At what cost?
I often read Bret Stephens’ editorial articles in the Wall Street Journal. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner journalist. I find him thoughtful, intelligent, and articulate. He is one of those who tickles my mind – makes he think. On July 26, 2016 he not only tickled my mind, he stirred many emotions. I do not want to just rely on emotional responses. The issues which he so thoughtfully addresses demand the best of all of us. In this article he is address the possible response of Europeans to modern day threats – violent and non-violent.
The question I want to address is, for me, one which has been a central focus for me. Essentially I ask myself what it means for me to be a moral person, community member and a citizen of a nation. This question seems especially poignant as we near a presidential election in the United States and posit possibilities for our role on the world stage. From my Christian background I am reminded of the question in the gospel of Mark – 8:36(KJV):
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Every person since the beginning of time has asked some version of this question. Humans have this need to make sense of what seems, at times, to be a pretty chaotic, senseless j life journey. What differentiates us from other animals? Sometimes we blame or attribute moral codes to a divine being or beings. Sometimes we look for what seems more natural or supports the systems which seem to be so interconnected on this earth and in the universes. No matter what we decide we all have to face the fact that this life journey is, from a human perspective, very brief. We have to decide what is important. Mr. Stephens is raising a version of that question as it pertains to the nation or group. He seems to be positing the position that it is important for individual nations and Europe as a community to continue to exist no matter what the costs. Further he seems to be positing that it one can label one group as moral and one group as barbarians; that one method of serving the God of our understanding is more moral than those practiced by other groups serving the God of their understanding. He seems very clear that no matter how much killing is needed one must preserve the way of life that is considered moral by a group of people whose history includes what might now be determined as barbarian behavior. In fact he seems to be suggesting that in fact one needs to preserve a certain way of life no matter what the cost in terms of destroying others. He does not hesitate to use Israel as an example despite the fact that this history of Israel includes extremely violent behavior, the aim which seem often to punish rather than seeking justice for both sides. He further posits that we learn a moral lesson from the example of violence as practiced by Israel.
I will briefly (or perhaps not so briefly) outline what he says.
Bret Stephens Global View – Is Europe Helpless, Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2016, A 13 (Bret Louis Stephens (born November 21, 1973)
“In the face of Islamist menace the continent seems helpless. It it?... At it 1980s peak, under Francois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl the European project combined German economic strength and French confidence in power politics. Today it mixes French political weakness with German moral solipisim. This is a formula for rapid civilizational decline, however many economic or military resources the EU may have at its disposal.
Can the decline be stopped? Yet, that that would require a great unlearning of the political mythologies of which modern Europe is built.
Among those mythologies:
- that the European Union is the result of postwar moral commitment to peace;
- that Christianity is of merely historical importance to European identity
- that there’s no such thing as a military solution;
- that one’s country is not worth fighting for;
- that honor is atavistic and
- tolerance is the supreme value (I added the indent marks.)
People who believe in nothing, including themselves, will ultimately submit to anything.
The alternative..
- recognition that Europe’s long peace depended on American military power…
- Europe will have to figure out how to apply power… strategically in pursuit of difficult objectives.
- learn that powerless can be as corrupting as power…
The storm of terror that is descending on Europe will not end in some now politics of inclusion, community outreach, more foreign aid or one of Mrs. Merkel’s diplomatic Rube Goldbergs. It will end in rivers of blood. Theirs or yours?
…what they need to learn from the Jewish state is the moral lesson. Namely, that identify can be a great preserver of liberty, and that free societies cannot survive through progressive accommodations to barbarians.”
It is not my intent to offer answers but to state that I believe it is imperative that we thoughtfully and “prayerfully” question the assumptions of Mr. Stephens. They are, in fact, assumptions which are shared by many – perhaps even a majority. At the core of this discussion is the question of whether or not there are any core moral values which are more important than the ongoing existence of a person, a community or a nation.
I am indebted to Mr. Stephens for so clearly stating the parameters of the question as he understands them.
Written July 26, 2016
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