{"id":97,"date":"2002-10-20T04:16:00","date_gmt":"2002-10-20T09:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=97"},"modified":"2002-10-20T04:16:00","modified_gmt":"2002-10-20T09:16:00","slug":"draft-for-an-anti-idiotarian-manifesto-version-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"Draft for an Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (version 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" language=\"JavaScript\">\nfunction swtchon(nav){document[nav].src=\"http:\/\/www.catb.org\/~esr\/graphics\/aim-on.png\"};\nfunction swtchoff(nav){document[nav].src=\"http:\/\/www.catb.org\/~esr\/graphics\/aim-off.png\"};\t\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Changes are deliberately not marked.  Read the whole thing, this is<br \/>\na final pre-publication draft.  Most of the changes from version 4<br \/>\nare deletions of excess verbiage.<\/p>\n<p>Counting email, this now reflects approximately 200 comments from<br \/>\nacross the blogosphere.  Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.<br \/>\nSince this process has to close sometime, I&#8217;m declaring that there<br \/>\nwuill be at most one pre-publication draft.<\/p>\n<p>I will post a fair copy of the final version.  For legal purposes,<br \/>\nthis work is &copy;2002 by Eric S. Raymond.  Email me for distribution<br \/>\nterms &#8212; I&#8217;m not especially interested in making money from it, but I<br \/>\nwant some artistic control of how it&#8217;s used.<\/p>\n<p>However, this may not happen for a week, as I am about to go on<br \/>\nthe Linux Lunacy Caribbean cruise.<\/p>\n<p>Brian O&#8217;Connell has supplied this excellent button for<br \/>\nJavaScript-aware browsers:<br \/>\n<img name=\"aim\" width=\"100\" height=\"40\" border=\"0\" \nsrc=\"http:\/\/www.catb.org\/~esr\/graphics\/aim-off.png\" \nonmouseover=\"swtchon('aim')\" onmouseout=\"swtchoff('aim')\" \nalt=\"Click to Read\" title=\"Click to Read\"\/><\/p>\n<p>And Erica from Sperari has suppiled a very tasteful static button:<br \/>\n<img name=\"aim-thumb-button.png\" border=\"0\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/www.catb.org\/~esr\/graphics\/aim-button-thumb.jpg\" alt='AIM button' \/><\/p>\n<p>These buttons will be included with the final version.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>WHEREAS, the year since the terrible events of 9\/11 has exposed<br \/>\nthe vacuity and moral confusion of all too many of the thinkers,<br \/>\npoliticians, and activists operating within conventional political<br \/>\ncategories;<\/p>\n<p>WHEREAS, the Left has failed us by succumbing to reflexive<br \/>\nanti-Americanism; by apologizing for terrorist acts; by propounding<br \/>\nsqualid theories of moral equivalence; and by blaming the victims of<br \/>\nevil for the act of evil;<\/p>\n<p>WHEREAS, the Right has failed us by pushing `anti-terrorist&#8217;<br \/>\nmeasures which bid fair to be both ineffective and prejudicial to the<br \/>\ncentral liberties of a free society; and in some cases by rhetorically<br \/>\ndescending to almost the same level of bigotry as our enemies;<\/p>\n<p>WHEREAS, even many of the Libertarians from whom we expected more<br \/>\nintelligence have retreated into a petulant isolationism, refusing to<br \/>\nrecognize that, at this time, using the state to carry the war back to<br \/>\nthe aggressors is our only practical instrument<br \/>\nof self-defense;<\/p>\n<p>WE THEREFORE ASSERT the following convictions as the premises of<br \/>\nthe anti-idiotarian position:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p>THAT Western civilization is threatened with the specter of mass death<br \/>\nperpetrated by nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons placed in the<br \/>\nhands of terrorists by rogue states;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>THAT the terrorists and their state sponsors have declared and<br \/>\nare pursuing a war not against the vices of Western civilization but<br \/>\nagainst its core virtues: against the freedom of thought and speech<br \/>\nand conscience, against the life of reason; against the equality of<br \/>\nwomen, against pluralism and tolerance; against, indeed, all the<br \/>\nqualities which separate civilized human beings from savagery,<br \/>\nslavery, and fanaticism;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>THAT no adjustments of American or Western foreign policy, or<br \/>\nconcessions to the Palestinians, or actions taken against<br \/>\nglobalization, or efforts to alleviate world poverty,<br \/>\nare of more than incidental interest to these terrorists;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>THAT, upon their own representation, they will not by dissuaded from<br \/>\ntheir violence by any surrender less extreme than the imposition of Islam<br \/>\nand shari&#8217;a law on the kaffir West;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>THAT, as said terrorists have demonstrated the willingness to use<br \/>\ncivilian airliners as flying bombs to kill thousands of innocent<br \/>\npeople, we would commit a vast crime of moral negligence if we<br \/>\nunderestimated the scope of their future malice even<br \/>\n<em>without<\/em> weapons of mass destruction;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>THAT they have sought, and on plausible evidence found,<br \/>\nalliance with rogue states such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea;<br \/>\nstates that are known to have active programs working towards the<br \/>\ndevelopment and delivery of weapons of that would multiply the<br \/>\nterrorists&#8217; ability to commit atrocities by a thousandfold;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>THAT Saddam Hussein poses a particularly clear and present<br \/>\ndanger in combination with them, a danger demonstrated by his known<br \/>\nefforts to develop nuclear weapons, his use of chemical weapons even<br \/>\non his own population, his demonstrated willingness to commit<br \/>\naggression against peaceful neighbors, and his known links to the<br \/>\nIslamist terror network in Palestine and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>RE DECLARE that both the terrorists and their state<br \/>\nsponsors have made themselves outlaws from the moral community of mankind,<br \/>\nto be dealt with as rabid dogs are.<\/p>\n<p>WE FURTHER AFFIRM that the `root cause&#8217; of Islamo-fascist terrorism<br \/>\nlies in the animating politico-religious ideas of fundamentalist Islam<br \/>\nand not in any signicant respect elsewhere, and that a central aim of<br \/>\nthe war against terror must be to displace and discredit those<br \/>\nanimating ideas.<\/p>\n<p>WE REJECT, as a self-serving power grab by the least trustworthy<br \/>\nelements of our own side, the theory that terrorist depredations can<br \/>\nbe effectively prevented by further restrictions on the right of free<br \/>\nspeech, or the right of peacable assembly, or the right to bear<br \/>\narms in self-defense; and we strenuously oppose police-state measures<br \/>\nsuch as the imposition of national ID cards or airport-level<br \/>\nsurveillance of public areas;<\/p>\n<p>IN GRAVE KNOWLEDGE that the state of war brings out the worst in<br \/>\nboth individual human beings and societies, we reject the alternative<br \/>\nof ceding to the world&#8217;s barbarians the exclusive privilege of<br \/>\nforce;<\/p>\n<p>WE SUPPORT the efforts of the United States of America, its allies,<br \/>\nand the West to hunt down and capture or kill individual members<br \/>\nof the Islamo-fascist terror network;<\/p>\n<p>WE SUPPORT speedy American and allied military action against the<br \/>\nrogue states that support terrorism, both as a means of alleviating<br \/>\nthe immediate threat and of deterring future state sponsorship of<br \/>\nterrorism by the threat of war to the knife.<\/p>\n<p>WE SUPPORT, in recognition of the fact that the military and police<br \/>\ncannot be everywhere, efforts to meet the distributed threat with a<br \/>\ndistributed response; to arm airline pilots, and to recognize as well<br \/>\nthe ordinary citizen&#8217;s right and duty to respond to terrorist<br \/>\naggression with effective force.<\/p>\n<p>WE SUPPORT, as an alternative greatly preferable to future<br \/>\nnuclear\/chemical\/biological blackmail of the West, the forcible<br \/>\noverthrow of the governments of Iraq and of other nations that combine<br \/>\nsponsorship of terrorism with the possession of weapons of mass<br \/>\ndestruction; and the occupation of those nations until such time as<br \/>\nthe root causes of terrorism have been eradicated from their<br \/>\nsocieties.<\/p>\n<p>WE DEFINE IDIOTARIANISM as the species of delusion<br \/>\n<em>within<\/em> the moral community of mankind that gives<br \/>\naid and comfort to terrorists and tyrants operating outside it.<\/p>\n<p>WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Left &#8212; the moral blindness that<br \/>\nrefuses to recognize that free markets, individual liberty, and<br \/>\nexperimental science have made the West a fundamentally better place<br \/>\nthan any culture in which jihad, &#8216;honor killings&#8217;, and female genital<br \/>\nmutilation are daily practices approved by a stultifying religion.<\/p>\n<p>WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Right &#8212; whether it manifests as<br \/>\nhead-in-the-sand isolationism or as a a Christian-chauvinist political<br \/>\nagenda that echoes the religious absolutism of our enemies.<\/p>\n<p>WE ARE MEMBERS OF A CIVILIZATION, and we hold that civilization<br \/>\nto be worth defending. We have not sought war, but we will fight it<br \/>\nto the end.   We will fight for our civilization in our thoughts, in<br \/>\nour words, and in our deeds.<\/p>\n<p>WE HAVE AWAKENED; we have seen the face of evil in the acts of the<br \/>\nBin Ladens and Husseins and Arafats of the world; we have seen through<br \/>\nthe lies and self-delusions of the idiotarians who did so much to<br \/>\nenable and excuse their evil.  We shall not flinch from our duty to<br \/>\nconfront that evil.<\/p>\n<p>WE SHALL DEMAND as citizens and voters that those we delegate to<br \/>\nlead pursue the war against terror with an unflagging will to victory<br \/>\nand all means necessary &mdash; while remaining always mindful that we<br \/>\nmust not become what we fight;<\/p>\n<p>WE SHALL REMEMBER that the West&#8217;s keenest weapons are reason and the<br \/>\ntruth; that we must shine a pitiless light on the lies from which<br \/>\nterrorist hatred is built; and that we must also be vigilant against<br \/>\nthe expedient lie from our own side, lest our victories become tainted<br \/>\nand hollow, sowing trouble for the future.<\/p>\n<p>WE HAVE FAITH that we are equal to these challenges; we shall not<br \/>\nbe paralyzed by fear of the enemy, nor yet by fear of ourselves;<\/p>\n<p>WE SHALL SHED the moral cowards and the appeasers and the<br \/>\napologists; and we shall fight the barbarians and fanatics, and we<br \/>\n<em>shall<\/em> defeat them. We shall defeat them in war, crushing<br \/>\ntheir dream of dominion; and we shall defeat them in peace, using our<br \/>\nwealth and freedoms to win their women and children to civilized ways,<br \/>\nand ultimately wiping their diseased and virulent ideologies from the<br \/>\nface of the Earth.<\/p>\n<p>THIS WE SWEAR, on the graves of those who died at the World Trade<br \/>\nCenter; and those who died in the Sari Club in Bali; and those who<br \/>\ndied on U.S.S. Cole; and indeed on the graves of all the nameless<br \/>\nvictims in the Middle East itself who have been slaughtered by<br \/>\nterrorism and rogue states:<\/p>\n<p>YOU SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN.<\/p>\n<pre>\r\n\t\t\tEric S. Raymond\r\n\t\t\t17 October 2002\r\n\r\n\t\t\t____________________\r\n\t\t\t(your signature here)\r\n<\/pre>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/enetation.co.uk\/comments.php?user=esr&amp;commentid=83247234\">Blogspot comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Changes are deliberately not marked. Read the whole thing, this is a final pre-publication draft. Most of the changes from version 4 are deletions of excess verbiage. Counting email, this now reflects approximately 200 comments from across the blogosphere. Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Since this process has to close sometime, I&#8217;m declaring that&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=97\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Draft for an Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (version 5)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}