Monday, February 02, 2009

Is "Terrorism" a Misnomer?

DO YOU feel terror? Neither do I. Maybe I did on September 11th as I watched the planes fly into the Twin Towers. But even then I don't think I could call it "terror." I felt angry and confused. Flabbergasted. Astonished. I was definitely stressed by it. But I didn't run through the streets panicking in terror.

I'll bet you can say the same. We might be dealing with an insufficient term. A more useful term is demoralism. The hot-headed Islamic supremacists are are trying to demoralize as a prelude to invading and defeating us.

In war, one of the most important psychological impacts a general tries to have on his enemy is demoralization. A demoralized enemy is easier to defeat. A demoralized enemy becomes paralyzed by indecision or cuts and runs, and in the confusion is easy to route.

Islamic supremacists have been infiltrating the western world and undermining our confidence, our clarity, and our values for decades. They chose the World Trade Center for many reasons. Among other things, the Towers were symbols of Western morale. The Jihadis' aim was to demoralize the West.

And they succeeded to some degree. My wife was talking to a woman the other day about Islam and what we must do about it and the woman responded, "I don't think they can be defeated. It is in God's hands."

Unbelievable! The woman has given up. I say this because she didn't say it like, "I will do all I can and after that, it is in God's hands." She said it like, "There is nothing I can do about it. Therefore it is in God's hands." That's defeatism.

To be demoralized means to have given up. Demoralization is the opposite of determination. When you are demoralized, you feel that no effort on your part will make any difference. For example, many people tell me they have tried educating their fellow non-Muslims about the third jihad and the response they get is either hostility or apathy. One woman told me, "It's like beating your head against a brick wall."

In other words, trying to educate the public about Islam is an exercise in futility. Many people have told me, "It's going to take a major catastrophe to wake people up." This is not too much different than, "It's in God's hands." It is saying, "I give up." It is saying, "Nothing I do will make much difference."

This attitude has to be removed from our brains, people! We can't have that kind of defeatism. If we are demoralized, the enemy has already won. We need a fighting spirit to the bitter end. Morale is a necessity.

To defeat Islamic supremacism, the most important thing that needs to be achieved is a widespread public education about it. The media will not do it. The politicians will not do it. IT IS UP TO US! It will be done one-on-one by those of us who know about the third jihad, or it won't be done.

So if you come up against what seems to be an insurmountable barrier, you should NOT decide it's impossible and start trying to explain all the reasons it cannot be done. We MUST win this fight. Failure is not an option. What you need to do is decide you will surmount that barrier or die trying. You need to confide in your allies and let us help you. We can pool our ingenuity and find a way.

Whether you are demoralized or not is UP TO YOU. The circumstances can never determine whether you will give up or not. No demoralists can make you feel demoralized without your consent. Your morale is in your control.

You must stay aware that the decision to give up or keep trying will usually function as a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, if you decide you're going to fail, and you give up, you have failed. Your decision has become a reality. If you decide you will find a way to succeed and you try and fail, does that mean you were wrong? No, you can try again. You can try a different way. You can study about it, learn more about it, put in the time thinking about it, talk to people about it and glean their ideas, and you can keep trying until you succeed.

Either way, your decision has become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Awhile back, I wrote a short article with links giving you tools to help you restore another person's morale. The links go to a series of articles that you should study if you ever feel demoralized or disheartened by this work. The articles are based on rigorous scientific studies. These are not my little pet theories on what might work. People who change their explanatory style have a significantly and measurably improved power to persist in the face of obstacles, as shown by over seven hundred scientific studies. People who have developed this kind of psychological resilience have a significant and measurable improvement in their ability to succeed.

Study that material. Literally STUDY it. Do the writing exercise. Make SURE you keep your morale high, and then help the rest of us do the same. This arsenal of counter-demoralizing techniques are a powerful defense system against the relentless efforts of the demoralizers to make us throw in the towel. We will not throw in the towel. We will crush the third jihad and arise victorious!

7 comments:

Always On Watch said...

CW,
I agree with you.

But it is getting more and more difficult to reach people to get them to understand.

Yes, I've made some small headway lately, but the numbers of the newly awakened are very, very few.

I do know somebody in the school system who broached the subject carefully. She was working as a substitute and had an impeccable reputation as a superb teacher and years of experience with that particular school system.

I'm sure that you've already guessed the outcome. She is now training for a different career entirely. The phone calls to substitute have dropped off so far as to make a living impossible.

As you likely know, several of us counterjihadists tried terrestrial radio last summer and into the fall. The donations were few and far between. No sponsors were forthcoming. Any feedback was next to nothing for the size of that market.

On a personal level, I've lost most of my friends over the issues we discuss here. I've lost clients as well. I'm not whining, merely stating the facts.

I believe that any additional waking up will not come without a heavy price of lives -- here in America or in the UK. Many Americans don't give a rat's ass about what happens in any European nation other than the UK. In addition, good old American optimism works against us: people have lulled themselves with "It's gonna be okay."

christian soldier said...

Will look up your links...School doesn't start til next week so I have a bit of time...
It only took 55 Founders - people of character..
Always-most of my former 'friends' are not around-it's tough being a 'prophet'--the ones I have -I treasure-the others -well-I simply don't have time for their go along to get along attitude...
C-CS

midnight rider said...

AoW -- I'm with you on the lost friends and slow to wake people up. In fact some that I had won over have started to slip back. All hopeychangeylike.

CW -- it might help if we started calling this war by it's right name. War on Terror. Makes it sound liek a psychologist dealing with children's nightmares. Spit.

This is the War on Islam. The Final Crusade against the Third Jihad. The Last World War.

Either we crush Islam or die fighting. There is NO other option.

Always On Watch said...

MR,
AoW -- I'm with you on the lost friends and slow to wake people up. In fact some that I had won over have started to slip back. All hopeychangeylike.

Yes. It's awful to watch this backsliding.

Anonymous said...

I have never posted here before, but I want to share what I just posted at Atlas Shrugs.

To win hearts and minds in this battle, I will no longer refer to "Islam" or "Muslim" to call out the jihadi / sharia-enforcing agenda. They are now completely separate topics. I have re-defined the parameters of the "debate."

To wit - I am not interested in discussing Islam as a religion. I am interested in stopping the grotesque violence associated with political jihad and the imposition of sharia law as a socio-political system.

I do not care if Islam is a religion of peace and love. I do not care what its prophet did or did not do or say. I do not care about its scientific, cultural or artistic advances. I do not care to debate what its book and other writings do or do not say. Nor do I care whether or not those writings are or are not like the Torah, the New Testament, the Bagavadgita, etc. Those are topics for a course on comparative religions. We are no longer discussing religion under my debating terms.

Now, of course, I do care that these vicious, numerous, well funded (in many cases state-funded) and organized armies of jihadists want to impose repressive, dignity-destroying and soul crushing sharia on me and my culture and in place of the rights endowed upon me and my fellow human beings by nature and nature's God. I think other people care, too. People who do not want any religion spoken ill of.

I will petition my government non-stop (in addition to other actions, including discussions with fair-minded people) to help ensure that sharia never replaces the limits we the people have placed upon our government to keep it from infringing those rights. I will insist that our government keep us safe from jihad armies seeking to hurt me, my neighbors and who seek to destroy the physical and social infrastructure of our civilization.

NO to jihad - NO to sharia - NO to state sponsorship of jihad - NO to "anti-defamation of religion" laws. I am not defaming Islam - I could not care less what it "says" - heck, if it says it is a religion of peace and love, fine with me. No argument here. I don't care if the jihad armies are screaming "Allah is Great", "Jesus is Lord" or "HaShem Rules" - I want the jihad armies stopped.

Now, even if after I have agreed not to discuss Islam in the sharia/jihad context, if a Muslim OR a jihadist apologist insists that violent jihad and/or socio-political sharia are part of his "religion", or in some way equates the peaceful religion of Islam with the stoning of young rape victims to death - hey - it is his choice to define it that way, not mine.

Just don't tread on me.


Ro

Also - see Rep. Sue Myrick's (R-NC, I think) proposed legislation to stop jihadi and sharia influence in the US.

Pastorius said...

I pretty much agree with Ro. However, I think it is important for us to understand and keep in mind the fact that Islam does, indeed, stipulate that it's adherents ought to make war on non-believers.

That is not to say that I don't think we ought to allow Muslims to attempt to redefine Islam as a peaceful religion. As Ro says, if they live peacefully, then they are following a religion of peace.

However, if peace means the bulk of Muslims do not commit violent acts, but do indeed support violence, then that is not peace.

Unfortunately, I believe this to be the case. Most Muslims are in on the charade. Silence equals consent.

I don't know if Ro would agree with that or not.

Citizen Warrior said...

Even if all Muslims completely renounced violence, we still have to deal with Muslims pursuing political goals peacefully but relentlessly as a religious duty.

I sympathize with your plight, AOW, and I admire your persistence. You are a true warrior in this fight.

I'm working on ways we can better penetrate the thick skulls out there. Stay tuned...