Verboten Thoughts

Islam, Women and the West


What is the main reason was Islam is so determined not to be "conquered" by Western culture?
I assume it has something to do with the male-female relationship. If the dominance of men over women is core to this lifestyle and they (the men) can't imagine life with westernized women, then essentially they're fighting for their existence. They'll never be able (in the long run) to co-exist with the west, despite Saudi Arabia's (and the Gulf States) compromises given wealth and fundamentalism.
VERBOTEN THOUGHT: What if in some evolutionary way they are right, that men and women are not happiest in equal relationship? What if their women were "happy"? Is the fear that we go from here to approving slavery (which many of them have also)? Is it our racist-slave-owning past that has created our righteous indignation about lack of equality in gender?

War (is a force which gives us meaning)

What if, as hinted at in Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN, war is a state of mankind that is neither alien, nor something we can evolve away from? What if it was true that WAR IS A FORCE WHICH GIVES US MEANING? Note: Hedges book is classic anti-war stuff the title is some kind of "irony", but what I'm thinking is what if (that phrase) was "right"?
VERBOTEN THOUGHT: What if cultures that are attuned to militarism are destined to succeed?

Imperialism

Why is fighting for oil so bad? Where did the notion come from that people "own" the resources they happen to historically land on? Why does no one ever mention that Islam is a threat mainly because (1) We [see Lawrence of Arabia] helped create a nation for our own interests at the time, i.e. fighting the Turks in WWI (2) western technology made oil valuable. the Islamic world would be pretty much broke without oil. they had nothing to do with it other than take over oil-bearing lands by invasion in the 7th century, why then are their rights to it
"sacred"?
VERBOTEN THOUGHT: Imperialism will make a come back only the West is too exhausted (morally, too) to participate. It will come from China and perhaps India, perhaps New Russia. Non democratic countries will bring it back. We will be standing on the sidelines, feeling our moral outrage and remembering when England the US were top dogs.