ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM
CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM
it's all the same...

...Islamic fundamentalism's hatred is driven by a deep fear of modernity. Western modernity, with its scientific world view, stresses secularism and the rights of individuals to choose their own values and life style. This is believed to undermine Islamic authority. It does.

Americans should be able to understand this view. We have a number of Christian fundamentalists fighting modernity.

And some of those Christian fundamentalists are running the White House.

I've been meaning to write some kind essay on this topic, myself, for a while, but Don Post articulates it well and beat me to it. In reality, the clash between religious fundamentalism and modernity is the same thing as the "culture war" that Pat Buchanan spoke on at the Republican National Convention back in 1992. Casting the wars against terrorism and evil dictators in terms of the US versus Islamic extremists simply confuses the overall issue. The entire world, including America, is in a gigantic cultural spasm. Science and reason are under attack around the globe. Dogma, superstition, and rigid fundamentalisms, both secular and religious are on the rise. Whether it's at the end of a gun barrel and under an iron boot, or in a television induced state of hypnotized, air conditioned comfort, it's free thought against mind control. That's the planet Earth in the twenty first century.

It makes me so angry when I think about it. The twentieth century was so damned promising. The most marvelous ideas, concepts birthed in the Renaissance, were coming to fruition, despite all the death and destruction. As the Cold War ended, the 1990s offered the potential for an idyllic Star Trek like future. Justice and freedom from fear. Love and peace. I really do fear that we've totally blown it.

Click here.

While I'm at it, here's some related depressing news about the worldwide strife expected to occur soon when oil supplies are depleted.

Finally, because this is all very much a downer, here's some refreshing Vivaldi to both ease the mind and evoke the Age of Reason.

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