tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post3342034689906617216..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Managing the Decline of IslamStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-42825424028517873392014-06-21T06:06:33.071-07:002014-06-21T06:06:33.071-07:00I don't know a single example of a Civ imposin...I don't know a single example of a Civ imposing its own traditions & values on another. Or policing 1.5B people. Except by near or total genocide.<br /><br />There are different kinds of Decline. Certainly, Islam stifles modernity & progress. But the birthrate is robust, and its people seem fiercely devoted to its Civ.<br /><br />WCiv, OTOH, looks pretty good materially (at the moment, anyway). But an increasing segment of its people disdain it for various reasons (the denigration of Columbus, for example).<br /><br />The birthrate is abysmal, confidence in its institutions & current leadership is in the pits, morale is sinking, and its youth is demoralized (one indicator is birthrate).<br /><br />According to Pentagon, an astonishing 75% of US youth is unqualified for military service. Drugs (legal & illegal), criminal & psych background, extreme resistance, physical & intellectual incapacity being some of the reasons. Plus, Elite refusal to entertain the idea for their own offspring.<br /><br />I think that is Decline as well. I've long feared that the Euro Civil War, 1914-1945, killed& crippled too many of its finest young men, and sapped too much of its Morale.<br /><br />I believe our own problems need attention, before we embark on Humanitarian Crusades. Foreign & Defense policy should be coldly pragmatic. IMHO. -- Rich Lara Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-64135448747364225422014-06-20T14:07:00.303-07:002014-06-20T14:07:00.303-07:00You gotta admire someone willing to try to paint t...You gotta admire someone willing to try to paint the big picture and point out the decline of one's rivals. at least its less depression than point out the decline of one's own culture.<br /><br />It's said Islam had its heights in the first 500 years, creating order where there was chaos, and saving and expanding scientific knowledge from the Greeks and Roman civilizations, or maybe you can say the order created by islam allowed the scholars and scientists a chance to practice their skills in peace, at least until some fundamentalistic leaders decides learning natural laws threatened to limit the nature of God.<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_science<br /><br />Sometimes I wonder if propaganda can do good and bad. That is if Muslims feel humiliated and shamed by the success of the west and their own declines by the loose morality of those invaders, fear-based fundamentalism is one answer, but looking back at where they came from they might use a bit of selective historical propaganda and find where their culture lead their world in brilliance and openness to new ideas and ways of seeing.<br /><br />If religion is just a crutch for the weak-minded, as Governor Jesse Ventura believes, then perhaps when a critical mass of cultural Muslims stop believing, then they can rise out of the muck of fear and superstition and claim their rightful place in world affairs, right?<br /><br />I know a woman who married and divorced an Arab, and it wasn't the religion that broke them up, but cultural differences that may have nothing do with religion. She said she should have known, because she saw how women were treated in the home, with yelling and ranting at the women whether the dominant males needed someone to take their frustrations out, and some physical abuse too if the women resisted. She said she didn't see any of that from her husband before married, and felt safe with them living in America, but as soon as they were married, he took on that verbal and physical abuse and suddenly no longer appreciated her input on anything he felt insecure about.<br /><br />At the time I blamed that on culture, and she said she was never really afraid of him, only his anger wore her down. So now I'd call it shame, and having a woman talk back to a man reminds Arab men of some deep shame that has to be put down.<br /><br />So I can't say how much that is representative of the probably diverse muslim private sphere, but it makes sense if a culture decides women's only place is in the home, and under the constant "protection" of their male family members and their husband, some fraction of women are not going to be happy in such limited roles, and abused roles.<br /><br />There's some sort of psychology of respect that I don't really understand, but it is clearly important. If there is excess in feminism it is no different than the excesses of insecure men in their own dominance hierarchies.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-41501395324377291672014-06-20T06:48:45.046-07:002014-06-20T06:48:45.046-07:00I agree with David Goldman that Islam is in declin...I agree with David Goldman that Islam is in decline. It does seem to be trying to take the West down with it.<br /> What would have happened if we left Europe and Japan right after winning WW2? It would have become a terrible mess.<br /> Installing a strongman we can control or really finishing off our enemies in Iraq and staying a long time is preferable to abruptly leaving as we did under Obama.<br />Our own safety and survival has become a political football. <br />We are soft now and too many of us have no will to do what it takes to survive as a nation.<br />Also, if the US bows out as a great world power a big vacuum will be left to be filled with something at odds with our nation and culture. We could lose everything.Kathnoreply@blogger.com