If the third world is on fire, and ours soon will be, it has nothing to do with religion and could not be cured by philosophy. It is due to economic greed, exploitation and resource depletion and degradation, and of course, burning fossil fuels. Islam itself is mostly against globalization and the erosion of their traditional cultures and exploitation of the resources that goes with it. — John
At the risk of sounding too philosophical, courage is contextual. If you're not raised in a context where courage is required or exemplified, you won't have much courage. If you are, you will. So, "the greatest generation" lived in the reality of WWII. They had courage. But because of the context. If we live in a cowardly society, it's due largely to our context, and our context is due largely to the previous generations that have handed us the culture we've inherited. We shape it and morph it ourselves, but we do so within our context. I hate how liberal that sounds (I'm fairly apolitical), but I don't know how else to phrase it. — Noble Dust
They're not responsible for their situation. As "enlightened" intellectuals, we like to say that all men have autonomy and can change their situation. But how true is that, on an every day scale? — Noble Dust
Autonomy requires education, it requires enlightenment (interpret that word however you want). And if we're talking metaphors (I have a tendency to be anal about metaphors), America isn't spiritually fat; we're spiritually malnourished. — Noble Dust
Again, this goes back to my comments about sheep. "Unfortunately"? Again you're implying that the world needs to be more intellectual. I disagree. The rare jewel of the intellectual mind bears itself out; the value of that mind is self-evident. It's value is to give, not to control. Like the Tao, it relinquishes control. Therein lies it's "power". True intellectual power is always self-abrogating. Anything else is a masquerade of power and charisma over others. — Noble Dust
The decline of philosophy, though, has more to do with philosophy itself. Disciplines run their course. Philology is no longer a discipline. Philosophy is a fading discipline. This has less to do with the world going to shit, and more to do with the changing landscape of human consciousness, regardless of whether or not you and I particularly like it. — Noble Dust
Are you making an argument? I honestly can't tell. — Noble Dust
Disapproving of the ways of others will not help in the context of international relations where there are great differences between existing cultures. It might work within societies more or less unified by sets of laws, common practices and beliefs, but if applied outside that context can only widen the rift, and further the division.
As I see it, what you are spouting is egregiously prejudiced, hysterical fundamentalist nonsense. — John
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