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62ba8e1
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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.
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2006-lebanon-war
2009
hypocrisy
israel
lebanon
other
reasoning
the-new-york-times
thomas-friedman
western-world
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Noam Chomsky |
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29db738
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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.
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belief
capitalism
faith
grand-narratives
islam
islamic-fundamentalism
islamic-terrorism
islamism
life
metaphysics
philosophical-scepticism
philosophy
postmodernism
pragmatism
religion
western-culture
western-world
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Terry Eagleton |
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52d1039
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"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.")"
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black-life
western-culture
western-world
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James Baldwin |