Thuggery Works

Thuggery Works

Given the state of affairs in our world today, it's easy to get angry.

When some folks get angry, they go home and pour themselves a glass of scotch. When other folks get angry, they threaten people, kill people, smash things and start fires.

In a world where extortion and thuggery aren't tolerated, of course, threats and arson just don't pay off.

Unfortunately, we don't live in that world.

We live in a world today where extortion, thuggery and terror often do pay off, and sometimes handsomely. We live in a world where those least willing to play well with others often find themselves most rewarded for their behavior. In the meantime, those who operate under the normal, traditional rules of rational discourse and proper etiquette find themselves increasingly silenced and shunted to the sidelines in order to make ample room and comfort for the loudest and least reasonable among us. Our pointy-headed elites send out to the world the message that the future belongs to those least willing to accept compromise and conciliation, and to those who are willing to undertake whatever means they think necessary to advance their cause.

Long ago, the West set foot on a path to a society in which decisions were made based on persuasion and discourse. A system based on persuasion and discourse requires, of course, that everyone (or at least the vast majority) in the group buys in to the game. Unfortunately, there have always been those who preferred to "short-circuit" the system and revert to more "medieval" methods of persuasion in order to get their way. After all, if those methods work, what's to keep them from being used to trump the system? Nothing at all save personal morality and conscience. As you might have noticed, these are often in short supply, particularly among the ranks of the world's terrorists and extortionists. Thus, in the absence of a serious and meaningful official response to violence (or the threat of violence), violence (or the threat of violence) will ultimately carry the day.

By Ragnar Danneskjold