Barrel Strength

This past winter, Roger Scruton published the essay “Islam and the West: Lines of Demarcation”,  which deserves the broadest possible readership. He sees the West distinguished from Islam by the following (incommensurate) factors:

1. Secular law leading to citizenship
2. Nationality
3. Christianity
4. Irony
5. Self-criticism
6. Representation
7. Drink

“First, we should be clear about what it is that we are and are not defending. We are not defending, for example, our wealth or our territory; these things are not at stake. Rather, we are defending our political and cultural inheritance, embodied in the seven features which I have singled out here for attention. Second, we should be clear that you cannot overcome resentment by feeling guilty or by conceding fault. Weakness provokes, since it alerts your enemy to the possibility of destroying you. We should therefore be prepared to affirm what we have, and to express our determination to hold on to it.”

Please read this essay. It will clarifiy issues for you.