By Klaus Rohrich
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
It's amazing how over the past six years we have convinced ourselves that the destruction of New York's World Trade Center, The bombings in Bali, The commuter train bombings in Madrid and the Transit bombings in London were all one-offs and did not represent a clear or imminent danger to our society. Indeed, it has gone so far that significant numbers of individuals within our midst totally believe that the 9/11 attacks were actually part of a Western plot to discredit Islam, to create a reason for us to attack Afghanistan and later, Iraq. So those of us who are concerned about terrorism wrought by fanatical Islamofascists are out to lunch because the real threat lies in climate change.
Western cultural sensibilities force a worldview seen through the paradigm of political correctness, which postulates that all cultures in the world seek the same end, namely to be happy and to not worry. Even raising the possibility that there are ethnic, cultural or religious entities that want to hasten Western culture's demise, is to invite charges of racism. This was recently the case when McMaster University President Peter George accused one Michael Devolin of launching "racist screeds" referring to Devolin's concerns to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) about McMaster's nuclear reactor and all the Islamic professors employed there. George went on to say that there were only two valid concerns about the reactor that were raised at the CNSC, both having to do with environmental safety, while all the others were racist and divisive.
So the environment has become the focus of all our worries and concerns and terrorism is a mere figment of our overheated racist imagination. Everyone knows that Islam is a religion of peace and why don't we all stop persecuting innocent Muslims and pay attention to the real danger, that of global warming and climate change, blah, blah, blah.
Despite the pitiful lack of evidence to support the idea that man is responsible for earth's current climate change, we are on the verge of surrendering all our rights to a world government that knows what's best for us, despite the fact that most governments can't seem to deliver mail on time or provide healthcare in an expedient manner. On the other hand, those 3,000 people who were murdered during the 9/11 attacks or those who died in Bali, London or Madrid cannot be counted as evidence that there is an organization of fundamentalist Muslim radicals determined to destroy our way of life because it would be racist to believe so.
Climate change. What a wonderful panacea for all that ails us. We can all feel guilty for our high standard of living and assuage that guilt by paying more for goods and services or by purchasing carbon credits or by giving up the right to buy any lightbulb we want. Our goal is to live "green", a word that has become synonymous with all that is banal. A prerequisite in pursuing the goal of living green appears to be the denial of the existence of terrorism and a total commitment to outsourcing our thinking to government bureaucrats.
If this weren't so tragic, it would be funny.
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