I have always opposed neo-conservatism and a massive part of the Trump attraction to me was his opposition to nation-building, which incidentally was what built the conservative movement’s opposition to the Bush and Obama administrations post-Iraq war. That said, what is taking place in Afghanistan is barbaric in too many ways to count. I am of the opinion that a word can paint a thousand pictures, but the scene of Afghans clinging to the U.S. military plane painted a thousand words.
Without delving into a thesis on the role of the United States foreign policy and how fast or how slow withdrawal needs to take place if at all, I want to delve into two brief implications of the current crisis that touches on the subtle ways in which we have re-imagined ourselves after the ethics of Paris Hilton.
The first is the American administration’s failure to understand basic patterns of culture. Charles Taylor uses the language of “immanent frame” to describe those who build ideologies on the basis only of what they feel and sense. In other words, only what we see is valuable in grounding our philosophy of war, sex, and language. This is in contrast to a “transcendent frame” that allows our worldviews to be shaped by transcendent/divine meaning and morality.
There was an interview where an American journalist interviewed several men of the Taliban. The discussion turned rather transcendent when she posed whether the Taliban would vote in favor of putting women into office. The men laughed and the interview ended. It ended because that journalist was operating under an “immanent frame” category. She failed to see–what leftists fail to see–that Middle Eastern tribal men function on the basis of an other-worldly view of the cosmos. Of course, we’d affirm that Islam is both satanic and sadistic, but that’s beside the point. They still function on the basis of an unalterable law called Sharia. The journalist couldn’t comprehend the totality of a worldview that functions with divine imperatives.
The second failure stems from a variety of voices, but most namely Twitter’s dissent from reason in allowing the Taliban to function as if they are good schoolboys operating under basic rules. “Ok, Jonny, you follow these basic rules and we will allow you to speak your truth to millions of people.” This entire brouhaha stems from a confusion of determining who are the real enemies. We, humble Christian people, should know that you don’t negotiate with satirists. And that is exactly what these individuals are doing to the effeminacy of American politics. They are satirizing us and we are too stupid to pick up on subtleties. We are more eager to allow Abdul Ghani Baradar to speak to our audiences than the rural, good-guy, wife-lovin’, church conservative who defends Trump. It’s a failure of epic proportions and distortions, which they are targeting daily.
The moral of the story is that when we allow the Bidening of America, we are making America disgraced again. It’s a tough thing to say, but Schwarzenegger was right: “We are led by girly men.”
