The elephant in the room: western violence

Most westerners are peaceful, but western ideology groans under the weight of its own contradictions, as entreaties to freedom and equality are juxtaposed with imposition of values and war to install or maintain client regimes.

Those who gravitate to the wrathful policy of secular liberal states bring their own pathologies with them (e.g. George Bush Jnr, John Howard), which they then cloak in zealous piety. Apologists argue that those who use UN conventions and appeals to human rights to justify violence and war are not actually liberal; they represent anomalous abuses of power (worse apologists, like Sheehan et al, simply turn a blind eye to western violence).

But whilst it is correct to point that the difference between secular liberals and secular liberalism, it is no good to say that western violence has nothing to do with secular liberalism. Westerners must face their violent history, acknowledge the links between their values and the systemic violence these produce, and help to deal with the problem.

Modern westerners must be prepared to clearly acknowledge from where the evils, such as those mentioned above, have come. They must stand up openly against those otherwise well meaning westerners who will not do so. They must stand openly against the claims "extremist" policymakers make of a legitimate ideological basis for their depraved actions.

We need the non-Muslim community to energetically police itself. We need our fellow human beings who happen to be westerners - that vast majority of whom we are constantly assured just wish to live in peace - to aggressively root out the Obamas, Camerons and Gillards leading them. Condemning aggressive wars and protesting once in a while is not enough.

The secular liberal West is in need of more than a little housekeeping.

And those in-house must help.