To: carranza2 who wrote (90613 ) 4/7/2003 2:51:27 AM From: Sun Tzu Respond to There are some people here who will claim that there is no clash of civilizations. McWorld, on the other hand, for all its faults offers a measure of hope, change, enfranchisement which, though admittedly not on the scale one would like to see, is higher by far than the bleakness offered by jihad. IF McWorld and Jihad reinforce each other. There are polarizing forces. Many people who would otherwise not have supported Jihad do so because they find it closer to the world they want. Closer does not mean "close". It is a relative measure. But that is what polarization does. Similarly, many people who are fearful of Jihad, embrace McWorld as the lesser of two evil. Your own thinking seems to be along this line.Here's the great Chesterton writing many decades ago on this point. believe . It is the dogma that is dangerous. And when this is combined with power hungry leaders, the results is disastrous. Mahdi was not the first person to do this and Islam has no monopoly on such politics. Christianity practices it for ages. The Communists and Nazis were dead set on how history and science is on their side and they cannot possibly be wrong. And the blind faith in the "invisible hand" is no more benign than any of these.
