[Previous entry: "This idiot must resign"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "TWO MONTHS AFTER “THE PASSION”"]

04/21/2004 Archived Entry: "Same planet, different worlds"

Posted by steve @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]

WHO DO YOU TRUST?: Brian Tiemann has an interesting post in reaction to a story about British and American Muslims who have no problems telling you that they want a massive terrorist attack to take place in the cities where they live. Says Brian:

The strength of our society—trust—is also its weakness. See, we all trust each other to a certain degree, all day long, to act in a certain way, and to behave in a certain predictable manner that's in accordance to what we say we're going to do. When that trust is intact, our society blossoms. But when we rely too much on that trust, it's so easy to subvert.

The USSR learned this long ago: communism requires the cooperation of everybody to work, but it takes only the rebellion of one person for it to fail. ...Unless you kill that person.

We have a lesser version of that problem here. We don't know how much we can trust Muslims. The article in ThisIsLondon is interspersed with statements from moderate Muslims (like the president of the Islamic Cultural Society in Luton) who insist that the firebrands are the exception, but what are we risking if we take his word over theirs? In a world where we're accustomed to far more honesty in our interpersonal dealings than we really even believe, can we even recognize deceit like this anymore, or distinguish it from harmless bluster?

Read on.