Contemplating Life Beyond the Grave

Belmont Club has an interesting post today that starts out dissecting the Democrats' absolute refusal to take national defense seriously, and then moves toward a commentary on just why that might be. Wretchard quotes an observation by Ralph Peters on the probable "root cause" of this puzzling piece of illogic (bold text courtesy HazZzmat):

We suffer under layers of intellectual asymmetries that hinder us from an intuitive recognition of our enemies. ... Despite the horrors we have witnessed, we have yet to take religious terrorists seriously on their own self-evident terms. We invaded a succession of their tormented countries, but haven't come close to penetrating their souls. ... Security-wise, we have placed our faith in things, in bright (and expensive) material objects. ....Again, our intelligentsia falls woefully short. The most secularized element of our society--educated to avoid faith (or, at the very least, to shun enthusiastic, vigorous, proud, and public faith)--our professional thinkers have lost any sense of a literal paradise beyond the grave. But our enemies enjoy a faith as vivid as did our ancestors, for whom devils lurked in the undergrowth and paradise was an idealized representation of that which mortals knew. We are taught that we should never underestimate our enemies--yet, we underestimate the power of his faith, his most potent weapon.

Islamofascists—and thinking Christians—are poles apart in manner, attitude, and philosophy, regardless of snide and facile leftist comparisons between the two. And yet, both are oddly united in their belief in an afterlife (although the Islamofascists place little value in this life). It is for this reason that a practicing Christian like George W. Bush can fully grasp the primitive, fatalistic fanaticism that drives Islamofascists to butcher and to kill. It is also why he, as well as many strongly practicing Christians do not fear to fight a murderous ideology that is antithetical to human survival. While they value life, which Islamofascists do not, they are not afraid to sacrifice their lives so that others might live, drawing their inspiration from the New Testament.
It is for precisely this reason that the secularized, relativist left simply cannot grasp the issues here and why they fear "antagonizing" the powers of darkness. Having concluded, seemingly from birth, that, as one left-liberal friend once put it to Wonker, "this is it"—i.e., this life is the only life we have and then life is totally over—they will do anything they can, compromise any belief they might hold, sacrifice anyone they hold dear under extreme circumstances—to cling to this life. For the likes of these, both fundamentalist Christians and Islamofascists are one in the same, people whose belief systems could endanger the leftist system of nonbelief which sustains them in their irrational pursuit of this life to the neglect of the next, which, after all, does not exist. Since for them, there is no afterlife, it is of the utmost importance to do whatever necessary to selfishly pursue this one.

In its collective heart, the intellectualoids of the left, far from being the bold champions of "individual rights" they proclaim themselves to be, favor appeasement with an enemy (except for Bush and the Republicans) since, in their view, this provides them room to delay the inevitable and prolong their lives. This is where existentialism, nihilism, relativism, and yes, Marxism have led us. And it is for this reason that Bush troubles such individuals mightily. His belief in real freedom and democracy is a faith-driven belief in the redeemability of man, and he is willing to put himself and our country on the line to defend it. So are the brave men and women in our armed forces. They grasp the heart of this issue as well.

Utterly unable to grasp this driving belief in an afterlife, however, the left views Bush as the greatest danger to their continued, ostrich-like existence. He reminds them of something in their dim and distant past, perhaps a nagging sense of guilt and responsibility, that they imagined they'd left comfortably behind when they jettisoned their culture and traditions to blindly follow the mortal god of Karl Marx.

Another reason that the left refuses to engage the right, and particularly the Christian right, is that they know inherently that the right possesses the power of faith along with some dangerously convincing talking points. Best to denounce such people rather than engage them and run the very real risk of losing one's own secularist faith in this world alone.

Faith in the hereafter. Or lack thereof. It is this that absolves the left from any need to defend our nation or our freedoms. If the left were to win this "intellectual" argument—and it is close—they would, in fairly short order, find themselves lying on their backs on the ground, throats sliced from ear to ear, draining of the life that is the only thing they hold dear, and wondering how in the hell, if there is a hell, this could possibly have happened.