London Bombing

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

So how do we get Islamists to reform their society?

Don't tell me what we don't do to achieve this, tell me what we DO.

I have a couple of suggestions too.

1 -- Fight the hype. When you hear news event Islamofascist dah dee dah...just subtract the hype part. This has postitive effects. You still get to prosecute a crime as in the honor killings, as is just. You starve the recruiters of a little bit of oxygen each time you don't run around in circles flapping on about how the "the Muslims are coming! The Muslims are coming!". You train yourself to respond to the facts, and not be distracted by the noise

2 -- Let them be. Let them fall of their own accord. If they believe they can make a functioning society and economy in the world of today, I say, let'em try. What happened to communism? We didn't bomb them into submission, we outplayed them. What makes you think we're unequal to this new foe?

This effort will require considerable restraint on our part in two major ways.

First--get out of their country. There are plenty of reasons to do so and plenty of places in the world where equally awful things happen that we are where we're NOT eyeball deep.

Second--major reduction in oil consumption. Since that's their major economic bulwark, we'd be hittin' 'em where they live: in the wallet. Beat them in the market. Fix their little red wagon, don't buy what their selling.

Look, if the can make go of it, fine. I, myself, don't believe in the righteousness of the coming American Hegemony. The world's big enough for other cultures. We already permit / tolerate / ignore / whitewash all sorts of societal differences in the name of national security / diversity / detente / benevolent disregard. There's room on the list for another.

3 -- Get to know them. Yeah, Kumbayah and all that sh*t. Seriously. Find a person, and get to know them. For this part to work, the person in question has to be a Muslim. But notice, they're a person first. Get to know another and then five or ten more. I'm leaving completely open what kind of Muslim-icity the person believes in. If they're moderate, surprise! You get to see moderate Islam in the flesh. If they're radical, bonus! Now's your chance to see how the other side thinks. And I get a golden opportunity to represent how my side thinks. I f*cking A believe that my way is better and I relish the chance to debate the issue on the merits. Notice this is possible in this scenario where you and another person have gotten to know each other as individuals. Presumably in a way that permits conversations, and the exchange of ideas.

This one is the compliment to suggestion number one. This is anti-hype, and much more representative of the way the world is. I'll give you an example. Bush gets a lot of press. We all talk about him, every day (maybe TMI, I'm a freakin news junkie). But consider how many people vs. presidents you know? Really, my life is influenced much much more by people who aren't the president. Like my boss, my family, the people I interact with every day, the people in my local community, the people in my cyber community, etc. The ones that affect me the most aren't the ones making the most news or even getting the most attention.

By getting past the loudness of what we hear and read in the media, we're able to make more informed judgements of how things really are. The map is not the terrain, but the terrain is what we must cover, regardless of what it says on the map. The hype is not the people, but it is the people with whom we must interact, and relying on a faulty map will lead to faulty decisions. Get to the truth. Get to know each other.