Constantine
I am not making this up.
- A British police officer was excused from guarding the Israeli embassy. He was a Muslim, and objected on moral grounds.
- Jack Straw, the Leader of the House of Common, was criticized after admitting he asks female Muslim constituents who visit him to remove their veils.
My thought on the matter: Let me tell you why we are certain to lose this war.
I can sum it up in one word: Constantine.
No, I do not mean the horror film starring Keanu Reeves. I mean that, in the days when the Roman Empire was weakened, and its Eastern and Western halves were becoming more alienated from each other, dividing into a Latin and Greek empires ignorant of each other’s languages, there arose a confident, militant, highly organized and highly motivated minority which could not be assimilated into the prevailing, pagan multi-ethnic world order. I mean the Christians. The Christians prohibited divorce: they were growing in number while other populations were shrinking.
As soon as one leader was canny enough to declare himself one of these, they rallied around him, and elevated him to Imperial power and dynasty. He ruled and his children ruled after him.
The parallels here should be clear. The Roman Empire was over-regulated and over-taxed, and depended on foreigners to come in and do the jobs ‘Romans would not do’ including military service. The Right and Left occupy worlds as different from each other as Greek and Latin.
How long until an opportunist major Western leader decides to pull a Constantine? Perhaps it will happen in England or France, not here, but how can it not happen? Do we lack opportunistic leaders? Aren’t there politicians who would do anything to have a private, highly-motivated army ready to riot and kill or take any steps needed to help him take and hold power?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
