Welcome friends!
I was just thinking the other day how everything is relative. Take conservatism for example. I’m always railing against the two headed monster of conservatism that dwells here in the US. But each head of our domestic monster has a corresponding foreign head that’s twice as ugly and twice as mean. Of course, maybe it’s not an appropriate comparison. I’m living here so I’m mostly concerned with the monster in my backyard. People in other countries can do whatever they want as far as I’m concerned if only they remember to stay far, far away and not try to fly a plane into my house. But maybe that’s unrealistic. Trade, transportation, and communications have evolved to such an extent that I suppose in some ways we’re all basically living in the same great global village. There’s a scary thought. Maybe I do have to keep an eye on the two headed monster of foreign conservatism as well. But I don’t like it. No siree; I don’t like it one little bit.
Well, let’s take social conservatism first. Now when I think of social conservatism run amok I tend to think mostly of conservatives in those predominantly Muslim countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East because they seem to me to exemplify a certain particularly virulent form of social conservatism that doesn’t mince words when it comes to opposing the liberal ethos that underlies our American way of life and the ways of life of many of our liberal comrades around the globe as well. (The corresponding locus of foreign economic conservatism must be the authoritarian market state that China has become, but let’s do one thing at a time, shall we?) If you think American conservatives are at odds with the liberal ethos you should check out an article I read the other day about the results of a survey someone took a few years ago of attitudes in the Muslim world. A clash of civilizations you say? Well, I don’t know anything about that. It seems to me we’ve got plenty of conservatives right here who think along the same general lines as our bearded foreign friends. And there are plenty of Muslims both here and abroad who don’t subscribe to the sort of rabid social conservatism that is the subject of my post today. If you think my beef is with Islam you’re barking up the wrong tree buddy. I’m talking about the historical struggle between liberals and humanists on one side and social conservatives on the other.
The article in question covered so many interesting results; where to begin? Well, here’s a funny one. Many of those who responded to this survey supported the adoption of sharia (i.e. Islamic religious law). At the same time many also claimed to support political democracy at least over the alternative of relying on a strong leader... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website. All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee. Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right? If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then. Thank you my friends!
