On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his most famous speech. The location was the civil war battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – about 100 miles east of the Shanksville Pennsylvania field where Todd Beamer led the battle for United flight 93 that ended 138 years later. And today, these words of President Lincoln will be echoed in New York City, Shanksville, Washington DC and across America:
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Two years later, and for the benefit of humanity, the American Civil War ended with a hard-fought victory for the North. But to the detriment of humanity, the war by the savages to end civilization has not ended in victory for the West.
Lincoln and General Sherman did not appease the enemy. They understood the nature and purpose of war. It is bad, really bad – and it must be won, decisively and quickly. Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden do not understand the nature and purpose of war. As a result, they appease and subsidize the enemies of civilization.
However, nearly no one in America understands the nature and purpose of civilization. Most people have a vague understanding of it, something like: treating others with decency with courts to settle disputes and police to defend people from violence, But to define “civilization” explicitly is another matter. To help in that regard, philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand gave us a concise and coherent definition:
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
Fortunately for me, the people working in World Trade Center Tower Two, and every freedom loving American (citizenship not required), there is one man among many men and women who deserve to be honored today. Rick Rescorla, head of security at Morgan Stanley, understood the meaning and purpose of civilization – and he understood the purpose and the means of the savages.
Twenty-five years ago, I was employed by Morgan Stanley in Cincinnati, Ohio and I had five trainees among hundreds on the 62nd floor of Tower Two (north tower) when the first plane hit the south tower. In total, Morgan Stanley had about 2000 employees on 22 floors of Tower Two and WTC Five. All but nine got out in one piece. Rescorla was one of the nine and last seen going up to help clear the building.
Back in Cincinnati, we didn’t know any more than anyone else. When the first plane struck, it seemed like a horrible accident. My branch manager said all that needed to be said at the time, “This is really bad.” He had been at the World Trade Center for the 1993 bombing by these Muslim savages. When the second plane hit, there was nothing to say, we knew it: this was war.
Then my branch manager said the only other thing that needed to be said, “The New York City police and fire departments are the best in the world. Go home.” I stayed for a few hours and took a few phone calls from the parents of the trainees in New York. We were hoping for the best, but there was no communication from the City. Fortunately, someone in the Midwest region was able to reach the head of the training department at the Midtown hotel and relay messages. All of the trainees had all found their way back. Rick Rescorla had taken care of us.
Certainly, there are many thousands of stories more compelling than mine - and the point of this article is to do justice to the concepts of civilization, war, individualism and savages.
If civilization is “the process of setting men free from men,” then it stands to reason that war is the process of savagery inflicted on men. And it is. War is the total absence of civilization. Yet, if you are civilized, you will inflict savagery on those who initiate war because it is the last resort that must be prosecuted with resolve. The good news is that the real savages are cowards.
Yet the appeasers and subsidizers of the savages think of war as a tool for diplomacy. It is not. They think of their adversaries as reasonable. They are not. The culture of the savages demands deception, they are impotent without the cooperation of their victims - and they know it. They worship death, and they know the West chooses life, so they exploit that.
However, a true individualist has reverence for his or her own life - and reverence for the potential of each life and for civilized society. So, what is it about the savages that Western culture does not understand? Moreover, what is about Western culture that is similar to the culture of the savages? Finally, what does it mean to be savage? Put simply, the savage will force your sacrifice to them and Western culture has deemed self-sacrifice a virtue.
In summary, savages use evil to pull humanity below the line where good and evil do not exist. Their goal is to extinguish free will and eradicate independence. For them, that will be achieved by force leading to faith in the worship of death. And in the West, the goal is political power over economic power. For us, that will be achieved by force leading to faith in the worship of the greater good. The greater good or death, suicide or murder. Take your pick.
The consequences of that are real. One major political party in America now welcomes and champions the keffiyeh wearing Muslim savages that own the mayor’s offices in New York City and Dearborn Michigan. So, how do we go about setting men free from men? Where does that begin? With each individual taking ownership of their lives and building on their own virtues of integrity and independence.
In other words, rational principles and reverence for your own life as your primary value - at all costs. And for guidance and inspiration, this kind of reverence was exalted dramatically through the character of Kira Argounova in Ayn Rand’s first novel, We the Living:
“A moment or an eternity, did it matter? Life, undefeated, existed and could exist.”
Never surrendering, Rick Resorla, Todd Beamer and countless other American heroes at Ground Zero lived undefeated. They refused to sacrifice themselves. At that moment and for eternity, only life mattered.
