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LadyEllen -> RE: Those resisting Islamic control (8/15/2010 7:47:31 AM)
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Interesting article Hunky - what a good thing that Christians never behaved like that eh? Whether in Europe or in later imperialist expansions.
What this, along with similar instances throughout history shows us is that if one can generate an ideology in which all things are either right and good or wrong and bad, (or black and white if you prefer), that such an ideology is not only very attractive indeed to the human species, the majority of which dislike the greys of reality and the chore of thinking for themselves, but also extremely effective, through its simple appeal to a mass audience and its utter conviction of righteousness and good, in bringing about great worldly success at the expense of those whom one has deemed wrong and bad.
The problem we face is not Islam - though to be sure Islam carries many aspects of the above, as does Christianity, naziism, communism and any other like "black and white" ideology. The problem we face is that at least 2/3 of every member of our species is lazy, stupid, spiteful and arrogant, and thus fertile ground for whatever "black and white" ideology might present itself.
In times past, no more than a few centuries ago, we in the west got lucky when a curious confluence of factors entered our culture, producing the notion of individual rights and freedoms, democracy and notably, considering our audience, the Constitution of the US and eventually (after a great deal of resistance on the part of black and white adherents), the concept of human rights - which are utterly at odds with black and white thinking whereby there must always be a right and good way, practised by the right and good, and everything and everyone else which must be wrong and bad and destroyed.
More recently however I see our western, liberal culture under threat - not by Islam itself but by a turning away from the values and ideals that came to the fore in the 18th century and made steady progress until late in the 20th. The denigration of educational achievement, the focus on material success at all costs, the celebration of the worst aspects of society, the portrayal of work ethic as something for "losers", the dragging down of culture to the lowest common denominators, the assertion that "there is no such thing as society" and that "my rights trump all others'" and the belief, held most earnestly by many, that being a celebrity or winning the lottery is an inevitability for them - these all demonstrate to me a decline in our culture which taken alongside the perversion of universal human rights that holds every attitude, action and result to be of equal value must spell our doom when confronted with any black and white ideology that arises or enters into our presence. We have no answer - like the Indians in the article we cannot stand united and cannot resist and so shall fall.
The paradox is that in order to have any chance of defending ourselves from black and white ideologies, of defending our liberal, human rights based, democratic and open ideology, we should have to make of it a black and white ideology that might unite us and enable us to resist. We must give up some of that individualism that makes our culture what it is in order to bring about a commonality of identity and purpose that clearly states "this far, and no further" - whatever the ideology that threatens us.
E
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