Re: LOTR and 20th Century Western European Prejudices

In article 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
[snip]
> 
> The end of history meant the end of the jihad against everyone.  The
> west was seen to have won.  It reigned supreme, with no challengers on
> the horizon.


Well, pretty much.

A millenium ago (plus or minus quite a lot, actually) there came a split 
in ultimate philosophy. To put it in religious terms, the Islamic world 
decided that God could be squeezed between two pieces of pasteboard, and 
that the people who did that were to be put in charge of everything; the 
West decided that God's Creation was greater than any single piece of it, 
particularly the odd-shaped bits forming any given book, and set out to 
investigate that Creation in detail.

As it turns out, it's much more difficult to forge, say, Jupiter or the 
Dirac Equations than it is to forge an angel's directives. The result has 
been that the West has been conspicuously successful, and the Dar al 
Islam has not.

Certainly a culture that cannot even manufacture the explosives it uses 
to blow up children (including its own) is unlikely to provide a serious 
threat to one that puts things in orbit without worrying about collisions 
with coffins. The Western culture that resulted from Objectivism reigns 
supreme, challenged only by those other cultures that adopt some similar 
ruling philosophy. Our dealings with Islam are rather similar to our 
dealings with cockroaches -- unpleasant, and we may not care for the 
methods required and are always searching for ways with fewer side 
effects, but even if they crawl over the butter it won't keep us from 
being fed regularly.

Regards,
Ric