by Barry Rubin
Bill Clinton, former
The globe, he said, is now "too unstable ... too unequal and ... completely unsustainable."
I'm tempted to point out that there have been plenty of times, actually far more of the time, when the world was even more unstable and unequal. But let that go.
What's
"A non-zero sum game is when both parties can win….If you want it to change, you have to find a way for everyone to win."
This is noble and very rational. It is also, in some respects, insane. No, not everyone can "win" because each individual, group, and nation defines for itself what winning means. And there are contradictions, which lead to what we call conflict and war.
On one level, what
And after all, if we are so "multicultural" why can't we understand that people in, say,
On another level,
And of course there is another problem because for purposes of environmentalism and to fight man-made global warming (whether or not this is a real threat), the Obama Administration and other Western governments are proposing policies that would slow down development. That's why countries like
"The Haitians are rather like the Palestinians. They are only poor in their own back yard and they deserve a better deal and a chance to build a better future for their children and I think we can give it to them." The students applauded.
Well, they do have one important thing in common: in both cases, these people are dominated by a bad and corrupt leadership. Yet there is an all-important difference: the Haitians live in a traditional dictatorship, one that has no particular ideology but is just engaged in stealing money to protect its privileges.
With the Palestinians there is a second level, too: they overwhelmingly support their rulers and have an ideology seeking total victory. In short, the Haitians are, to a larger extent, hapless victims, the Palestinians are, in general of course, indeed shaping their own fate by supporting a radical movement and political behavior that makes solution of their problems impossible.
Yet
What
The world's people are suffering because they aren't as smart as we are in seeing how easily everything can be wonderful. But their problems can be easily fixed if we just solve them by passing out the riches and teaching them to be like us. Why should they cling to their guns, religion, and customs? People are only interested in material well-being, after all, so would be quite eager to follow this path and will really love the
You see, if you really examine what these people on the left are saying they share the same basic premises they profess to hate: materialism, patronizing imperialism, a sense of cultural and intellectual superiority over the rest of the world, a refusal to recognize differences among nations and peoples, and at the same time putting additional obstacles in the way of the poor.
And now for the best part!
In discussing the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad,
No, it isn't just information. Mere information doesn't make people into terrorists. The terrorists didn't fly planes into the
They want total victory. They don't want some half-way world of compromise. And they have an idea of "a better deal" and "a better future" for their children quite different from that held by Clinton or his audience of high-minded, well-intentioned people.
Let me explain it in words that
It's THE IDEOLOGY STUPID
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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