It’s a bit ironic that religious terrorists created such havoc in India the day before Thanksgiving.  I say ironic because Thanksgiving is a peaceful day … a family day … a day for counting one’s blessings.  The destruction and bloodshed in India just didn’t fit in with the spirit of the holiday season.

What made the contrast so vivid was that much of the coverage on our TV screens was given to us by Indian newscasters on Indian television.  It was a stark reminder that the world is now a very small place, a place where everyone is connected … global stock and bond markets … global business markets … global communications markets.

Taking full advantage of the invaluable gifts Great Britain left it with after plundering the country for nearly two hundred years (a highly educated work force, a language that makes it easy to communicate with the industrialized world, a good start on a modern infrastructure, and, above all, a democratic government that protects individual liberties and private property), India is rapidly moving toward becoming what America once was.

The fly in the Indian ointment is the clash of cultures, primarily between Hindus and Muslims.  That wasn’t supposed to happen.  Before giving India its independence in 1947, the British chopped off the northwest corner of the country, called it West Pakistan (now Pakistan), and handed it to the Muslims.  That was supposed to eliminate violent clashes between the Hindu and Muslim cultures.

The problem is that there are still 154 million Muslims in India, and, as everyone knows, Muslims aren’t real fond of Western style life.  Yesterday, radical elements among them sent a loud and clear message that they don’t intend to allow India to continue its evolution toward becoming a fully Westernized country.  The idea is to terrorize and intimidate India’s other 1 billion+ people into not becoming too chummy with the U.S. and its Western allies.

Bengladesh (known as East Pakistan until 1971), though its population is 90 percent Muslim, is said to be much more tolerant of other faiths than its former counterpart, Pakistan, a thousand miles to the West.  But cultural clashes between rival sects of the religion have caused a steady migration of Bangali Muslims into India.

I find the whole situation to be very sad, because India, sans its clash of cultures, could be mankind’s best hope for freedom in the coming decades.  As a group, Indians are highly intelligent, warm, friendly people.  While America continues its relentless march toward socialism, India continues to accelerate its march toward freedom and free markets.

But today I’m going to try not to think about the ramifications of what happened yesterday in India, about what’s happening to the once-proud culture of the United States, and about what an ugly sham our political system has become.

Instead, I’m going to relax and delude myself by pretending that I still live in the America of my youth.  Unfortunately, if you’re under fifty, you can’t possibly share that wonderful delusion with me, because you never experienced the real thing.

On this Thanksgiving day, I’m thankful for all the great Thanksgivings of years gone by, for all the good things I still have in my life, and for all that is still good in our shrinking, violent world.

Of course, people also deluded themselves in the good old Thanksgiving days.  They ignored the realities of the wars we lost, ignored the rapid growth of big government, and ignored the increasing dismantling of Western civilization’s values.

And India?  It wasn’t a real country.  It was just a fictional nation created by Hollywood – a fantasy you enjoyed watching on film.  Terrorists?  I don’t recall ever hearing the word when I was a kid.  It was a time of delicious naivete.

Oh, and one other thing I’m going to be thankful for today.  After seeing the The History Channel’s special on how turkeys are bred, raised, and slaughtered by the millions, I am, above all, thankful that I’m a human being and not a turkey.  It was almost enough to make one think about joining PETA.

But, not so fast.  Today I just want to enjoy a great turkey dinner.  I guess it’s human weakness, but my appetite always seems to rule the day.

With that, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a joyful Thanksgiving day that provides all of you with many wonderful memories.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 10:53 am and is filed under Ideology of Freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can comment below, or trackback from your own site.