More Hanson

Yesterday Brent linked to a critically important new essay by Victor Davis Hanson. In "The Wages of Appeasement," which first appeared in City Journal under the title "The Fruits of Appeasement," Hanson argues that the West's infatuation with multiculturalism has increased its vulnerability to terrorism. By replacing rigorous scholarship, research, and linguistic training with intellectual posturing and moral nihilism, multiculturalism has blinded us to evil when it's carried out by non-Westerners.

While you're getting into a Hanson groove, don't miss Hanson's newest essay on his web site. In "The Wars of the West," he recounts the absurd defeatist arguments from appeaseniks in the years since 9/11. A key paragraph (but only one among many -- read it all):

"Th[e] classically liberal vision is always under assault on the left by utopian totalitarians, devils who demand coercive government powers to force us to be angels, and on the right by autocratic romantics who believe in the superiority of a pure religion, race, or nationality. Thus we must defend the promise of the West and its manifestation in America almost constantly. Indeed, it seems to me in these trying times that the greater sin is for thinking people to remain silent and allow the idea of America to be slurred without retort than it is for the ignorant to so breezily condemn it. We made no claims that we were perfect, only far better than the alternative and thus had the moral obligation and indeed the power and skill to defeat our enemies and preserve our culture."

Hanson is doing his part to defend the West, and he's giving the rest of us the tools to press forward in this vital fight.