As we become decolonised we become the target of becoming colonised by forces alien to our way of life. No need to be fatalistic about it. If we get out act together we can resist them
You are right in your observation but there is also a logically prior problem of western society being unable to provide a coherent account of what it is that they should stand for.
The elevation of 'Islamophobia' is the latest of a number of cowardly responses of our political class to the problems from importing people from a different culture and with different histories, often antithetical to our own, at a rate that precludes any possibility of assimilation. T E Utley in 1974 suggested that one of goverment's main functions shoud be to use its influence and power to maintain a minimum of cultural and moral unity within society. Successive goverments have failed to do this - not even tried actually - and as Utley noted that without that unity a nation can only be held together by tyranny. Thus it is we have increasing regultation, surveillance and control from 'hate crimes' to online content censorship. The direction of travel is toward a Chinese style social credit system. It is a secondary phenomena to the underlying failure to promote moral unity. As our history and institutions are 'decolonised' the way back, if at all possible, becomes ever more difficult. It may already be too late.
A timely and sobering piece. At least we are beginning to articulate the problem: there is a problem with a politicised form of Islamic identity politics which seeks to remodel the societies in the West. This is in essence a colonising ideology, seeking to break the loyalty of nation or class in favour of faith. The problem is that there is no obvious common ground on which to base an appeal to those outside this movement but who maybe susceptible to it's call by staying within the grounds of religious identity. To break the spell of Islamism we need to maintain freedom to criticise, to ridicule and illustrate the monsterousness of this movement and it's followers. I'm stuck with appealing to a common humanity, as any other standard is compromised. Appealing to a 'good' version of this religion would only lock us into a contest where so much is already conceded to those who would enslave the world.
As we become decolonised we become the target of becoming colonised by forces alien to our way of life. No need to be fatalistic about it. If we get out act together we can resist them
You are right in your observation but there is also a logically prior problem of western society being unable to provide a coherent account of what it is that they should stand for.
The elevation of 'Islamophobia' is the latest of a number of cowardly responses of our political class to the problems from importing people from a different culture and with different histories, often antithetical to our own, at a rate that precludes any possibility of assimilation. T E Utley in 1974 suggested that one of goverment's main functions shoud be to use its influence and power to maintain a minimum of cultural and moral unity within society. Successive goverments have failed to do this - not even tried actually - and as Utley noted that without that unity a nation can only be held together by tyranny. Thus it is we have increasing regultation, surveillance and control from 'hate crimes' to online content censorship. The direction of travel is toward a Chinese style social credit system. It is a secondary phenomena to the underlying failure to promote moral unity. As our history and institutions are 'decolonised' the way back, if at all possible, becomes ever more difficult. It may already be too late.
A timely and sobering piece. At least we are beginning to articulate the problem: there is a problem with a politicised form of Islamic identity politics which seeks to remodel the societies in the West. This is in essence a colonising ideology, seeking to break the loyalty of nation or class in favour of faith. The problem is that there is no obvious common ground on which to base an appeal to those outside this movement but who maybe susceptible to it's call by staying within the grounds of religious identity. To break the spell of Islamism we need to maintain freedom to criticise, to ridicule and illustrate the monsterousness of this movement and it's followers. I'm stuck with appealing to a common humanity, as any other standard is compromised. Appealing to a 'good' version of this religion would only lock us into a contest where so much is already conceded to those who would enslave the world.