Not Lightly Forgiven

One grim Weltanschauung for this new era was well expressed by the Venetian

nationalist demagogue in Michael Dibdin's novel, Dead Lagoon: "There can be no

true friends without true enemies. Unless we hate what we are not, we cannot

love what we are. These are the old truths we are painfully rediscovering after

a century and more of sentimental cant. Those who deny them deny their family,

their heritage, their culture, their birthright, their very selves! They will

not lightly be forgiven."

 

Huntington goes on to refute the idea of a universal civilization in the age of globalization in his 1996 book "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." I read the above disturbing paragraph and have been pondering on my own options for punishment.