The Greater Crime Part 2

     Welcome to July. It promises to be hot and humid throughout the First World, so take care. Drink lots of water. Minimize sun exposure. And none of that BLEEP!ing exercise nonsense! Liberty’s Torch needs its Gentle Readers to stay safe and healthy. A little flab is preferable to a heatstroke.

     This piece raised some eyebrows, which didn’t surprise me. There are a lot of people who dislike to have the consequences of their inactions pointed out where others can see them. Today, inaction in the face of steady invasion and gradual conquest is the norm.

     The greatest civilizations ever achieved by Mankind are being toppled, and no one is doing anything to stop it. Instead we watch superhero movies. No, we don’t watch them for the special effects. We watch them in unexpressed hope that heroes such as those might rise among us.

     If such heroes exist, we won’t have to do anything. We can sit back, watch or read about their exploits, and admire their style. There’s just one wee problem.

* * *

     Too many people, Americans included, think that problems such as the ongoing Islamic diaspora and jihad are for someone else to solve. Too many think that our sole required contributions to our civilization are to become self-supporting and to raise our children well. Too many think that once we’ve voted, our responsibilities have been fully discharged.

     That is not the case. It never has been.

     If you recall the halcyon days of the superhero comic, you may have noticed something about those superheroes: They didn’t kill. That was a part of the Comics Code, enforced by the Comics Code Authority throughout the Twentieth Century. Stores wouldn’t allow a comic to appear on their racks without the approval of the CCA. Things are a little different today, but it’s still rare for a superhero to inflict death.

     Killing is regarded as unheroic, a lowering of the superhero to the moral standards of the villain. We can’t have that. Superheroes are supposed to be moral-ethical icons, figures for the young reader to admire and strive to emulate. If youngsters weaned on superhero tales got the idea that killing is acceptable, they might take it into their heads to do a little of it themselves.

     Of course, that does open the question of what’s to be done about a villain who’s into the world-domination lifestyle and possesses means that make that achievement credible. Can we really expect indictment, trial, conviction, and imprisonment to suffice when the villain has super-strength, or mind-control powers, or can teleport? So even the comic-book superhero has to take a life now and then.

     Funnily enough, now and then real life poses us such a problem: an aspiring tyrant with aggressive tendencies, and with the people and industry of a major nation marshaled behind him. We entertain no qualms about knocking him off. We might depopulate his entire country for good measure.

     We regular folk relegate that sort of chore to governments and their armies. Wars are nasty disturbing uncomfortable things. Make you late for dinner! Let those with a taste for such bizarre activities have war to themselves.

     There’s a dynamic buried in that attitude. Over time, we forget what war is for. What force is for. And we forget how – and why – to use it ourselves.

* * *

     Michael Sanders, the hero of Citizen Vigilante, operates in Europe, not America. Yet he’s an American. More, he possesses a handgun and is proficient in its use. Those three characteristics were essential to his character.

     Europeans have been almost completely disarmed. The typical European would wet his pants at the sight of a handgun. Indeed, most of them would recoil from the sight of a hunting rifle. The conditioning they’ve undergone has persuaded them, subliminally, that violence and the tools of violence are inherently evil. If you’d wondered why Europe’s national armies are roughly the size of debating societies and are about as well armed, now you know.

     Americans are the last people on Earth who possess a legally acknowledged right to keep and bear arms. Though that right has been infringed by our governments, it’s still there and it’s still widely exercised. We’re also a people known for acting on our convictions. Americans don’t casually say let someone else handle it. We act.

     So Uwe Boll, who wrote and directed Citizen Vigilante, knew he needed an American hero. He found a convincing one in handsome, 6’5” Armie Hammer. And Hammer made the role his own. But consider the subtext.

     Is it Americans’ job to save Europe from its Islamic invaders?

* * *

     The Islamic jihad is worldwide. It’s here in America as well as in Europe. It’s even touched Australia and Japan. Muslims aren’t going to back away from what their pseudo-religion commands of them. They see First World nations as a prize to be taken. Their aggressive, take-everything-for-the ummah attitude makes itself felt daily. The following snippet of dialogue:

     Sanders: On your social media since the event, I have not seen any regret or empathy. In fact I think you said that she deserved to be raped.
     Dehlia: What I mean is they dress wrong, and just make boys horny with their miniskirts, they show their legs and breasts!
     Sanders: You wrote that she deserved it.
     Dehlia: I will delete it.
     Sanders: [to Yusuf's father] Are these the values you're teaching your children?
     Ibrahim: I teach him the values from Quran and these values from our family.
     Sanders: Well if these are your values, that women in America and Europe deserve to be raped because of a dress code, why did you come here?

     …is very much on point. Law? Muslims hold the teachings of the Qur’an to be superior to all man-made law. They see the world as divided into the House of Islam and the House of War. They believe Allah has commanded them to conquer in His name, and to despoil the “unbeliever” of whatever they wish to take. Perhaps only a fraction of them do so, but it’s a large and rapacious fraction, as the young women of the United Kingdom can tell you.

     They are more than a billion worldwide, and they are on the move.

     Is this a war that could and should be left to someone else?