From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Jun 08 2003 - 09:35:13 MDT
On Sun, 8 Jun 2003, Steve Davies wrote:
> It does seem though that the key to undermining it
> is changing the social role of women (see Callum Brown's "Death of Christian
> Britain" for a discussion of this).
It may be worth noting that "The Hunger Project" has noted for a
decade, probably more, that one of the keys to ending hunger is
empowering women. Men, in most cultures, particularly those
where there may be religious support for a male superior role,
are not likely to give up that traditional power dominance easily.
> Why is this misleading propaganda credible though? (Or is it - I know it
> isn't in Iran but don't know about Egypt or the ME proper.)
It is going to become less so as the internet spreads (governments
can't control foreign media) unless a government enacts very strict
"filtering" policies as they have tried to do in China. But those are
doomed to failure as well.
One of the most interesting things that the U.S. could do is to launch
a satellite system to provide an alternate point of view to Al Jazeera.
Esp. if they could get it to be managed by an an "independent" group (the
Japanese or Russians perhaps???).
> Again I agree that "soft power" is the best strategy. However if undermining
> religious fundamentalism is one of the aims doesn't this involve
> disseminating what are ultimately anti-religious notions (memes if you
> prefer)?
Perhaps one should divide the problem into 2 categories --
a) Those people attracted to "radical" ideas out of frustration or boredom
or poverty or some other lack of a better opportunity; and
b) Those people attracted to "radical" ideas because they *really* believe
in their religion/cause/etc.
People in the (a) category one can reason with and if one can improve
conditions perhaps eliminate as a threat. People in the (b) category
are essentially irrational (at least from my perspective) and should
be dealt with the way you deal with any "crazy" person (realizing of
course that this varies between societies depending on their resources).
Robert
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