Saturday, August 29, 2009

Great line of the day

Talking about a ridiculous new book on Europe being taken over by Islam Zombies leads Matthew Yglesias to this comment about conservative world-views:
Running through a lot of contemporary conservative thought is the right’s staggering lack of faith in the power of western civilization’s achievements. Liberal democracy has brought us a great deal of peace and prosperity, and time and again liberal societies have proved stronger than our autocratic rivals. But the right seems obsessed with the idea that impoverished and backward social values, or else dictatorial political institutions, offer the key to world-historical success. Thus Europe, supposedly, would be stronger if it re-embraced fratricidal violence and the United States would be more secure if we embraced the methods of the KGB.
Emphasis mine.

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