|
62ba8e1
|
Of course all such conclusions about appropriate actions against the rich and powerful are based on a fundamental flaw: This is us, and that is them. This crucial principle, deeply embedded in Western culture, suffices to undermine even the most precise analogy and the most impeccable reasoning.
|
|
2006-lebanon-war
2009
thomas-friedman
the-new-york-times
western-world
lebanon
other
reasoning
hypocrisy
israel
|
Noam Chomsky |
|
29db738
|
In the pragmatist, streetwise climate of advanced postmodern capitalism, with its scepticism of big pictures and grand narratives, its hard-nosed disenchantment with the metaphysical, 'life' is one among a whole series of discredited totalities. We are invited to think small rather than big - ironically, at just the point when some of those out to destroy Western civilization are doing exactly the opposite. In the conflict between Western capitalism and radical Islam, a paucity of belief squares up to an excess of it. The West finds itself faced with a full-blooded metaphysical onslaught at just the historical point that it has, so to speak, philosophically disarmed. As far as belief goes, postmodernism prefers to travel light: it has beliefs, to be sure, but it does not have faith.
|
|
faith
religion
life
philosophy
grand-narratives
islamic-fundamentalism
philosophical-scepticism
western-world
western-culture
metaphysics
islamic-terrorism
belief
capitalism
islam
islamism
pragmatism
postmodernism
|
Terry Eagleton |
|
52d1039
|
"It is quite possible to say that the price a Negro pays for becoming articulate is to find himself, at length, with nothing to be articulate about. ("You taught me language," says Caliban to Prospero, "and my profit on't is I know how to curse.")"
|
|
black-life
western-world
western-culture
|
James Baldwin |