "stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian
fundamentalists."
Of course, you are entitled to whatever views about us that you care to
hold. (And lucky for you we Americans aren't like so many of the Muslims
on your own continent; as the late Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh just
discovered, make one nasty crack about them and you're likely to get six
bullets pumped into your head and a knife plunged into your chest.) But
before you write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested,
Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a
Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso - and who
inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined,
host 25 or 30 of the world's finest universities and five or six of the
world's best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting
competitions, have built the world's most vibrant economy, are the world's
only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed
on
the moon and sent our robots to Mars - may I suggest you stop frothing at
the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that
you find so silly and repugnant?
We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion
should remain at the center of life. We are a Judeo-Christian culture,
which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments,
not suggestions. We believe that individuals are more important than
groups, that families are more important than governments, that children
should be raised by their parents rather than by the State, and that
marriage should take place only between a man and a woman. We believe
that
rights must be balanced by responsibilities, that personal freedom is a
privilege we must be careful not to abuse, and that the rule of law cannot
be set aside when it becomes inconvenient. We believe in economic
liberty,
and in the right of purposeful and industrious entrepreneurs to run their
businesses - and thus create jobs - with a minimum of government
interference. We recognize that other people see things differently, and
we are tolerant of their views. But we believe that our country is worth
defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we
will go after them with everything we've got.
If these beliefs seem strange to you, they shouldn't. For these are
precisely the beliefs that powered Western Europe - you -- from the Middle
Ages into the Renaissance, on to the Enlightenment, and forward into the
modern world. They are the beliefs that made Europe itself the glory of
Western civilization and - not coincidentally - ignited the greatest
outpouring of art, literature, music and scientific discovery the world
has
ever known including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Bach,
Issac Newton and Descartes.
Europe is Dying
It is your abandonment of these beliefs that has created the gap between
Europe and the United States. You have ceased to be a Judeo-Christian
culture, and have become instead a secular culture. And a secular culture
quickly goes from being "un-religious" to anti-religious. Indeed, your
hostility to the basic concepts of Judaism and Christianity has literally
been written into your new European Union constitution, despite the Pope's
heroic efforts to the contrary.
Your rate of marriage is at an all-time low, and the number of abortions
in
Europe is at an all-time high. Indeed, your birth rates are so far below
replacement levels that in 30 years or so there will be 70 million fewer
Europeans alive than are alive today. Europe is literally dying. And of
the children you do manage to produce, all too few will be raised in
stable, two-parent households.
Your economy is stagnant because your government regulators make it just
about impossible for your entrepreneurs to succeed - except by fleeing to
the United States, where we welcome them and celebrate their success.
And your armed forces are a joke. With the notable exception of Great
Britain, you no longer have the military strength to defend
yourselves. Alas, you no longer have the will to defend yourselves.
What worries me even more than all this is your willful blindness. You
refuse to see that it is you, not we Americans, who have abandoned Western
Civilization. It's worrisome because, to tell you the truth, we need each
other. Western Civilization today is under siege, from radical Islam on
the outside and from our own selfish hedonism within. It's going to take
all of our effort, our talent, our creativity and, above all, our will to
pull through. So take a good, hard look at yourselves and see what your
own future will be if you don't change course. And please, stop sneering
at America long enough to understand it. After all, Western Civilization
was your gift to us, and you ought to be proud of what we Americans have
made of it.
Herbert E. Meyer
Highway of Life
Just a bit a humor, Charlie. Although I sometimes disagree with your position, you are very competent in putting together some pretty good arguments.
