Imagination

I believe that Westerners who do not think that Western civilization is under attack, suffer from a lack of imagination. It is incomprehensible to them that another culture wants their demise and destruction and death, simply for having a different opinion and different way of life. But, of course, human history is lousy with examples of exactly that.

The world is a 1000 piece puzzle, and any one person - based upon his life experiences and observations - sees clearly only one to three or four pieces. Arguments of the current state of affairs are largely useless if they are based upon these one to four pieces of the puzzle, because even the four-piece guy can have no clue what the overall picture of the puzzle is. Life must be lived forward, but can only be fully seen and understood after the fact, in retrospect. Understanding human nature, finding parallels between current events and history, and identifying the motives of the current players is the best way to chart trends and formulate strategy.