Sixteen Volts

The latest essay by Jussi Halla-Aho is just so good and on the money that I have no choice but to translate it here for the international audience. You should be forewarned, though: this essay is the red pill, and once you take it, you won't be able to see the world the same way ever again.

The rhinoceros in our living room

When Muslims blew up a train in Madrid and killed hundreds of innocent people, the Muslim and human rights organizations expressed their concern... about the attitudes towards Muslims. These events should not be used to fan islamophobia, because islamophobia only creates more terrorism.

When Muslims blew up buses and subway trains in London and killed dozens of innocent people, the Muslim and human rights organizations expressed their concern... about the attitudes towards Muslims. These events should not be used to fan islamophobia, because islamophobia only creates more terrorism.

When Muslims tried to blow up British airplanes and kill hundreds of innocent people, the Muslim and human rights organizations... and so on.

When an internal study of the London police revealed Muslim officers being more corrupt and abusing their position more than their colleagues, the Muslim and human rights organizations... and so on.

In addition, the erroneous foreign policy of Britain and Spain who kowtow the United States was understood as a partial cause to Muslim frustration and terrorism. The highest-ranking Muslim official of the British police suggested the nation re-examine its foreign policy to avoid future terrorist attacks.

When Muslims tried to kill hundreds of innocent people in Canada and behead the prime minister, the Muslim and human rights organizations... and so on. When the German police arrested Muslims who planned killing dozens or hundreds of innocent people, the Muslim and human rights organizations... and so on. Canada and Germany had loudly opposed the War in Iraq and the American foreign policy, but despite this, Muslims had already been so slighted that they had no other options than to plan blowing up hundreds of innocent people.

I realized that the Muslim minority of the European family is uncannily similar to the classic elephant in the living room, the Finnish alcoholic. In case some of you haven't lived with such a person, let me briefly explain how it works. The alcoholic doesn't think that he drinks too much, and even if he does, it is because he has been provoked to drink by constantly accusing him of drinking. When he ruins the daily life of his family by slurring idiotically and picking fights, the other family members have the duty to pretend that they can't see that he is drunk. If the others notice that the alcoholic is drunk, or if they accidentally find bottles that he has hidden between sofa cushions, in the cleaning closet, behind the toilet and various other places, this gives the alcoholic feelings of guilt, which makes him angry and causes him drink twice as much. "What else can I do when I have to live among such accusing assholes?"

Other members of the family have to exercise classic Orwellian doublethink in their everyday lives. So that the alcoholic wouldn't feel like he is made to feel guilty and that at least some resemblance of normalcy remains, others must credibly pretend that they can't see or believe that the alcoholic is drinking. At the same time, they must remember in all their actions, for example planning for a vacation or having other people come over, the fact that that one person will be drunk. It is the duty of the other family members to prevent the alcoholic from causing awkward situations that would make him feel ostracised.

After years of such doublethink, the other family members at least in some level start to believe that they are somehow responsible for the drinking. After each conflict they discipline themselves and each other with accusations and wonder what they should have said or done differently and which particular facial expression was unwise in retrospect. In the family of an alcoholic, everyone else is constantly apologizing. They look longingly at the sober families of their friends and feel compassion towards their very own alcoholic who has to bear the burden of having such exceptionally bad family members who manipulate him with guilt. The spouse and children of an alcoholic want, more than anything else, become like their neighbours, so that they wouldn't force anybody to drink with their bad words, deeds and facial expressions.

These people really can't even think of the possibility that the monster that is tyrannizing them really is an asshole who drinks simply because he is an alcoholic and wants to drink. The real and imagined words and deeds of other people merely give him a convenient excuse and momentary legitimacy to do what he would be doing anyway. His true motives are completely separate from what the others do.

The European society treats its Muslims the same way that the family of an alcoholic treats its alcoholic. When the black sheep screws up and hurts his family, it was because of something that the family said or did. If he screws up and messes around even when nobody said or did anything, this only means that the family should look deeper into the mirror and understand the accusatory hidden messages they are constantly sending.

And here is the most important part: no matter how many times the black sheep has done his bad thing, the rest of the family is never allowed to suspect that he will do it again. Such suspicision is a blatant accusation that gives the black sheep the justification to do exactly what they unfairly suspected that he will do. When the alcoholic who has ruined all previous summer holidays notices that this year the spouse has not bought the cases of beer and brought them to the summer cottage, he smells suspicion and accusation, gets enraged and takes a taxi to the nearest town to drink, for fuck's sake! When the Muslim minority that is solely responsible for the European mass terrorism notices that the Heathrow airport security checks tend to concentrate to young Muslim males and mostly ignore old British ladies, they get enraged and scream about "accusations" and "profiling". And the next time something blows up, there is your reason.

But what if the real motives of bombers and killers are somewhere else than in what we said or did? What if they are about what we are? What if we have here a similar fundamental conflict of interests that was revealed in the fictional dialogue between the President of United States played by Bill Pullman and the captured alien in the movie Independence Day:

- I know there is much we can learn from each other if we can negotiate a truce. If we can find a way to co-exist. Can there be a peace between us?
- Peace... No peace...
- What is it you want us to do?
- Die... Die...

The president looks into the black, unemotional eyes of the alien:

- I saw his thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. They're like locust, moving from planet to planet, their entire civilization. We're next.

After concluding that there is no possibility of multicultural coexistence, the president draws a course of action:

- Nuke 'em. Let's nuke the bastards.

Pullman finally agreed to give up his optimistic prejudices and listen to what the other side is saying. Will Europe do the same?

Addition: Some of my understanding-challenged readers have understood this essay to mean that I want to nuke all Muslims. Incorrect. I use extreme metaphors to bring up the ideological structures behind certain actions and highlight the problems and logical errors associated with them. This is the idea behind using these extreme metaphors. "Nuke 'em" is a Hollywood solution that in Hollywood reality symbolizes decisive action when there is no longer room for negotiation. My point was that we are currently approaching Muslim terrorism the way Pullman approaches the alien attack in his first line, that we similarly misunderstand the totality of the situation, and that there is no solution that would accommodate both sides. The islamists don't want the Western society to do anything. They want it to die. If we don't want it to die, we must annihilate the islamists and stop yammering about actions that might lessen the Muslim "frustration" or "anger" by correcting social injustices.

Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 11:52 AM