A third way

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Apr 14, 2016 at 14:40

Hello, Ron. You said,

"What distresses this reader is the apparent compete absence of any political leader or well-known public intellectual who both opposes either "Islamism" or Islam itself, AND at the same time opposes the extremist Capitalism that has been embraced by the Republican party for over 20 years."

You have just described me, except:

1. I'm not a political leader, nor well-known, and
2. I disagree with Islam and with extremist capitalism; but I don't go around "opposing" either -- I have better, more positive things to do.

There might be something to this. For one thing, most people in the country are probably somewhat like me in these things. Political leaders and well-known people, for some reason, are not. One reason might be, that in order to be a "leader", you have to have some place you want to "lead" people to. That calls for a fairly focused life; in fact, I think the most famous political leaders, like Hitler, Napoleon and Alexander the Great, were focused to the point of being unbalanced. Most people are not like that: they're more accepting and easy-going.

As for being "well-known", that usually means that you've done something outstanding, that attracts peoples' attention: starred in a movie or TV show, won some sort of competition or award. These activities, again, require very focussed lives. Former World Chess Champion Bobby Fisher was such a person: He was so focussed on playing chess, he could do little else effectively -- including getting along with people.

Maybe being focused on combating Islamism AND on fighting predator capitalism are just too much for any one person: They're very different endeavors, requiring a devotion of energy and resources in two very different areas; and they're practiced by very opposite sorts of people: The Islamists want to destroy wantonly, to bring the world back to the Sixth Century, whereas the Capitalist beasts want the world to be peaceful and orderly, like a great human ant colony.

Both the things you mentioned are great evils in the world. As I say, I don't have it in me to go out and try to "oppose" such things. I leave that to the angels. My job, as I see it in this world, is to tell them about God, who is neither wantonly destructive like the Islamists nor maniacally controlling and organized like the capitalists: He is the very essence of life; creative life, happy life, abundant life. If a person comes to know Him and follows His way, he too will have this sort of life.

Shalom shalom :-)

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".