First Observation
We live in interesting times, which, according to what is probably an urban legend of sorts, is the result of an old Chinese curse. Perhaps we have been cursed by China, perhaps not. I regard myself as blessed so long as I'm not being chased down the street by machine gun-toting irregulars.
Anyway, since September 11, 2001, we Americans have been engaged in dealing with the world in ways we never imagined before.
Well, not quite. Ever since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, I and many others have thought that the kind of terrorism emanating from the Middle East and Muslim world was going to become an ever-larger item on the Western agenda. Along with the overt complaints about Israel and Western policies, the fact that for most, if not all of its history, Europe and the formerly Christian West have been for Islam a kind of unsolved problem (the Battle of Tours being regarded as a temporary setback), means that there is a significant slice of humanity that regards the West as somehow illegitimate.
But the West's own narcissism has blinded it to the challenge it faces. And the Western Left's critique has been anything but constructive. Rather than extending and rectifying the rough edges of Western culture, the Left has too often turned against its own benefactor (where did freedom of speech come from? Where did academic freedom come from? Etc.)
Now, since much of the current material well-being of the entire species was spawned in the West, the challenge the West currently faces (even if many if not most in the West cannot seem to understand that they are in fact being challenged), is critical for the whole world. Of course, I'm assuming that material well-being is a good (see my following economic postings, TBA).
This is not to say that there is a zero-sum and only a zero-sum solution to the current conflict, but it is to say that mere recognition of the conflict is necessary. And it is necessary, too, to acknowledge that mere self-criticism in the style of the Western Left is only to surrender (which would in fact be a zero-sum solution).
More on this anon....
Anyway, since September 11, 2001, we Americans have been engaged in dealing with the world in ways we never imagined before.
Well, not quite. Ever since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, I and many others have thought that the kind of terrorism emanating from the Middle East and Muslim world was going to become an ever-larger item on the Western agenda. Along with the overt complaints about Israel and Western policies, the fact that for most, if not all of its history, Europe and the formerly Christian West have been for Islam a kind of unsolved problem (the Battle of Tours being regarded as a temporary setback), means that there is a significant slice of humanity that regards the West as somehow illegitimate.
But the West's own narcissism has blinded it to the challenge it faces. And the Western Left's critique has been anything but constructive. Rather than extending and rectifying the rough edges of Western culture, the Left has too often turned against its own benefactor (where did freedom of speech come from? Where did academic freedom come from? Etc.)
Now, since much of the current material well-being of the entire species was spawned in the West, the challenge the West currently faces (even if many if not most in the West cannot seem to understand that they are in fact being challenged), is critical for the whole world. Of course, I'm assuming that material well-being is a good (see my following economic postings, TBA).
This is not to say that there is a zero-sum and only a zero-sum solution to the current conflict, but it is to say that mere recognition of the conflict is necessary. And it is necessary, too, to acknowledge that mere self-criticism in the style of the Western Left is only to surrender (which would in fact be a zero-sum solution).
More on this anon....
posted by Spleen Board | 9:56 PM
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