If the Islamofacists love their children too.
I just read the this excerpt of a speech by Barack Obama on instapundit
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0409250111sep25,1,7098310.story?coll=chi-news-hed
"U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs. . . .
Obama said that violent Islamic extremists are a vastly different brand of foe than was the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they must be treated differently.
"With the Soviet Union, you did get the sense that they were operating on a model that we could comprehend in terms of, they don't want to be blown up, we don't want to be blown up, so you do game theory and calculate ways to contain," Obama said. "I think there are certain elements within the Islamic world right now that don't make those same calculations.""
"U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs. . . .
Obama said that violent Islamic extremists are a vastly different brand of foe than was the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they must be treated differently.
"With the Soviet Union, you did get the sense that they were operating on a model that we could comprehend in terms of, they don't want to be blown up, we don't want to be blown up, so you do game theory and calculate ways to contain," Obama said. "I think there are certain elements within the Islamic world right now that don't make those same calculations.""
Which to me sounds like the old Sting song "if the russians love their children too". Unfortunately, I think there is a large portion of the Muslim world that is so different from the western world that assigning any of our beliefs or culture to them is a giant mistake. It might be hyperblole to say they don't love their children, but when people celebrate their children blowing themselves up along with a few dozen Isrealis, we can safeley say that what we call loving our children, and they call loving their children are not the same things.
Worrying about why they hate us, or what we can change in ourselves will never matter. The only things we can change about ourselves that would suit the Islamofacists would be to cut off our own heads, or convert to Islam.
(of course this has all been explained before:
Spiral Dynamics theory talks about individuals and societies evolving through a sequence of worldview-memes -- modes of thought that determine how people think of themselves, their societies, and outsiders.
A very important note is that each meme includes and extends the previous memes, like concentric circles. No meme is ever "left behind", it's just absorbed into a larger whole.
Although Graves himself used a different notation, today the most popular way of referring to these memes is by color. There's a page with an OK -- but not great -- explanation of the colors; here's my own quick interpretation:
BEIGE is concerned with individual survival: food, water, shelter.
PURPLE systems are clan- or family-based, usually animistic and tribal.
RED emphasizes the power of individuals, and tends to be heavy on personal shame & honor -- warrior- culture stuff.
BLUE is represented by your typical theocracy or fundamentalist religion. Heavy on the good-vs.-evil rhetoric, Blue sees itself as a truth-force competing against evil enemies.
At ORANGE, the individual ego is differentiated from the power-structure that surrounded it. Orange is typified by Descartian Modernity - focused on logic, or for that matter on any objectifiable strategic thinking. (Global capitalism is an Orange-level phenomenon.)
GREEN is self-referential and pluralistic -- post-modern, in the good senses of that term.
A very important note is that each meme includes and extends the previous memes, like concentric circles. No meme is ever "left behind", it's just absorbed into a larger whole.
Although Graves himself used a different notation, today the most popular way of referring to these memes is by color. There's a page with an OK -- but not great -- explanation of the colors; here's my own quick interpretation:
BEIGE is concerned with individual survival: food, water, shelter.
PURPLE systems are clan- or family-based, usually animistic and tribal.
RED emphasizes the power of individuals, and tends to be heavy on personal shame & honor -- warrior- culture stuff.
BLUE is represented by your typical theocracy or fundamentalist religion. Heavy on the good-vs.-evil rhetoric, Blue sees itself as a truth-force competing against evil enemies.
At ORANGE, the individual ego is differentiated from the power-structure that surrounded it. Orange is typified by Descartian Modernity - focused on logic, or for that matter on any objectifiable strategic thinking. (Global capitalism is an Orange-level phenomenon.)
GREEN is self-referential and pluralistic -- post-modern, in the good senses of that term.
In the end, there was never a nuclear holocaust with the Sovient Union because (ed. we were lucky) neither culture risked destroying the other culture and the world for a chance at world domination. I'm afraid that is not the case now. If we get to the point where an Islamofacist group or government is controlling nuclear bombs, it's gonna get ugly.
All this drivel is just reason number one why I'm going to vote for Bush. Maybe Bush was elected with such a narrow margin that it exposed the basic innaccuracy of the process. Maybe Bush is a Fortunate Son who's had everything handed to him (I don't think so, but, whatever). Maybe the Irag war has been mismanaged, and could have been better excecuted. That's all in the past now.
The only glimmer of hope I see is if the Middle East is completely reformed. That means following through in Irag and Afganistan, and confronting the Iranians. Kerry obviously won't do any of that. So that's reason number one why bush has my vote.
Comments
See you,
Peter