NPR: "Islamic Exceptionalism" And The Need To Hate One Another Peacefully

Dear C,

In the following interview, the author builds his case slowly.

NPR: "Islamic Exceptionalism" And The Need To Hate One Another Peacefully

An Interview With Egytian-American Shadi Hamid

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/06/npr-islamic-exceptionalism-and-need-to.html

Midway in, I found myself applauding Hamid's view that humankind's central need is for "meaning," and that everyone's philosophical and epistemological underpinnings have been shaken in recent decades.

On both sides of the aisle, we have experienced psycho-spiritual upheaval -- and consequent loss of meaning.

"Pagan And Christian In An Age Of Anxiety"
E.R. Dodds
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/pagan-and-christian-in-age-of-anxiety.html

Conspiracy Thinking, The Death Of Shared Identity And The Collapse Of Common Purpose

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/06/conspiracy-thinking-death-of-shared.html

Millennials Are Losing Interest In Democracy

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/millennials-are-rapidly-losing-interest-in-democracy/

Rocked by this seismism, many "unsettled" people take refuge in traditional values, joining movements that support "ancient values," sensing that social validation has unparalleled power to dilute or dispel "individual doubt," and often replacing it with the enveloping reassurance of Mass Movement.

Islamist jihad (and mirror image "crusades" by Christian conservatives) provide an overarching, "heavenly" matrix as surely as Hitler's Nuremberg rallies, Christian autos de fé -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-da-f%C3%A9 -- the awe-inspiring grandeur of contemporary megachurches and mesmerizing "stadium events" from Springsteen/Stones concerts to Obama, Bernie and Trump rallies. 

Here in the States, we have circled the wagons and hunkered down in our ideological silos.

In the background, hyper-politicized radio-and-television supply an "All-American" blend of fake news, inviolable individuality and "call-in" collectivity. 

Thus "teleported" by media, it is not even necessary to leave our couches to experience the deep social satisfaction of "belonging to something bigger." 

We "feel" that we are in charge of "the remote." But remoteness is in charge of us.

At the same time, single-person households have reached unprecedented numbers while "screen time" displaces actual "face time" and "bowling alone" devastates "social capital." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone 

It doen't take much suspension of my socio-political "hopefulness" to "see" that the United States is collapsing as surely (and as unexpectedly) as the Soviet Union did in the early '90s.

Surrounded by "convenience" and "creature comforts" it is hard to discern our peril, much less be moved by it. 

Even so, the collapse of America's vestigial democracy is just one sizeable terror attack away - and the Soviet experience shows how quickly "the unthinkable" can happen.

Trump Will Go Full-Throttle Fascist Following The First Major Terror Attack.
Putin Knows This. (He Also Knows How To Hack The United States.)
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/01/trump-will-go-full-throttle-fascist.html

Princeton Researches Conclude That U.S. Is No Longer A Democracy

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/princeton-concludes-what-kind-of.html

It is not hard to envision the division of the United States into "Jesus Land" and a new political federation linking the West Coast, Canada and the blue states of the northeast. 

As a University of Toronto graduate, the prospect of "The United States of Canada" is appealing: it would prevent the aggressively ignorant and unusually degraded people of "Jesus Land" from rallying their political energy around criticism of "The Left."

"Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of Canada Blog Posts"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/compendium-my-blog-posts-concerning.html

And -- if my crystal ball is correct -- we will see (with the possible exception of "Lone Star" Texas) the spiteful states that comprise "Jesus Land" begging readmission to The Union. 

Or they can stay in their self-generated wilderness evermore. Good riddance!

One way or the other, The Civil War will finally come to an end.

The Civil War: White Christians Slaughtering One Another On A Scale ISIS Can Only Dream Of

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-civil-war-white-christians.htm

"A Southerner Explains Tea Party Radicalism: The Civil War Is Not Over"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-southerner-explains-tea-party.html

The Civil War: White Christians Slaughtering One Another On A Scale ISIS Can Only Dream Of

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-civil-war-white-christians.html

Pax. Shalom. Salaam.

Alan