Thursday, March 08, 2007

It's the Culture, Stupid

Can't say that it's too shocking that the WaTimes runs the following lede:



Most Americans think culture is becoming more immoral, and they view the media -- both entertainment and news -- as prime culprits, according to a new survey.
...The survey of 2,000 American adults shows that the nation's culture war is grounded in disagreements over religious issues, such as God's role in life and whether religious belief is essential for a good and moral life, CMI Director Robert H. Knight said.
Progressives [17%], with their secular views and "situational ethics," collide with the orthodox [31%] over some of these issues, and both groups work to attract independents [46%] to their side, the report stated. This makes independents the main battlefield in the culture war, it added.
Might this decline in culture have international repercussions?
...Dinesh D'Souza argues in his new book, "The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11," that the "cultural left" in America is the primary cause of Islamic anger toward America.
The cultural left, which includes members of both major political parties and their allies in the press, academia and the nonprofit sector, has "fostered a decadent American culture that angers and repulses traditional societies, especially those in the Islamic world, that are being overwhelmed with this culture," Mr. D'Souza writes on his Web site.
(There are plenty of "conservatives" who have ripped D'Souza's book. No real surprise.)
D'Souza's thesis is in rough parallel to the line of thinking espoused by Benedict XVI, although B-16 phrases it in terms of "common human values," thereby steering the argument into the realm of Natural Law.

1 comment:

Al said...

I just finished reading D'Souza's book & found it interesting. & filled with much valuable insight. It is well researched & documented.

My short take is that he is right to the extent that there is a cultural aspect to this war & that the left has fed into that image of us that they have over there. It is what the left stands for that helps the enemy over there to gain support for their agenda. What D'Souza looks at by bringing this out IS a major facet of the causes of the attack from Bin Laden & his ilk. But, do I think it is the entire reason behind the attacks on the West, no. In that i disagree with D'Souza. Still, the book is well worth reading as it does give insight into 1 of the major reasons for the attack.

In so far as people ignore what D'Souza has to say then they are making it much more difficult, if not impossible for us to win in Iraq & elsewhere in this battle. & by listenning to what he says & actng on it a major underpinning of support for ben Laden will be knocked out making our job much easier.