Hey, I could have rigged it, if I wanted to!
I argued last night that the terror threat exists largely in the minds of politicians for the express purposes of exploiting Islamophobia, in the time-honoured traditions of Elizabethan England, Nazi Germany and McCarthyite America.
This isn't about Religion.
The hatred of the islamic world for the West has a logical basis.
In our global society, there is no longer a concrete class structure.
As Tony Blair said, we're all middle class now.
But to be middle, someone has to be below.
Because now, the class structure is a global one.
Globally, Whites are the bourgeouisie, non-whites the Proleteriat.
The anti-colonial struggle and the class struggle have become one.
And in spite of our pretence at having ended Racism, the fact is, it's a world run by whites.
That's the real battle.
They are fighting their lands being turned into playgrounds for the amusement of the wealthy white global elite.
They resent their culture being polluted by McDonalds and all the other trappings of their Burger munching, Big Brother Watching White conquerors.
Because the world belongs in the main, to western money.
In socio-cultural terms, we can class the Pacific Rim countries, as being part of the west. Japan, Singapore and Malaysia at least, get away with not being white.
That's what these brown people, who happen to be Muslim are fighting. They unite behind the banner of their faith, because lacking the weapons, they need something to drive them.
But it certainly suits our rulers to blame their religion.
Jenny! has kindly passed on a meme award, which saves some emarrassment because there are a couple of bloggers I should have given one to previously.
Helen, Electro-Kevin, Phishez,
Obviously, you three get to pass it on to three more deserving bloggers.
Those are three blogs worth checking out.
Back to the subject of the Terror Threat, I've bored you all now with what I think, It will be good to hear the consensus view here.
The Poll is on the right in the sidebar.
Have Your Say!
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21 comments:
I voted! And your welcome for the award! You deserve it...you are definately an original!
I don't believe that the religion itself is out to get us...its the religious extremeist and that can't be said for all of Islam, its just the nuts! Stereotyping causes more problems!
I don't think Islam is a threat, I think the interpretation of it is. It's not a matter of being right or wrong, it's a matter of finding a common ground so we can all live together as one human race.
As time goes on, our global landscape has and will change several times over. Think of the earliest tribes that have all but disappeared (except the Aboriginals), it's the nature of the beast, but we can still do our best to wage peace wherever possible.
Btw - I love that term, "Islamophobia."
Mr Crushed,
Do you really see in them a movement that is democratic in spirit and ever prepared to co-exist with the West?
So now the Islamists are nothing more than plain old anti-colonialists?
I find myself in perfect agreement (!) with many Marxists on the relationship between Islamism and anti-colonialism. Chris Harman argues that while "it is wrong to see the Islamist movements as “fascist”, it is just as wrong to simply see them as “anti-imperialist” or “anti-state”. They do not just fight against those classes and states that exploit and dominate the mass of people. They also fight against secularism, against women who refuse to abide by Islamic notions of “modesty”, against the left and, in important cases, against ethnic or religious minorities"
Source:
(http://www.marxists.de/religion/harman/pt03.htm)
Surely,he has a point?
um. This is really insulting to the billions of East Asian, South American and Indian peoples who have fine countries and few hang ups about the West.
This is most of the world. The bit you are reffering to is Africa and the Middle East; who clearly have inferiority complexes bourne of their many failed states and societies.
To turn this round and simply blame the West as racists is fantastical in the extreme.
Crushed - agree with Slicker. This is a deeply patronising post.
What about China, what about India, what about Malaysia, what about Singapore, about Hong Kong, about the entire Eastern Europe.
A generation ago all these countries were Third World in status. By rejecting socialism and instead pursuing democracy and liberty they have vastly improved the conditions of their people.
Crushed, I'm with Slicker and Pommy on this one, my immediate thought was "Well this is pretty Western-centric." Most of the world's population doesn't live under the whiteman's thumb.
Globalization is just that, it's ultimately not the type of imperialism that existed in previous centuries. As many flaws as I see in corporate culture, it has mastered that ultimate of evolutionary traits--adaptation.
You suggest that because the "white" countries are the most powerful that the whole world is run on racism - sorry that's bollocks. The West does not oppress the rest of the world - and certainly not on race grounds. We are richer because we have the systems and structures to support it and there is nothing to stop other countries from following the same path. What do you think India and China are up to?
Not everyone wants the Western lifestyle - some countries are content with being less materially rich but more laid-back.
With regard to turning the world into a theme-park, do you think that countries are forced to accept tourists? If places wanted to close themselves off from the rest of the world they can - please see "Myanmar" or North Korea for details.
Do you really have so little faith in humans that you have to frame the problems of the world in terms of white oppression? You are beginning to sound like Ken Livingstone.
Mr Ingsoc has generously contributed a little post on my blog.... maybe..
woot! Another award for me. Thanks. Though I did note this
Obviously, you three get to pass it on to three more deserving bloggers. So by my reckoning you gave it to me because I'm more deserving than yourself *smugness*, which is untrue. But am I supposed to pass it on to bloggers who are more deserving than myself? I'll have to search high and wide for that one.
I would like an award...
We're all somebody's n-word...
Jenny- It's one of those complex issues, yes, people rally behing Islam to express deeper dynamics- dislike of cultural colonisation and being dictated to by western institutions.
Alexys- We need a much better mechanism of international co-operation than we currently have.
We need international institutions that actually represent the people of the globe.
Istanbul T- I think the fundamentalists are fighting a losing cause. THEY don't want to co-exist with the west, but maybe we should look closer and see that much of what they hate about the west is true.
We ressemble Rome in about 408 AD, when Alaric the Visigoth was on his way.
I'm not convinced secularism is necessarily all it's cracked up to be.
CityUn- As I pointed out, East Asia and India have received acceptance the club.
Most South American countries are run by creole elites who exploit the native populations with the aid of US economic and/or military support.
Pommy- The countries you list have full social infrastructures and are part of the club. Indeed one could say, the Far East is the hub of manufacturing now, very much the powerhouse of the world.
Helen- Globalisation is inevitable- I don't oppose it, because it ultimately brings us all closer together. But as it stands, some receive more benefits than others.
Let's look at actual assets.
I think you'll find the comined wealth of the world's white population accounts for a significant proportion of the total assets.
Ed- It's not maintained by us to be racist. It's just that Economic growth only works once. You have to be on at the start to make it rich, as we did.
How are these third world countries going to acheive a lifestyle like ours?
Put simply, how are they going to develop the infrastructure needed to sustain societies like ours in the first place?
Economic growth is not possible in a saturated market, in a world where there ARE no fresh markets, untouched by the Capitalist economy.
There isn't an everlasting supply of resources, and we have most of them.
We are telling them to go out and solve their problems by doing something that can't be done any more.
The bulk of the Muslim world was never really colonised by the West, so we say the last struggle of colonialism.
Or if you prefer, the final triumph of Western values.
Now obviously, it stands to reason, the West wouldn't have acheived it's position of pre-eminence, if it wasn't ultimately more efficient than what it replaced.
But that doesn't mean that, like most systems, it has negative side effects.
People here moan about certain areas 'turning into Pakistan'.
That's nothing to what they see happening in their cultures. Their whole culture is being wsternised. Good or bad, it can't be pleasant on an individual level.
I get saddened when I say things happening in Ireland which show a little bit of old Ireland disappearing.
What they feel must be even sadder.
Mutley- I must stop drunken internet activity- or worse.
I'm sure I passed you a meme award last time...?
Wolfie- It's just an explanation the way I see it.
Religion is too convenient a cover- makes it so easy for us to se them as alien minds we can't comprehend.
We can.
They think very much like you and me. Just some of think some of us really have sold our souls to the devil.
And maybe we have.
Phishez- I don't mean the bloggers would be MORE deserving, I meant three more of them.
Though you are very deserving of course.
Quite an interesting new avatar there!
Heart- This is true. I can still remember being personally blamed for the Warrington bombings at school.
The fact remains, life is just a lot easier in our countries, and the world is pretty much run in a way that suits us.
Hello, first time responder here. That is, greatings Motor City District to Landing Strip One...
Orwell was a prophet, no doubt about it. My nation is in a vague open ended war with an equally vague enemy in pretty much the exact regions he specified. We even have a two minutes hate for Osama, it comes in the form of a "feature" on our nightly news, which is about two minutes, as opposed to the 15 second soundbites that comprise the rest. The pigs that be have succeeded in diminishing the average attention span by utilizing such methods, now the sheep are baaing about being led by an idiot that they voted for, and why? Because Al Gore has a 5 charisma score in DnD terms, and couldn't lead a starving dog to food with a milkbone in hand, and without having to make a movie to show why the starving dog should eat and save itself, all the time forgetting that dogs don't actually pay attention to movies.
That is my nation in a sweet metaphoric nutshell. But you knew that already, didn't you?
Great blog. Found you at Crashy's, so blame her! Made me think and write well, which is what I love to do most.
Peace out and link you later when I get to my house and am on my own computer. I use the community college computers so nobody can trace my dissidence exactly to me! LOL And get to use my tax dollars, finally.
Interesting post that has obviously inspired a lot of thought...
Whilst facism and communism haven't exactly proven to be viable options, I find it a little close-minded that the North American version of society is thought to be the end of cultural evolution, as though it is the ultimate state that all cultures and society's can reach.
Wooaaah, Crushed. How to cut it short? And how adding an aspect not yet mentioned in this discussion? By choosing one example?
Let me start in the early 60s. I was a boy and at night used to pray: for my parents, brothers; please, God, let there be no war.
I prayed because my mother had "taught" me to pray.
I remember - and shall never forget - that during the Kongo war I prayed: And, please, dear God, help the poor people in Katanga.
Many years later - meanwhile atheist on the way to become an agnostic - I learnt more about Lumumba, about his struggles, about his end. Not to forget Dag Hammarskjöld!
Do you understand?
I prayed for the poor people in Katanga (for Mobuto, the Belgian, the CIA etc), because my parents - nice people who had somehow survived two horrible wars (we are taught to call them World War I and World War II - inorder to be prepared for WW III?) had spoken about what they had "learnt" in the radio and read in the newspaper. We had no TV at this time.
A couple of days before my father died I spoke with him about this very example. He was 86 then, and agreed: We did not know better
Why? The same "why" when thinking of whether he had told me the truth when I asked about what he had done during "WW II".
The courage to say "No".
Would I have had the courage to give shelter to a Jew? Would I have been one of those courageous Chilean journalists after 1973?
Would I have been a demonstrator 1989 on the Square of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen Square), or in Leipzig.
Could I have been the journalist who asked after G.W. Bush had promised his "crusade" against "these cowards":
"Who is a coward? The one who knows he will be killed by what he is doing, or the one pushing the button to send a cruised missile to kill people in 2.000 miles distance?
By the way, this journalist got fired next day.
Could go on and on. But yes, Mutley, I come to my mission:
Education - in the best sense - could help solving many problems on this planet ... provided that those setting the canon/the curricula/the first and second virtues have good intentions.
Ah, better to stop. Sorry for the mess. What did you say about your friend, "The Chimney Sweep"? He will not tell you in two sentences what he can tell you in fifty.
The Peace of the Night. :)
I can see the point about young Muslims feeling disenfranchised. But for goodness sake, we all have grumps and grievances wherever we live - we don't decide we want to go and blow everyone up! Of course I know it's poverty that drives parents to put their sons in the madrases [ I know that's spelt wrong] and that the former colonial powers have to take their share of blame for the mess the world is in. But I have seen a fairly integrated Muslim community in Cardiff become alienated, with the women being forced back into their full veils. I am so depressed about it all that I don't know if there is any answer. Unless it may be that eventually there will be such a climatic disaster that we will all pull together - but I don't think so, really. Have you read Tariq Ali's "Clash of Fundamentalisms", Crushed? It's the best book I've read on it all.
Eric- It's alarming how accurate the situation he describes. The Emmanuel Goldsstein book describes how the system actually works today, though of course the principles worked even then.
It's true about bin Laden. They wouldn't tell us if he had died in a cave.
Princesss P- The fact that the altervatives have turned out worse, doesn't mean that this is the best that we have.
We're not a stupid species. WE must be able to do better.
Sean- It's very easy to be driven by the culture around you, and this can be tapped into very well.
Islam always inspired more fear and suspicion in the white community than any other faith.
It's cultural. It dates back to the crusades.
They tap into people's ignorance.
Welshcakes- It's getting like that in many cities- I will have to look out for that book.
The new avvie pic - my ex reads my blog.
Thanks so much for the award, Ingsoc. My first ever - I mean EVER ! Not even a 25 yards swimming certificate for E-K (joke).
Regarding your post:
Whilst I agree with you that the terror threat is exaggerated in no way do I believe that the hegmonic expansion of Islam in our cities is benign. Once this reaches a critical mass I believe that we will witness much unpleasantness and come to regret our complacency.
Phish- Ah, I see. You look quite smouldering...
I like that.
E-K- It's self fulfilling prophecy. Young Muslims feel otracised and feared, so they turn in on themselves and rally to their old culture- or more, they embrace the negative image.
When I was about thirteen- fourteen, I used to write IRA in big letters over all my exercise books. It was mainly a response to negative comments about 'The Irish' bombimg Warrington and places- or 'All Irish are Terrorists.'
Welshcakes,
"Of course I know it's poverty that drives parents to put their sons in the madrases [ I know that's spelt wrong] and that the former colonial powers have to take their share of blame for the mess the world is in"
I'm a Muslim living in North Africa. From my personal experience, most of the times parents don't put their children in madrasas(can't spell it too!), young men are usually brainwashed to join madrassas through friends/teachers etc...
I know many families who are pretty moderate and their children dissappeared. some of them called to say they are going to do jihad in afghanistan/iraq etc...and some said they are in training camps and the parents are NOT ok with it. Not only because they are going to lose their children but also because they don't believe in terrorism.
"But I have seen a fairly integrated Muslim community in Cardiff become alienated, with the women being forced back into their full veils. I am so depressed about it all that I don't know if there is any answer."
I noticed that muslims in europe and america turn to religion and become deeply religious when they feel alienated. I know a few people who immigrated to America and didn't fit in. They were alienated from the mainstream american society and although they weren't religious back home or they became deeply religious. Religion for them is a way to make them feel more comfortable, being close to god makes them get on with their lives. Not only that, they made friends going to the mosques there. If they are really poor or unemployed then they can like eat at the mosque/take their children to free schools there etc..
I think that if you feel alienated you are ready to be part of any group willing to accept you (gangs/fundamentalists etc..)
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