To: goldworldnet who wrote (263563 ) 6/13/2002 11:07:08 AM From: gao seng Read Replies (1) | Respond to Yeah, and we are a subversive culture. It is so twisted. We are a culture of liberty, while theirs is one that celebrates the destruction of liberty, ie the tearing down of Buddhist statues.Message 17595528 It is historically true that the idea of liberal democratic capitalism has subverted and in the end destroyed alternative forms of social organization, be they feudalism, aristocracy, monarchy, authoritarianism, fascism, or communism. It is also true that America has historically been the principal agent, rivaled in this respect only by Great Britain, of this subversion. But it is also true that this subversion is a purely negative project, made necessary only by the various tyrannies it fights, and cannot be understood as an end in itself. It has a natural terminating point in the moment at which liberal democratic capitalism is achieved. It is mischievous to take so much pleasure in the sound of crashing idols that one seeks to make subversion a perpetual agenda. What is most disturbing in D’Souza’s book to any reader of authentically conservative temperament is the glee with which he relates the idea that America is a "subversive" nation. He means this not in the familiar sense that conservatism subverts the ruling liberal orthodoxy, but rather in the sense that America subverts the traditional understanding of life and society held by practically the entire world. He thinks this is wonderful. There are two problems with this: the subversive forces are not essentially American, and subversion as such is not something to celebrate.
