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RedbeardUH · 03-20-2006, 09:43 PM

Culture is at war. Last century the West fought the Red, the Dictator and the Emperor. The West won. Here in the 21st century the West finds itself at war again with the Middle East. More accurately, the West is warring Islamic culture. I say culture, and not religion, conscientiously. The Western culture promotes secularism, democracy and capitalism. The Islamic culture promotes Islam, theocracy and the oil market. Yes, I am being overly simple, but I am trying to draw a picture for you: not a black and white one, but a more insidious one: 'A' and 'not A.' Black depends on white for its meaning, the two go hand in hand. To see what I mean, imagine the newspaper as all black, or my font to be all white. 'A' and 'not A,' however, cannot exist together; its the law of non-contradiction. The West and Islamic cultures contradict each other. Therefore they cannot, in their current form, exist together.
The West lost something. It lost its religion, its spirit, its soul. Many things have replaced it, skepticism, money, materials, hedonism, the first amendment. The things that replaced it are not all bad, but neither are they all good. It does not matter what replaced our soul, what matters is that the West lost something. I think it might be safe to argue that the West, comprised mainly of Judao-Christians, lost it during the holocaust of World War II.
The Islamic culture has something. It has a soul. It has not entered the age of Nietzsche's Nihilism and Hume's skepticism. It does not question because the soul answers. It does not look beyond the Bible because the Koran tells them everything. Such unquestioning faith is not good, but neither is it bad. It simply is the way it is.
Right now the West is bringing Nihilism and skepticism to the Islamic world. They do not want it. Materials, technology, progress, such things are not worth the onus of Nihilism. They have seen the effects of Nihilism on the West and their response to it is clear: No vacancy here. But the West set a precedence: Israel. The West made it clear that they could and would create a vacancy. How insulting Israel must be to them! Think back when you were a child and a grown-up forced you to play nicely with someone whom you did not like. No one in that situation is to be blamed (hadn't the Jews paid for Israel?) but blame is not necessary for justified hate. It's nobody's fault, but everybody's problem. C'est la vie.
Some might argue that the West has a soul too. It does not. Assuredly, some individuals do, but before you exclaim “I do” ask yourself this: If your God came down and asked you to brutally murder strangers, would you? (“Ah! But my God would not ask such a thing.” They all have.) If a spiritual leader asked you to give up your life, for no reason other than to prove you believe, would yoau? Without questioning? I have no doubt that most people in the Middle East would. I have no doubt that the terrorists (and do not doubt it, they were terrorists) on the planes of 9/11 were smiling with confidence. The West has lost something: its confidence.
Do you see the picture yet? We are trying to instill within the Islamic culture doubt, skepticism and Nihilism, sugar coated with democracy and freedom, of course. But they do not want it. The two of us, the West and Middle East, were never meant to be. I can offer no suggestions, the collision is underway. I only ask that when you see the last struggle of the Islamic culture (one more time, culture, not religion), do not see it as barbaric and uncivilized, but rather see it as a beautiful last stand of the soul and confidence of religion. See it as what we used to have. A beautiful thing is dying. But do not blame yourself, the doom of Nihilism begun its assault on the soul even before Nietzsche. It was inevitable, God help us all.

Eric Bakota
Senior in English at the University of Houston

03-20-2006, 09:43 PM	#1 (permalink)
RedbeardUH Upright	An open letter on the West vs. Middle East Culture is at war. Last century the West fought the Red, the Dictator and the Emperor. The West won. Here in the 21st century the West finds itself at war again with the Middle East. More accurately, the West is warring Islamic culture. I say culture, and not religion, conscientiously. The Western culture promotes secularism, democracy and capitalism. The Islamic culture promotes Islam, theocracy and the oil market. Yes, I am being overly simple, but I am trying to draw a picture for you: not a black and white one, but a more insidious one: 'A' and 'not A.' Black depends on white for its meaning, the two go hand in hand. To see what I mean, imagine the newspaper as all black, or my font to be all white. 'A' and 'not A,' however, cannot exist together; its the law of non-contradiction. The West and Islamic cultures contradict each other. Therefore they cannot, in their current form, exist together. The West lost something. It lost its religion, its spirit, its soul. Many things have replaced it, skepticism, money, materials, hedonism, the first amendment. The things that replaced it are not all bad, but neither are they all good. It does not matter what replaced our soul, what matters is that the West lost something. I think it might be safe to argue that the West, comprised mainly of Judao-Christians, lost it during the holocaust of World War II. The Islamic culture has something. It has a soul. It has not entered the age of Nietzsche's Nihilism and Hume's skepticism. It does not question because the soul answers. It does not look beyond the Bible because the Koran tells them everything. Such unquestioning faith is not good, but neither is it bad. It simply is the way it is. Right now the West is bringing Nihilism and skepticism to the Islamic world. They do not want it. Materials, technology, progress, such things are not worth the onus of Nihilism. They have seen the effects of Nihilism on the West and their response to it is clear: No vacancy here. But the West set a precedence: Israel. The West made it clear that they could and would create a vacancy. How insulting Israel must be to them! Think back when you were a child and a grown-up forced you to play nicely with someone whom you did not like. No one in that situation is to be blamed (hadn't the Jews paid for Israel?) but blame is not necessary for justified hate. It's nobody's fault, but everybody's problem. C'est la vie. Some might argue that the West has a soul too. It does not. Assuredly, some individuals do, but before you exclaim “I do” ask yourself this: If your God came down and asked you to brutally murder strangers, would you? (“Ah! But my God would not ask such a thing.” They all have.) If a spiritual leader asked you to give up your life, for no reason other than to prove you believe, would yoau? Without questioning? I have no doubt that most people in the Middle East would. I have no doubt that the terrorists (and do not doubt it, they were terrorists) on the planes of 9/11 were smiling with confidence. The West has lost something: its confidence. Do you see the picture yet? We are trying to instill within the Islamic culture doubt, skepticism and Nihilism, sugar coated with democracy and freedom, of course. But they do not want it. The two of us, the West and Middle East, were never meant to be. I can offer no suggestions, the collision is underway. I only ask that when you see the last struggle of the Islamic culture (one more time, culture, not religion), do not see it as barbaric and uncivilized, but rather see it as a beautiful last stand of the soul and confidence of religion. See it as what we used to have. A beautiful thing is dying. But do not blame yourself, the doom of Nihilism begun its assault on the soul even before Nietzsche. It was inevitable, God help us all. Eric Bakota Senior in English at the University of Houston __________________ He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you -Friedrich Nietzsche