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| India-Pakistan |
| Why liberals are losing |
| 2016-07-10 |
| [DAWN] Forty years earlier, Alvin Toffler, in his famed book Future Shock, had warned of unpredictable consequences of rapid, technological change and its unsettling psychological effects. Western society is undergoing a revolutionary structural change from an industrial society to a post-industrial society. Basically the world has suddenly shrunk and is spinning too fast. The dizzying acceleration, he said, leaves people disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation" -- future shocked. Future shock makes things difficult enough but the recent mass migration has tipped, or almost tipped, the balance. Once homogeneous societies of the West are being forced to instantly incorporate and assimilate diverse peoples. Tolerance, multiculturalism, and liberalism are under stress. Western populist leaders reject open borders, instead promising to defend ’traditional’ values and ’make the country great again’. Hence, Brexit and Trump. Illiberalism is far stronger in Moslem countries. In Pakistain, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya and now Bangladesh, people care less about ’freedom’ -- as defined by liberals -- and even more about national identities, historic enmities, sectarianism, tribal bonds, territorial symbols, and traditional cultural values. Far from dying out, such atavistic attachments are becoming stronger. Again, this comes from excessively rapid change. For millennia, Moslem societies had been in more or less steady equilibrium but the systemic transformation made possible by technology and communication has destroyed the autonomy of life in villages and towns, and forced diverse peoples and individuals to live in close urban proximity where they now compete with each other. The Green Revolution allows far larger populations to be sustained than once imaginable. In today’s complex and uncertain world Moslems, more than others, try to conjure up some perfect golden past. Many want to turn the clock back by 1400 years. Inspired by visions of past greatness, a multitude of Moslem political-religious movements are out to recreate the Medina state. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , and Ikhwan-ul-Moslemeen are some notable entrepreneurs in this business. With terror as their strategy, these holy warriors have spilled far more Moslem blood than that of others. Liberals everywhere are fighting an uphill battle -- and winning only rarely. It is so much easier to be backward looking, narrow, prejudiced, parochial, tribal, sectarian, and nationalist rather than be accommodative, global, and universal. It is even more difficult in Pakistain. While erasing the last 300 liberals may be a noble goal in the eyes of some, it is unlikely to solve a truly large and vexatious problem. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 They don't see $ as paper, they see wheat fields and Virginia Class SSNs. They're quicker than the Rooshans. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-07-10 10:27 |
| #1 structural change from an industrial society to a post-industrial society How long before Chinese realize that $ are paper? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-07-10 03:03 |