This is from James DeMeo’s distribution list. DeMeo, intellectual heir to Wilhelm Reich, takes a very dim view of Arab culture, or rather (again, stemming from Reich’s work) believes that desert culture leads naturally to social rigidities that are the cause of many neuroses and, in passing, lead to violence, suppression of women, etc. It’s a theory that is hard to summarize and easy to ridicule, but that in fact deserves much more attention than it has gotten to date. I don’t know anything about the background of the author. Just because someone describes himself as a former liberal doesn’t mean that he really was, of course. Describing oneself as a reformed sinner is a very old technique.
Also, since Harris appears to have taken the official story of Sept. 11 as gospel, he appears not to have read — or at any rate to have disbelieved — such massive investigatory tomes as Crossing the Rubicon. If he thinks the official story closely resembles what happened, I have a bridge to sell him. Nonetheless, here is DeMeo’s introductory paragraph on Harris, then Harris’ article.
James Author Sam Harris is himself a liberal, who came around to understanding the Muslim threat some years back. His words are cogent, and again indicate the challenge being faced by the West is not something fabricated by Christian conservatives, nor as created by anything done or not done by America, or by any Western nation, nor by Israel. It is stunning that one even needs to say such a thing, as if after the Rape of Poland and China, and Pearl Harbor, one needed to be reminded that the real problem was Hitler and Hirohito, and not Roosevelt or Churchill. But that’s what the article addresses, the willful blindness of most liberals to where the danger lies. From the L.A. Times, of all places, a very liberal newspaper. JD
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-harris18sep18,0,622365.story?track=mostviewed-homepage
Head-in-the-Sand Liberals
Western civilization really is at risk from Muslim extremists.
By Sam Harris, SAM HARRIS is the author of “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason.” His next book, “Letter to a Christian Nation,” will be published this week by Knopf. samharris.org.
September 18, 2006
TWO YEARS AGO I published a book highly critical of religion, “The End of Faith.” In it, I argued that the world’s major religions are genuinely incompatible, inevitably cause conflict and now prevent the emergence of a viable, global civilization. In response, I have received many thousands of letters and e-mails from priests, journalists, scientists, politicians, soldiers, rabbis, actors, aid workers, students - from people young and old who occupy every point on the spectrum of belief and nonbelief.
This has offered me a special opportunity to see how people of all creeds and political persuasions react when religion is criticized. I am here to report that liberals and conservatives respond very differently to the notion that religion can be a direct cause of human conflict.
This difference does not bode well for the future of liberalism.
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