The Clash of Civilizations

I think it might be useful to directly engage the premise of the Clash of Civilizations and put some of that in context here.

First let me begin by stating my general position. As a first premise which must be stated I am perfectly comfortable with the inevitable intertwining of black and American destiny. I am, quite frankly, near the point at which I am hard pressed to understand any useful distinction except for historical purposes. We are all Americans. As Americans we remain in the exceptional position as the leader of the free world as we know it - the victors of WW2 and possessed of an economy, military and culture which dominates on the world stage.

We are engaged in an ideological war with a particular set of Muslims, formally the Jihadis, who are engaged in terrorist tactics aimed at undermining the confidence of citizens all over the world in American power. In that war, we have come to understand that the major figures of Jihadi leadership have employed twisted variants of Islam to justify their cause and encourage support from other Muslims.

At a metaphysical level, I am convinced that there is no reason, within the aegis of worldly affairs, for the great religions of the world to be in zero-sum conflict. This is a bold claim based on what I will call an evolutionary biological basis. If there are two methods for gaining knowledge, one from reason and one from revelation, then the evidence of that success lies in the content of the human mind. We must be endowed with the ability to perceive and judge that knowledge equally as humans by dint of the fact that we are biologically equivalent. If any man can receive Islam it is because any man can receive Christianity because any man can receive knowledge. At some level the source is irrelevant although respecting that source may have different behavioral manifestations. It is my hope that these behavioral manifestations, manners of worship if you will, do not take precedence over the value of the lesson to be learned, but I am aware of how the Jihadi perverts this.

To the Jihadi, it is the act of defending their knowledge that overwhelms the message of that knowledge. It may even be a perversion of that knowledge itself, a destructive feedback loop. The virtuous are those who destroy the infidel, and that is the sole virtue. Of course I am being succinct.

We are faced with the necessity of religious reconciliation during a time of war, and we are faced with the fact of a sophistication which is unevenly manifest around the globe whose strength in openness makes it vulnerable to the sort of attack which does not share its premises of open society.

I am interested, from the perspective of an emergent class of Americans, in probing the depths of Western Civilization. In some ways this is a massive undertaking, but I do have the advantage of having the spare time, which is a function of the relative freedom I have been able to achieve. It's nothing new, but it is new to me and my cohort. But I am particularly interested in preserving the progress and the context of the progress made in my particular endeavor, that of information technology. Yet I recognize that the world can live without it entirely. While it becomes a habit and even an enabling necessity, it like many other sophistications of the West, is under threat.

There can be no doubt that the Jihadi and any rebel has some validity to their cause. Nobody wishes to suffer and it is surely the fear of suffering that causes men to fight. But it could also be greed. It could be honor. Whatever the cause, we are all called to evaluate what it is that we have that is worth fighting for and our committment to its defense must be renewed.

So I open it up here (rather than continuing pontificative analysis). Are we in a real clash of civilizations? Is there a latent animosity between Christians and Muslims which might come to a head? Are our very conceptions of ourselves on the planet in conflict in such a way that may inevitably bring a global holy war? Has the West gone too far? Are we too sophisticated for the rest of the world and will they inevitably be the barbarians to destroy what we have built? Are we headed towards The Planet of the Apes?

Belmont has the following interpretation of B16:

Benedict doesn’t see much scope for a ‘theological’ debate between Christianity and Islam, which is of interest to only a specialist few. Instead, the Pope sees the real debate taking place at a cultural/civilizational level in which the subject of sharia will be a key item.

The debate is inevitable, because Islam at its roots is profoundly different from Christianity. Those who wish to bury the differences under relativism and a glib multiculturalism will fail.

Islam’s desire for supremacy is not directed primarily at Christianity, rather it is directed at any competitor.