I hope you're right that fundamentalism is on the wane. I can't help but think it's not, though. The world might have the resources to deal with poverty and lack of education, but are we actually doing it? Overpopulation has continued at such a rate (it took us from the beginning of time until about 1900 to get to 1 billion; at 6.5 billion now, why aren't more of us worried?) that now many poor nations have a huge percentage of their population which is under the age of 18. Overpopulation, lack of education, lack of good jobs, lack of good prospects (particularly for young males) --- all tend to lead towards desperation, which is a breeding ground for fundamentalism.
So either the perceived uptick in religious fundamentalism represents (as you suggest) the last gasp of a burned-out idea (people tend to scream the loudest when they're on the verge of losing entrenched power) --- or it's just an uptick. I hope you're right, Mike, but I have to say I'm not too hopeful that the trends towards religious fundamentalism is going to abate soon. Rather than conflating manic elections (some of which seem to be resulting in theocracies, it seems, but I guess that's OK with this administration) with democracy, we should be promoting the idea that real democracy takes a truly informed electorate. But all that takes education and trying to stay informed at something beyond the Fox News/USA Today level. Instead, we continue as a nation along our current anti-intellectual path (not just anti-intellectual, but proudly so). With Dubya as philosopher king, we haven't much of a chance of mending our ways in the next couple of years.
I never thought we'd have a president who'd make me feel actually nostalgic for Bush the 1st or Reagan, but Dubya's done it for me.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2006-02-27 05:39 am (UTC)So either the perceived uptick in religious fundamentalism represents (as you suggest) the last gasp of a burned-out idea (people tend to scream the loudest when they're on the verge of losing entrenched power) --- or it's just an uptick. I hope you're right, Mike, but I have to say I'm not too hopeful that the trends towards religious fundamentalism is going to abate soon. Rather than conflating manic elections (some of which seem to be resulting in theocracies, it seems, but I guess that's OK with this administration) with democracy, we should be promoting the idea that real democracy takes a truly informed electorate. But all that takes education and trying to stay informed at something beyond the Fox News/USA Today level. Instead, we continue as a nation along our current anti-intellectual path (not just anti-intellectual, but proudly so). With Dubya as philosopher king, we haven't much of a chance of mending our ways in the next couple of years.
I never thought we'd have a president who'd make me feel actually nostalgic for Bush the 1st or Reagan, but Dubya's done it for me.