In my introduction to this little (temporary) series, I noted that, in my comments on Jihad Watch going back to 2005 under the nickname "Dr. Pepper", while I was rather fixated on "Leftism" being the explanation for the Western myopia to the problem of Islam, there were indications of my eventual evolution out of that rather restricted paradigm. The following is an example of how I was already moving beyond it:
Optimism is fine, as long as it is founded on a realistic appraisal of the problem being faced.
In considering the problem of Western blindness to the problem of
Islam, our optimism will actually be counter-productive (or ineffectual
at best) if we persist in thinking that
a) there is a majority in the West on our side
b) the blind Westerners would quickly come to our side if they could just be given enough data about the problem of Islam
c) the Western blindness is only a problem of elites in powerful
positions (the usual suspect—Politicians, Media, and Academics) and
not a far deeper and broader sociological/cultural problem affecting
(and infecting) hundreds of millions of ordinary people
d) the Western blindness is primarily a problem of corruption and
greed in the highest levels (the elites again, this time adding in
Corporate Greed to the list of Usual Suspects), rather than primarily a
problem of ideology (for without a deformation in ideology there would
be little receptivity to pecuniary seductions)
[Already, I see was anticipating my critique of Hugh Fitzgerald's "Esdrujula Elves"]
e) the Americans are superior to, and somehow less blind than, the
Europeans: there might be a handsome swathe of Heartland Americans who
have a sociocultural inoculation against PC idiocy, but the last
election splitting America into a 50/50 red/blue nation shows at least
50% who would insist Islam is not the problem; and I think a
considerable proportion among the remaining 50% would, sadly, parrot
that. (And this 50/50 split doesn’t count the millions in America who
are more or less apolitically apathetic and/or marginal kooks who,
collectively, tend when prodded to lean to the Left and think America,
and the West in general, is rotten to the core.)
In my introduction to this little (temporary) series, I noted that, in my comments on Jihad Watch going back to 2005 under the nickname "Dr. Pepper", while I was rather fixated on "Leftism" being the explanation for the Western myopia to the problem of Islam, there were indications of my eventual evolution out of that rather restricted paradigm. The following is an example of how I was already moving beyond it:
Optimism is fine, as long as it is founded on a realistic appraisal of the problem being faced.
In considering the problem of Western blindness to the problem of Islam, our optimism will actually be counter-productive (or ineffectual at best) if we persist in thinking that
a) there is a majority in the West on our side
b) the blind Westerners would quickly come to our side if they could just be given enough data about the problem of Islam
c) the Western blindness is only a problem of elites in powerful positions (the usual suspect—Politicians, Media, and Academics) and not a far deeper and broader sociological/cultural problem affecting (and infecting) hundreds of millions of ordinary people
d) the Western blindness is primarily a problem of corruption and greed in the highest levels (the elites again, this time adding in Corporate Greed to the list of Usual Suspects), rather than primarily a problem of ideology (for without a deformation in ideology there would be little receptivity to pecuniary seductions)
[Already, I see was anticipating my critique of Hugh Fitzgerald's "Esdrujula Elves"]
e) the Americans are superior to, and somehow less blind than, the Europeans: there might be a handsome swathe of Heartland Americans who have a sociocultural inoculation against PC idiocy, but the last election splitting America into a 50/50 red/blue nation shows at least 50% who would insist Islam is not the problem; and I think a considerable proportion among the remaining 50% would, sadly, parrot that. (And this 50/50 split doesn’t count the millions in America who are more or less apolitically apathetic and/or marginal kooks who, collectively, tend when prodded to lean to the Left and think America, and the West in general, is rotten to the core.)