Transcript [00:00] Hey everyone, I want to share a few [00:02] clips, a few excerpts from an interview [00:05] at the ARC conference in London that [00:07] took place last week. And in this clip, [00:10] Konstantin Kissin is interviewing Ayaan [00:14] Hirsi Ali. And if you don't know Ayaan [00:15] Hirsi Ali's story, I've talked about her [00:17] on this channel before. She escaped a [00:20] forced marriage. She grew up in Somalia. [00:22] She grew up under both Islamism and a [00:25] kind of tribal authoritarianism in [00:27] Somalia. And she became one of the most [00:30] important voices in the West on what [00:32] civilization actually requires to [00:35] function. And one of the greatest voices [00:37] warning the West about the dangers of [00:40] Islamism that is encroaching on all of [00:42] our societies. And what struck me about [00:44] this conversation is that [00:47] she's describing [00:48] in very like [00:50] simple [00:52] language from lived experience, [00:55] something that I've been talking about [00:56] on this channel. [00:57] I've gotten away from it in the last few [00:59] weeks when we've been really in the [01:00] weeds of the Middle East, but I want to [01:02] get back to it. [01:03] Um [01:05] and there's one moment in one of these [01:07] clips, I think it's in the second clip, [01:09] where she basically describes the very [01:11] essence of what humanity is according to [01:13] the Bible, even though she doesn't say [01:15] it that way. [01:16] And it goes all the way back to the [01:18] Garden of Eden in Genesis, as I will [01:20] explain. So, there's going to be a [01:21] little bit of a Bible study in this [01:22] video as well. So, I want to walk you [01:24] through a few clips. We're going to do [01:26] three clips and my comments on them. So, [01:28] stick around for the whole thing. All [01:30] right, here we go. Let's pull up the [01:32] first clip. [01:35] Uh [01:36] bear with me. Little [01:39] Here we go. Clip one. [01:43] >> Um [01:44] as I lived in the Netherlands, I became [01:47] acquainted with the concept of church or [01:49] religion. And people would worship [01:53] God freely. And if they didn't want to [01:55] worship, they didn't want they didn't [01:57] worship. I didn't have that choice [01:58] growing up. Uh I had to worship and [02:02] every [02:03] my relationship with God was centered [02:05] around fear. [02:06] Um schools [02:08] again, very impressed with the concept [02:11] that school was really for imparting [02:13] knowledge and forming character. Uh in [02:16] both communism and Islamism, school [02:18] really was for indoctrinating children. [02:20] Um really stealing, kidnapping other [02:22] people's children, and indoctrinating [02:23] them. [02:24] Um I remember I was a translator [02:26] interpreter and I remember translating [02:28] for um [02:30] you know, in many different [02:32] institutions, one of them was a school. [02:34] And the Somali child had beaten the [02:36] Dutch child and the Dutch teacher was [02:38] trying to explain to the Somali mother, [02:41] "Your child cannot do this." And she [02:42] said, "But I did say to him, hit him if [02:45] he teases you or if, you know, some [02:47] child bothers you." [02:49] And that for me put on a crucible the [02:51] the country and the societies that I [02:53] came from where [02:56] you use boots brutal strength, violence, [02:59] to stop someone else from being violent. [03:01] And the Dutch teacher explained and said [03:03] there are other ways of doing things. [03:05] Um to move very quickly [03:08] small businesses. [03:10] Um [03:11] people sold and bought things and freely [03:14] and you know, again, I know there were [03:15] lots of complaints in the Netherlands [03:17] about [03:18] uh [03:19] the [03:21] not just the existence of small [03:22] businesses, but how they do. But I just [03:24] remember the little shops, the little [03:26] kiosks that we had in Mogadishu and [03:28] Ethiopia, everywhere where I was. [03:30] Um they lived in terror of the state. [03:33] People would come and take their stock. [03:35] If [03:36] their goods were stolen, [03:38] you know, you didn't call a policeman [03:40] because a policeman was not someone you [03:41] trusted. It was he represented the state [03:44] and that was someone you feared. And I [03:46] thought it was astonishing for me living [03:47] in the Netherlands to find a policeman [03:49] that you called for help who had [03:53] >> Okay, we'll pause it there. [03:58] So, notice what she's describing. Again, [04:00] she grew up under both Islamism and [04:02] Marxism. [04:04] Cuz that's what Somalia was [04:06] or is. [04:08] And she's not just talking about good [04:10] institutions versus bad institutions, [04:12] right? She's it's it You know, think [04:14] about the construct. What she's talking [04:16] about the schools and about the police [04:19] and about the way the system works. [04:22] So, I've talked about this before. [04:23] There's [04:25] do we order society? Is power and [04:27] authority in society bottom-up or [04:29] top-down? [04:32] Right? In [04:35] in a in a free society that believes in [04:39] like what we like [04:41] you know, a free country where citizens [04:43] have rights, that's where power stems [04:45] from. [04:47] So, in in the civilization she escaped [04:49] to, the West, the policeman exists to [04:52] protect you. The school exists to [04:54] develop you. [04:56] Authority [04:58] whatever that whatever authority is, [05:01] it's an instrument that exists for the [05:03] sake of the individual and and it [05:05] receives its authority, it receives its [05:07] power from the individual citizens. [05:11] The individual has worth that comes [05:13] before the institution and outranks it. [05:18] In the civilization she escaped from, [05:20] that's inverted. [05:23] I want to I want to be precise about [05:25] this. [05:26] See, Islamism and communism [05:29] get to the same place through two [05:31] different routes. [05:34] But they end up in the same place [05:36] functionally. [05:38] Okay, I'm actually doing some writing on [05:39] this. Hopefully, it's going to turn into [05:40] a book. I'll keep you guys updated as [05:42] that progresses. [05:45] But think about this. [05:46] Track with me here. Islam means [05:49] submission. The whole structure of Islam [05:52] is that the individual submits to the [05:54] will of Allah. It's not a covenant. [05:58] Okay? It's a submission. [06:00] And in practice [06:01] uh you're That means you're also [06:03] submitting to whoever's interpreting and [06:05] enforcing the will of Allah here on [06:07] Earth. The individual doesn't have [06:08] independent standing. [06:10] His role is to comply. [06:13] So, of course, school exists to [06:16] to [06:18] to teach compliance, basically, to [06:19] indoctrinate rather than develop. The [06:21] child isn't there to become himself. [06:25] He's there to become a properly [06:26] submitted, compliant servant of the [06:29] system. [06:31] Of course, the policeman isn't there to [06:33] protect you. He's also He's there to [06:34] enforce compliance, right? Marxism gets [06:37] to the same place through different [06:39] reasoning. There's no submission to a [06:40] divine will, cuz they're atheists, but [06:43] there's a submission to to history, to [06:45] the collective. You are not You're You [06:48] You're subsumed in the goals of the [06:50] collective. You don't have individual [06:51] free choice about how you're going to [06:53] live your life. [06:54] The revolution. [06:56] The cause. The individual is not the [06:59] basic unit that matters. That's not [07:01] where authority derives from. That's not [07:03] where power derives from. It doesn't [07:04] derive bottom up. It's top down. The [07:07] class, the party, the cause, that's what [07:09] matters. The individual is only valuable [07:11] to the extent that he serves those those [07:13] things. [07:15] So, again, the school exists to produce [07:16] a usable instrument of the system. The [07:18] policeman exists to protect the state, [07:20] not you. [07:22] It's two complete So, there's two [07:23] completely different metaphysics here [07:25] between Marxism and Islam. [07:29] One's explicitly atheist, and the other [07:31] one is, you know, [07:33] Allah. [07:35] But they land at the exact same [07:37] structure. [07:39] Architecture, if you will. The [07:41] individual exists to serve the system, [07:43] not the other way around. And this is [07:46] This is not a minor cultural difference [07:48] between our civilization and theirs. [07:51] It's the difference between a [07:52] civilization that believes that every [07:53] person bears the image of God and [07:56] therefore has a worth as an inherent [07:58] worth that no system can assign or [08:00] revoke and has has a has a relation as [08:03] an individual relationship to that God, [08:05] a covenantal relationship that implies [08:08] responsibility on both sides. [08:12] Right? That's That's the biblical model. [08:16] And then you have the Marxism and Islam [08:19] that for different reasons believe that [08:20] the individual is [08:22] raw material that is meant to submit to [08:25] something bigger [08:27] than himself. [08:29] Right? To the cause and is not [08:31] significant as an individual. [08:34] All right. Let's go to clip number two. [08:35] I hope that made some sense. Let's go to [08:37] clip number two. Here we go. [08:39] >> When I lived in Somalia and in Saudi [08:41] Arabia and in Ethiopia and all of these [08:43] places and we sat down and we asked [08:45] ourselves, [08:46] "Why is life so terrible? What are we [08:49] getting wrong?" [08:50] We used to scapegoat freely. It's the [08:52] Jews who did it. [08:54] It's the Westerners who did it. It [08:56] Something was always happening to us as [08:58] a collective. We never took individual [09:00] responsibility because we weren't [09:02] allowed to be individuals. Here you have [09:04] a society that nurtures the individual [09:08] and you become an individual, you become [09:11] responsible, you are held accountable [09:13] and we build institutions that's um [09:17] >> [laughter] [09:18] >> that are geared towards this and I think [09:21] that it's time now to rescue our [09:23] institutions from these bad ideas. [09:27] >> Okay. [09:29] This is [09:32] This is the clip I want to spend the [09:34] most time on. [09:36] Um I think [09:38] that here I and her C L E just gave us [09:40] without knowing us without knowing it, [09:43] sorry, [09:44] the best modern illustration of the [09:47] oldest story in the Bible. Listen to [09:49] what she said. She says, "We never took [09:51] individual responsibility [09:53] because we weren't allowed to be [09:54] individuals, so we went so we went to [09:56] scapegoating." [09:58] Blaming others, right? Blaming the Jews, [10:00] blaming the West, right? Blaming the [10:02] oppressor, blaming the rich, blaming, [10:04] right? [10:05] Something was always happening to you, [10:07] to them, right? Nothing that they [10:09] weren't choosing. [10:12] Now, I want to take you back to Genesis [10:14] chapter 3, and that's the that's the [10:15] chapter of the sin in the Garden of [10:17] Eden, the original sin as as it's often [10:19] called. [10:21] Now, right after they eat from the tree, [10:23] God confronts Adam. [10:25] And he says, "Did you eat from the tree [10:26] that I told you not to eat from?" Now, [10:28] Adam doesn't say, "Yes, [10:31] I did this." He doesn't just say it like [10:32] that. [10:33] He doesn't deny it, but he doesn't say, [10:35] "Yes, I did this." He's He says, in [10:37] effect, [10:39] "Hey, the woman that you gave me gave it [10:40] to me." He blames her. [10:44] And then when God turns to the woman, [10:46] she says, "Well, the serpent It was the [10:47] serpent. [10:49] It was the snake that that, you know, [10:51] that that convinced me." [10:53] Meaning, neither of them takes [10:54] responsibility. [10:58] Think about that. [10:59] That's their reaction. [11:01] And I believe that that's key to the [11:02] whole sin. The sin isn't just that they [11:04] ate. The sin isn't that they did not [11:05] take responsibility, and that has to do [11:07] with the punishments they get. I'll get [11:08] to that in a minute. [11:10] But each of them, Adam and Eve, each [11:12] finds someone else to blame. And she's [11:13] not even called Eve yet. She's called [11:15] the woman at that point. [11:17] And now I I want to add a piece to this [11:20] that most people, including most people [11:22] who know the Bible, never really notice [11:25] or think about. [11:27] Genesis chapter 2, [11:29] which comes right before the sin. That [11:32] is Genesis chapter 2 is what we call the [11:34] second creation story where you have [11:36] uh [11:37] you have Adam being created and then God [11:38] says it's not good for him to be alone. [11:41] And and then does that whole thing where [11:43] he he takes out the the tsela which is [11:45] usually translated as his rib [11:48] uh and creates the woman and brings the [11:50] woman to Adam. That's Genesis chapter 2. [11:53] But Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis [11:54] chapter 3, chapter 3 is the sin and the [11:57] punishments for the sin [12:01] are di- we have them as two different [12:03] chapters. [12:05] But that division into two different [12:06] chapters is a Christian textual [12:09] convention. The the Christians who [12:10] divided up the chapter numbers that we [12:12] all use, Jews as well, [12:15] ag- it was [12:17] that's how they're the ones who chose [12:18] the chapters. [12:21] But if you look in the Hebrew Masoretic [12:23] text, if you look in a Torah scroll [12:26] where it's just how it was originally [12:27] written and there's spaces periodically, [12:31] and those spaces are not just chapter [12:33] divisions but often divisions based on [12:35] subject or there's various reasons for [12:37] those. [12:39] But certainly at a chapter break you're [12:40] going to have a space. [12:42] There's no space [12:44] between those two narratives, between [12:46] the creation of Adam and Eve and the [12:48] sin. It's all chap- what we call Genesis [12:51] 2 and Genesis 3 are all one continuous [12:56] passage [12:58] in a Torah scroll. [12:59] There's no break between these two [13:01] stories [13:04] in the original text. [13:06] So think about that. That means that the [13:08] creation of Adam and Eve [13:11] with the rib and all that, bringing Eve [13:13] to the man, and then the sin after it is [13:15] all one story which is introduced with [13:18] the line [13:19] that this is the story of the creation [13:22] of man, [13:23] which is [13:25] chapter 2 verse 4 because the first [13:27] three verses of chapter 2 are about the [13:29] Sabbath. They really belong at the end [13:31] of chapter 1. That's a different [13:32] subject. Let's keep it simple. [13:34] The story of the creation of Adam and [13:36] Eve [13:37] and the story of the sin in an original [13:39] text of the Bible [13:41] are actually one continuous story. [13:44] Why is that important? [13:47] I think it's huge. [13:49] Because [13:50] the way most people read the story is [13:53] that [13:54] man was created perfect. [13:57] And then there was this [13:59] tragic fall. [14:02] An interruption of something that was [14:04] complete. [14:06] But if you read it as one unbroken unit, [14:08] what you realize is that the sin [14:11] was not an interruption of the creation [14:13] story. [14:14] It's written as part of the creation [14:16] story. [14:19] It's the conclusion of the creation of [14:21] man. [14:24] And look and look what happens at the [14:25] very end of that account. Adam names his [14:28] wife. She's initially called Isha, [14:31] woman. [14:32] But then only after the sin and after [14:34] the punishments does Adam give her a new [14:37] name and she now is called Hava, Eve, [14:40] which in the in the text it says because [14:42] she's now because she is the mother of [14:45] all life, the mother of all life. She's [14:47] for the first time it refers to the [14:49] procreation of to to reproduction, to [14:53] being a mother. [14:55] To them being parents. Before that [14:57] moment throughout the entire story, [14:58] she's simply called Isha. [15:01] So the name mother of all life, the name [15:02] that marks her as a fully realized human [15:05] being who can now generate and nurture [15:08] the next generation only comes after the [15:10] sin, after the confrontation, after [15:12] they're forced to face what they did, [15:14] take responsibility for it, feel ashamed [15:17] for it. [15:18] You only feel ashamed if you're Shame is [15:20] the beginning of taking responsibility. [15:22] It means you recognize what you did [15:23] wrong. [15:25] So in other words, let me let me let me [15:27] sum this up. You'll see where I'm going [15:29] here. [15:31] Man and woman are not finished fully [15:33] formed human beings [15:35] when they're created at the beginning of [15:37] Genesis 2. [15:39] They only become finished fully formed [15:41] human beings where they become Adam and [15:43] Hava, [15:45] mother of all life, [15:46] ready for parenthood, ready to build a [15:48] family, ready to build a future. They [15:50] only reach that point once they have [15:53] passed through [15:55] this crucible, this test of choosing, [15:59] failing, [16:01] being [snorts] ashamed, suffering the [16:03] consequences, taking responsibility. [16:07] That all is what happens in the sin [16:08] scene. [16:10] Responsibility isn't a lesson tacked [16:13] onto the creation story. [16:15] It's not afterwards. Responsibility it [16:18] is is part of the creation story. That's [16:20] where the human being is fully formed. [16:23] I know this is different than the [16:24] standard Christian way of understanding [16:26] original sin. [16:29] But I'm That's what's in the text. [16:32] And what I and Herschel Lee is [16:33] describing [16:35] is that same concept. That the avoidance [16:38] of responsibility, what we see Adam and [16:39] Eve doing at the beginning and God [16:41] rebukes them and God gives them [16:42] punishments and he gives them [16:43] responsibility. [16:47] Think about the punishments. Eve's [16:49] punishment is that, you know, if you [16:50] give in to desires, if you bring the man [16:52] into giving into desires, [16:55] you're going to be in a compromised [16:56] situation and you're and there's going [16:57] to be pain and suffering that you go [16:59] through. You're going to be weakened. [17:00] You're going to have burdens as a result [17:02] of that. [17:03] The pain and suffering of childbirth. [17:06] Think of what Adam is given. [17:08] Oh, you're going to have to be a [17:09] responsible person. You're going to have [17:10] to You're going to have to work for a [17:11] living. You're going to have to be able [17:12] to support her. [17:14] They They now have responsibilities. [17:18] And there's now [17:20] And there's now trials and tribulations [17:22] and suffering that goes along with [17:24] responsibility. [17:26] And that's what civilization is built [17:28] on. [17:33] And they're individuals. [17:35] The Bible begins with individuals who [17:38] have to take responsibility. [17:40] Collectivist systems, whether it's [17:43] in you know [17:45] Islamist or communist [17:48] like like what Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up [17:50] with they give you a permanent exit from [17:54] taking responsibility. As she said, she [17:57] said, "We never took responsibility cuz [17:58] there's always a bigger force to blame. [18:00] You can blame your class position, you [18:02] can blame the colonizers, the infidels, [18:05] the will of Allah, which you only have [18:07] to submit to, you have no you have no [18:09] you don't reason about it." [18:12] Right? In the Bible, Moses and and [18:14] Abraham argue with God, right? You you [18:17] don't argue with Allah. [18:19] The difference between biblical [18:21] civilization and the systems that Ayaan [18:23] Hirsi Ali lived under is what happens [18:26] in the Bible. That the instinct to blame [18:30] is not accepted by God. They blame [18:33] others, God rejects that. And he gives [18:36] them these consequences that force [18:38] responsibility [18:41] that they were trying to avoid. And once [18:43] they've accepted responsibility, now [18:45] they are they now they can be parents. [18:48] Now the woman becomes Hava, mother of [18:51] all life. [18:53] Right? And that's the [18:55] the creation of the human being a mature [18:58] human being worthy of the term human [19:00] being, worthy of being responsible and [19:02] making choices [19:03] is now fully complete because they [19:05] understand consequences and [19:07] responsibility. It's like a kid growing [19:09] up. If you have a kid that never has [19:11] messed up and has never suffered [19:13] consequences doesn't understand [19:14] responsibility. Yeah, they're pure and [19:16] pristine, but they but they're not you [19:19] know that they're not really ready for [19:20] life. [19:24] So, communism and Islamism never get [19:27] past the blame stage. Their whole thing [19:29] is based on it. They institutionalize [19:31] it. The Jews did it. The West did it. [19:33] The infidels did it. The the you know, [19:37] the rich did it. [19:40] There's always a bigger force and the [19:42] individual never has to become [19:45] um [19:46] responsible. [19:48] Because the system never makes you take [19:49] responsibility. [19:51] You have an enemy who's at fault. [19:53] Biblical civilization [19:57] um [19:59] insists [20:00] that you are not just reacting to forces [20:04] around you. You are a soul. You choose. [20:07] You're accountable. [20:10] And it's only by embracing that [20:11] accountability, not by avoiding it, that [20:14] you become a complete human being. [20:16] So, what I'm pointing to is that what [20:18] she's pointing out in terms of the [20:19] difference between how authority was [20:21] viewed and responsibility and [20:22] individuality, how all of that is viewed [20:25] in these communist and and and Muslim [20:28] cultures is speaking to something very [20:30] very deep. The biblical foundations of [20:33] Western civilization are what give us [20:35] our whole concept [20:37] of responsibility, of accountability, of [20:39] individuality, [20:41] of how society is ordered at a very very [20:43] comprehensive level. It goes far beyond [20:45] what we call religion. [20:47] Okay, well, let's do one more clip [20:49] from this. Uh this will be let's find [20:51] clip number three. [20:55] >> [snorts] [20:56] >> Here we go. Clip number three. [20:59] >> The Christian story the the Western [21:01] civilization story has the remedy for [21:04] that. It is built into the system. Uh [21:06] there was someone I'm blanking on his [21:09] name right now, but who did write about [21:11] once upon a time we used to fear God and [21:14] now we've come to fear, [21:16] you know, and fill in the blanks. Um, [21:19] and I think to go back to that fear of [21:21] God, we were checked by these biblical [21:25] truths. We were checked by, you know, in [21:28] into every institution some form of [21:30] accountability was built into it. [21:33] And what we did was we removed these [21:35] layers of accountability by labeling [21:38] them white supremacist structures that [21:40] had to go. [21:42] And slowly shifted towards [21:44] >> You're my favorite white supremacist, by [21:45] the way. [21:48] >> [laughter] [21:49] >> They've been calling me white [21:50] supremacist for a long time. [21:52] >> Um, [laughter] but if accountability is [21:55] white supremacy and if individual [21:57] responsibility is white supremacy, then [22:00] I want to be a white supremacist. But [22:02] obviously that's not what it is. It is [22:04] all these accusations is blithe, [22:07] >> Mhm. [22:07] >> you know, uh, superficial accusations [22:10] um, have been found to be effective. [22:13] They work on you. And if you respond to [22:15] it, then it becomes easy to smuggle in [22:17] these bad ideas and you can have no [22:20] pushback. And I think self-criticism, [22:23] the critical thinking, [22:25] um, the self-reflection, [22:27] um, the accountability, the [22:28] responsibility, these are the pillars, [22:31] um, [22:32] that uh, [22:33] made the West different and I think [22:35] anytime you take you make the unit, [22:39] um, of well-being, you shift it away [22:41] from the individual to the group, you [22:43] are going to have problems and [22:47] >> Wow, so powerful. [22:50] I really uh, I think you should go you [22:51] should find the whole thing. It's [22:52] online. [22:54] I had her say Lee Constant Kise at the [22:55] Arc conference, ARC, in London. You [22:57] should watch the whole clip. [23:01] Um, [23:03] I want you to notice what she does here. [23:04] She She [23:06] She doesn't refer to Western values. She [23:08] refers to biblical truths. [23:11] Not liberal values, biblical truths. [23:15] She makes a joke about being called a [23:16] white supremacist for believing in [23:18] accountability and individual [23:19] responsibility. Now, it's funny, [23:22] but I actually want to unpack why that [23:24] accusation exists because, you know, [23:27] it's [23:28] it's not just an insult. Oh, you're a [23:30] white supremacist when you insist on [23:32] accountability. [23:34] There's actually a recognition in that [23:36] insult, [23:37] in that accusation, even if it's [23:39] hostile, of exactly the thing that this [23:42] whole video has been about, that I'm [23:43] talking about in this video. If your [23:45] worldview says [23:48] How do I put this? If your worldview [23:49] says that the individual is not really [23:52] the basic moral unit, [23:54] that the real units [23:56] that matter are groups, classes, [24:00] where you are on the oppressor versus [24:02] oppressed, [24:05] um [24:07] you know, where you are in that [24:08] structure, [24:10] then the idea that you personally are [24:12] responsible for your choices [24:15] is a threat to that system. Because if I [24:17] can hold you individually accountable, [24:20] I can no longer explain your failures as [24:22] purely, you know, purely in terms of the [24:24] system [24:26] that produced you. Individual [24:28] responsibility is a threat to the entire [24:32] Marxist [24:35] And when I say Marxist, I'm talking also [24:36] about neo-Marxism and all of this woke [24:38] stuff, right? I'm a threat to that [24:40] entire construct. I'm a threat and and [24:42] Islam also sees it as a threat. [24:47] Right? Individual responsibility breaks [24:49] that narrative. [24:52] That that the narrative that everything [24:54] bad that happens to you [24:56] is really the fault of structures, [24:59] history, power, or even everything bad [25:01] that you do is the fault of structures, [25:04] of history, of power [25:06] of others. [25:07] It puts [25:09] and when we talk about individual [25:10] responsibility, putting the moral [25:12] the moral weight back on you, the [25:14] individual [25:16] I mean, that's a threat to that whole [25:17] system. [25:19] So, when accountability gets relabeled [25:23] or it gets called white supremacy, [25:24] what's actually happening is there's a [25:26] there's an attack [25:28] on the one trait that makes [25:30] self-government [25:32] self-correction, introspection, and [25:35] civilizational growth possible. The [25:38] willingness to say I was wrong, the [25:40] willingness to take responsibility. This [25:41] brings us back to Genesis 3. [25:44] Once you've convinced people that asking [25:46] what did I do wrong and how do I fix it [25:48] is itself [25:50] a uh [25:51] uh you know, oh, that's a [25:53] that's like that [25:55] that's a white supremacist way of [25:56] thinking. [25:58] Crazy or or it's [26:00] or it's or it's you know, it's it's a [26:02] biblical [26:04] idea that's being imposed on you. [26:09] So, then you you've you're back at the [26:11] blame game. [26:13] The blame shifting [26:15] that she describes that she experienced [26:17] in uh growing up in the Muslim and and [26:19] and Marxist world. [26:22] It's it's the woman blaming the serpent [26:24] and the man blaming the woman and [26:26] blaming God for giving her him the [26:27] woman. [26:30] The serpent deceived me. [26:32] The system The system constructed me. I [26:35] was forced into this. It's not my fault. [26:38] The people put around me, the people [26:40] that God put around me, the people uh [26:42] the system around me is what forced me [26:44] to behave this way. [26:46] That's what's happening there when, you [26:48] know, in the blame game in Genesis 3. [26:52] It's an exit from responsibility. [26:55] So, Ayaan Hirsi Ali Hirsi Ali talks [26:58] about what's been under attack. [27:00] Self-criticism, critical thinking, [27:02] self-reflection, accountability, [27:04] individual responsibility. These are as [27:07] she says are the pillars that make the [27:09] West different. [27:14] But but they're not just Western values, [27:16] right? They are the fruit of a specific [27:20] theological, [27:22] biblical claim [27:24] about what a human being is. [27:27] That you are you are a a a a soul in the [27:30] image of God, you choose, and you are [27:33] accountable. [27:36] But if you take that away, then you lose [27:38] all the pillars of the society. So, you [27:40] know, there's [27:41] it's fascinating that that in that that [27:44] Marxists and Islamists [27:46] reject both of them for different [27:48] reasons reject [27:50] the Bible [27:51] as the key document that underpins [27:53] civilization. [27:55] It's fascinating. [27:57] So, here's what I want you to take away [27:58] from this. Ayaan Hirsi Ali [28:00] lived in these two systems [28:02] that strip the individual of [28:04] responsibility and bury the individual [28:07] in the collective. [28:08] She lived in a [28:10] and then she lived in a third system. [28:11] She lived in the West. [28:14] The biblically founded West [28:17] that insists that you are an individual [28:20] who chooses. [28:22] You're not just pushed around by forces [28:24] bigger than you or defined by them. [28:28] And this is Genesis. This is the Bible. [28:31] This is the oldest story we have. [28:34] And it's still the truest one. [28:36] Anyway, hope you found this useful. [28:39] Hope you found it interesting. I hope it [28:40] was uh enlightening to you in some way. [28:44] Um [28:45] Let me know what you think of this. [28:46] Little different than a lot of the [28:47] geopolitical stuff we do here, but I [28:50] these are topics that we need to talk [28:51] about. I'd like to get back to doing [28:53] them more. Let me know your thoughts [28:56] on this. All right, God bless.
