I am tired of hearing about the stupid cartoons that offended Muslims' precious sensibilities oh so terribly. I am tired of hearing about the cultural sensitivities of fanatics who think nothing of perpetuating tales of blood libel, and various modes of driving Jews into the sea. I am aware that this was a fight picked by a Danish newspaper, and then cynically whipped up for political purposes by the Egyptian press for public consumption. Still, I continue my bemused insistence that there are more appropriate ways to react to the poking of one's favorite brand of superstition than rioting, firebombing, and killing. And I stipulate that this episode plays right into the hands of the most reactionary forces on both sides of the debate, that Islamic fanatics can continue to point their fingers at the Great Satan, and the Bushies can continue to somberly intone that Something Must Be Done About These People.
Call me crazy, many people already do.
I have a dream. It involves getting every fundamentalist fanatic of every stripe, and dumping them on the moon. Oh, we'll terraform it for them first; extermination is not part of the dream. Imagine the immediate gratification -- no more quasi-political mass mailings over silly television shows; no more dumbing down of science to the evidence-challenged; no more "my invisible friend can beat up your invisible friend" nonsense; no more insanely overwrought and violent reactions to provocative, erm, cartoons. I continue to boggle at that last one, even as I type it yet again.
In the meantime, I dunno. We are all aware of the "all poodles are dogs, but all dogs are not poodles" argument that the vast majority of Muslims are nice, harmless folk who simply wish to live a life like the rest of us. Very well then -- if they are truly the vast majority, then they should please get a better handle on their loons. Stop hanging homosexuals from cranes. Stop burying adulterers up to their waists and stoning them in soccer stadiums. Maybe even stop beating the shit out of women who have the nerve go to the store without a male relative or a beekeeper suit.
I hold no brief for the immaculate perfection of western culture, nor hidebound Judeo-Christian superstitions. There's a lot to dislike. But we're a comparatively young culture, and we've somehow gotten past all those awful things that are rather commonplace in the Islamic world. Our fundies are indeed a royal pain in the ass in the political and academic realms, but there is no sharia law in the west. The usual cheap moral equivalencies simply do not stand in comparison. Violent activism gets your ass arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned here, no ifs, ands, or buts. It is not tolerated, nor should it be.
You want to be the Religion of Peace™? Then be the damned religion of peace already. Grow the fuck up and treat human beings like human beings, whether or not westerners are in the picture. Make the fanatics understand that their actions -- all of their actions -- are completely unacceptable. I think it's a fool's errand to think we can impose our brand of democracy, but I also see that the more reactionary Islamists simply refuse to see their own culpability in events. They are fed a steady diet of hate and fear in their press, while corrupt autocrats like Mubarak sit there and wink like it's the cost of doing business.
Well, enough already. This is not about illegal wars and cultural imperialism and imposition of values, though it is being conflated with those things. It is about a culture that habitually visits savagery upon its own populace in their daily lives in enforcing its medieval social mores, while engendering fear and loathing with systemic anti-semitism and anti-Americanism. It is about a system that despises our petrodollars, yet has absolutely nothing else to offer the rest of the world. The day we don't need their oil will be a win-win, because we won't be forced to engage and deal with this endless bullshit, and they will come to the realization that they will either have to have something to offer to remain even marginally contemporaneous, or just wither on the vine.
Excellent Post! You should try sending it to a major newspaper.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if we could just send all those loonies to the moon but unfortuanely our only alternative appears to be to just "send them to the virgins!"
"I have a dream. It involves getting every fundamentalist fanatic of every stripe, and dumping them on the moon. Oh, we'll terraform it for them first; extermination is not part of the dream."
ReplyDeleteThat was rich in humor content. But if the moon is to be terraformed, I'd like to live on it. The Earth would be terraformed, too, but the moon would be a fresh start. Besides, the entire Earth would become The West Bank to these types if there was a movement to put them on the moon.
Incidentally, I do believe that exploration of outer space would broaden our collective perspective on life. It would have to wouldn't it? Only joking, of course. It's only recently that I've come to realize that the Enlightenment was not a full scale intellectual revolution. Only in the overview can that period be viewed as the marvel that it was. Perhaps, from a historical perspective, our own time period will be lumped in with the next Renaissance. There are incredible things going on behind the scenes in the scientific community, even in this country. Of course, the inevitable nuclear holocaust could put a damper on history's view of our progress. C'est la vie.