Is it Necessary to Win the Culture War at Home in Order to Win the War on Terror?

According to a new book by Dinesh D'Souza the answer is yes. Some food for thought...

The culture wars and the war on terror are intimately connected. If we want to win the war on terror we have to win the culture war at home. That is the central argument of Dinesh D'Sousa's new book, The Enemy at Home, and it's a point worth pondering.

Why were we attacked on 9/11? Why do they hate us? D'Sousa rounds up and dismisses the usual answers to these questions — "they hate us for our freedom," "they're angry about Colonialism," etc. — and proposes the same answer that the terrorists themselves give: they hate us for our decadence. And they fear that we mean to export our debased values to their traditional societies — not just Britney and Madonna and rap music, but also illegitimacy, easy divorce, abortion, and gay marriage. According to D'Sousa, Muslims feel threatened less by our military, and more by our seductions. They refer to us as the "Great Satan," he observes, because Satan is primarily understood as a tempter, not a conqueror.

There are some problems with this analysis. It doesn't quite explain why radical Muslims attack other traditional people in India or Indonesia, or why traditional Sunni Muslims blow up mosques in traditional Shia neighborhoods. Nor is it useful in explaining why Muslims swept out of Arabia in the seventh century, and subjugated most of the Middle-East, all of North Africa, and most of Spain. Whatever the reason for these conquests it had nothing to do with outrage over images of scantily clad temptresses beamed over satellite TV from stations along the North African coast. D'Sousa slides too quickly over the aggressive, expansionistic side of Islam, and gives too much credit to the notion that the current jihad is motivated solely by fear of cultural subversion. Most Islamic religious authorities hold that jihad is a duty commanded by Allah in good times and bad.

Nevertheless, D'Sousa's argument deserves serious consideration. His thesis may not explain all of Muslim aggressiveness, but it does help to clarify the current situation...

A culture which concentrates on self-gratification is bound to drain life of meaning because meaning is usually found in something outside the self. People will fight and die for God and for family, and for values that are perceived as noble, but not many are willing to sacrifice themselves so that strangers can gratify themselves in strange ways. How many want to die in order that polyamory might live? Or that Britney might expose herself with impunity? Or that Robert Redford might indulge himself by screening films about zoophiles? The cultural left seeks an expansion of rights for the self-expression lobby, and a restriction of rights for those who look beyond the self for moral standards. If they win that fight we all lose, left and right alike.

If you think the culture wars don't matter, take a look across the Atlantic. They never had a culture war in Europe because when the war was declared, only one side showed up. Now they have another kind of fight on their hands for which they are totally unprepared. D'Sousa's analysis is not without flaws, but when the critics urge us not to read it — as Warren Bass does — or dismiss it as beneath discussion, it may be an indication that he's hitting close to home.

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