Theocracy: Good for them, bad for us?

Some mourn the passing of sharia in Somalia. This quote from an article in the Guardian is representative of the wistful sentiments:

'Nobody expected the Islamists to show this little political resilience,' said Matt Bryden, a consultant to the conflict-monitoring body, International Crisis Group. 'They were the first movement to pacify southern Somalia for 16 years, yet they crumbled like a pack of cards.'

Fascists are so good at pacifying. If only we were all under the thumb of some cracker with a whip and a holy book, maybe there would be world peace at last. But wait . . . that would be . . . theocracy, and theocracy is for dusky foreigners who need pacifying, innit?

Comments

[CraigC]

Those crazy little brown peoples.

[gail]

If we oppress women, blacks, and gays we're sexist and racist and homophobic. If they oppress women, sell sub Saharan Africans into slavery, and stone homosexuals, hey, it's their CULTURE.

[Major John]

The ICG hasn't met a ruthless bunch of fascito-oppressors they couldn't cotton to yet...I mean, as long as they are agianst everything that the civilized world holds dear, that is.

[John Salmon]

Gail-Contemporary liberals (i.e., leftist "soft" authoritarians), who can't see that human nature is unchanging across cultures and throughout history, simply are incapable of applying the same standards to everyone, everywhere.

More precisely they reject the very notion of "human nature"-each generation makes its own rules, and new rights are as readily invented as old ones are discarded. This leads to many things, among them the current contretemps among the Episcopagans, and the placating of terrorists from different cultures, which cultures we are obliged to "respect."

This is an unfixable defect in lefy/authoritarian thinking, at least until they become conservatives or libertarians.

[John Salmon]

That last sentence should refer to "lefty/authoritarians", not "leafy/authoritarians."

Hey-"The Leafy Authoritarians" would be a good name for the Al Gores of the world. Or for a rock band.

[gail]

And as a result they often side with dictators against people who would like to live in freedom.

[gail]

Or leaf in freedom, as the case may be.

[dorkafork]

This is an unfixable defect in lefy/authoritarian thinking, at least until they become conservatives or libertarians.

It's also becoming unfortunately common amongst conservatives in discussions of Islam. (They haven't reformed, so they will never reform, et cetera et cetera.)

[gail]

Always defining "they" as the most backward people they can glom onto.

[CGHill]

Greenpeace. Leafy authoritarians if I've ever seen one.