TWAA: To Keep Protecting the Vulnerable, Defend the West
Western civilization has long sheltered the weak and voiceless—which is why we must save it
Like you probably did, I spent the last week closely monitoring the Iran situation. But my full viewpoint is likely to differ from many native Westerners, as I have lived under Islamist laws. That experience is why I inwardly sighed when Iran promised to re-open the Strait of Hormuz on a Tuesday but merely closed it again by Wednesday. Given Iran’s long history of treating agreements as tactical instruments rather than binding commitments, their behavior was perfectly predictable. As with most Islamist cultures, Iran knows its identity well — and remaining patient in order to win the long game against any “infidels,” as they see Western nations, is simply part of the plan.
What I’m Thinking About
The natural human impulse is that “might makes right,” AKA survival of the fittest. If you are strong, you are valued; if you are weak, you are discarded—or at the very least, ignored. That’s why women, children, the disabled, and the elderly have historically been at the bottom of the pecking order. The strong don’t usually require help or special resources, but the vulnerable do. Thus, Western civilization’s history of officially protecting society’s weakest—ending slavery, founding orphanages and foster care systems, normalizing hospice care, criminalizing the exploitation of the disabled, etc.—is tremendously unique. It’s a marked contrast from the rest of the world, where the idea of wasting precious resources on those who cannot give back is foreign or even derided.
