The fall of Afghanistan

The fall of Kabul is nothing less than the end of Western domination over the East and the end of (post)modern times on our planet.

After 20 years of occupation the “West” has not managed to defend the “western values” of unlimited freedom for more than a few days. This means, we have to think fundamentally about our worldview.

The editor of Vienna’s FALTER, Armin Thurnher, writes about the fall of Afghanistan: “The Afghan paradox is an example that the majority of people apparently expect more from Islamists than from a western-backed, corrupt regime.”

This leads to the question: What does “western-backed” really mean?

We always talk about “western values”. What are these “western” values? The highest “western” value is freedom. But what does that mean?

Freedom is the state of freedom of choice, freedom is the state of freedom of decision. How can this be measured?

The freedom to choose from one alternative means coercion. The freedom to choose from two alternatives presents us with a dilemma. The freedom to choose from three alternatives gives us freedom. From the fourth alternative on it already leads to chaos.

The “freedom of choice” of the “West” has degenerated into the fact that you can choose from dozens of different types of yoghurt in our supermarkets and that we own hundreds of items of clothing. The “freedom of decision” is not increased by this, but on the contrary.

The West’s freedom of choice has wreaked chaos in Afghanistan. In the end, the Afghans only had the choice between chaos and coercion. The almost infinite alternatives of the West were weighed against the Taliban’s lack of alternatives. Chaos has capitulated in Afghanistan, coercion has triumphed.

If unlimited freedom also means that the richer one can take what he wants, then human rights are trampled underfoot. The failure of the richest leaves the poorest helpless. In the case of Afghanistan, as always, these are the children, especially the girls. Their unbelievably sad fate is beyond words today.

What can we learn from this? Freedom has limits and dissolves itself. With Friedrich August von Hayek, the mercilessly self-righteous theorist of freedom, the US dollar, the currency of freedom, was also sunk in the swamp of its corruption in Afghanistan. Two trillion (!) US dollars resulted in 120,000 deaths. Otherwise nothing, nothing at all.

There is no such thing as unlimited freedom; it inevitably turns into its diabolical opposite. The “West” has plunged Afghanistan into complete chaos in its excessiveness. Now Afghanistan is reigned by coercion. Europe would be well advised to find a middle ground. Maybe we can save at least our own children.

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