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Originally posted by jaguar
As I’ve said before its things like that that show that his apparent motives are far more global than such incidents. General dislike of the US for other far bigger reasons shines though. I’m starting to think it’s more cultural than economic.
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I've heard it said on several occasions by common folk much like us.
My opinion on Western culture is this: For all of its excesses, 21st century Western culture as a whole is pretty good. We have unprecedented technology in various sectors. Although I cannot speak for the rest of Western society, the majority of Americans have a decent standard of living. (Although 15% of Americans living in poverty is 15% too much.) Communication and access to information are at their greatest point in history, and continue to expand. And overall, again IMO, the 2001 Western world is an enlightened one.
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Islam fears being eroded by an apparently unstoppable wave of western culture which is causing them o go more extreme in an effort to protect their own culture. Thoughts?
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Western culture, particularly American culture, is high on material excess (although maybe not as much as it was 15 years ago). As an example, I will use Japanese exchange students that came to SEMO to study in 1994-95. Japanese culture, though becoming more Western, is still rather reserved by our standards. Some of these kids came over and were simply overwhelmed. They ate up as much of it as they could--smoking cigarettes, cutting class, dyeing their hair, piercing various body parts, etc. Now granted, this is merely an example, and does not represent all Japanese exchange students at SEMO (or around the world for that matter). But from my standpoint, given that Islam is not high on excess, some Islamic countries may look upon our culture with shame. In turn, they may fear that their young ones will be swallowed up by Western culture, hence diluting the future of their own culture. It doesn't help that we practically force-feed our culture to the world at large, so perhaps they feel as if we are downgrading their own culture. Although it doesn't justify terrorism, I can certainly understand if they feel that way.
*feeling philosophical* At the same time, regardless of what a certain country's laws dictate, I believe that all people have a strong element of free will. At the same time, the human race is extremely gullible. If you're a young kid living in, say Iran, and you see the US (a mouthpiece for the world) hawking Western culture, and you see people that are enjoying it, then to some degree, it makes you want to join the rest of the gang. At the same time, if you're being told how bad it is, I believe to some degree that that will make you all the more curious.
I am now going back to school to get a sociology degree...I always did like sociology better than philosophy.
