aneeshm
Deity
PersianBoy - you've been incredibly helpful till now . For that I thank you .
I have a few more questions .
But first , let me build up a bit of the background . Western civilisation , as defined by the renaissance and the consequent revival of the West's classical creative Greco-Roman civilisation ( and its supplanting of the non-creative Christian era which preceded it ) , is today's universal civilisation - it is all-pervasive . No matter which culture you come from , as long as you live in a settlement of any description , you are influenced by the West and its culture and civilisation . Not only are you surrounded by its artefacts , but also by its institutions . Social systems in all free societies are coming to approximate the Western model asymptotically as time goes on .
This is obviously not a process that can go on forever - Western society itself is not like a static line which can be approached , nor will other societies like India lie dormant for much longer - though it may not look like it , every Indian carries in his heart the desire to make Indian culture as all-pervasive as the West is today . India has lain dormant for so long because it was occuped by two imperialisms - the first one that of the Islamic Arabs , which completely destroyed India's wealth , and the second that of the Christian British , whose influence is more pernicious on the culture ( as well as the wealth ) of India , and which can be seen even today ( India's English educated elite are all estranged from Indian culture ) . With cultural nationalism slowly taking firmer hold , however , this will not be the case for long - people like me are actively working to undermine and destroy this new bunch of idiots who have come to dominate discourse .
Muslim societes , however , were victims of only one imperialism - that of the West . Thus , it was far easier for them to recover , and they already have recovered partially - but sadly , this recovery has taken the form of an emotional rejection of the West and its institutions and a wish to repalce them with Islamic ones . The wish in itself is not destructive . But the belief is that once Islam is imposed and the nation Islamised , the institutions will come on their own - that nobody will have to work on them , that they are the natural product of pure faith - this belief is fatal . This belief is the cause of the failure of so many Muslim societies . Equally fatal is the belief that , on the periphery of the Muslim world , there will always exist creative civilisations from which material things can be drawn - the assumption of an infinite reservior of material wealth - an assumption which was justified when Islam was expanding and conquering new territories , but not justified now that the Muslim world has been contained within itself .
Iran's Islamic revolution was born of the same desire - the people of the villages rejected the Westernised Shah and the new English and Western educated elite he sought to set up , and this rejection took the form of the revolution and the consequent Islamisation .
So tell me , PersianBoy - how successful has this rejection been ? How far has Iran succeeded in replacing Western-created systems and Western institutions ? Where are the big successes , and where are the failures ? Where , in your daily life , do you see Islam in action ?
I have a few more questions .
But first , let me build up a bit of the background . Western civilisation , as defined by the renaissance and the consequent revival of the West's classical creative Greco-Roman civilisation ( and its supplanting of the non-creative Christian era which preceded it ) , is today's universal civilisation - it is all-pervasive . No matter which culture you come from , as long as you live in a settlement of any description , you are influenced by the West and its culture and civilisation . Not only are you surrounded by its artefacts , but also by its institutions . Social systems in all free societies are coming to approximate the Western model asymptotically as time goes on .
This is obviously not a process that can go on forever - Western society itself is not like a static line which can be approached , nor will other societies like India lie dormant for much longer - though it may not look like it , every Indian carries in his heart the desire to make Indian culture as all-pervasive as the West is today . India has lain dormant for so long because it was occuped by two imperialisms - the first one that of the Islamic Arabs , which completely destroyed India's wealth , and the second that of the Christian British , whose influence is more pernicious on the culture ( as well as the wealth ) of India , and which can be seen even today ( India's English educated elite are all estranged from Indian culture ) . With cultural nationalism slowly taking firmer hold , however , this will not be the case for long - people like me are actively working to undermine and destroy this new bunch of idiots who have come to dominate discourse .
Muslim societes , however , were victims of only one imperialism - that of the West . Thus , it was far easier for them to recover , and they already have recovered partially - but sadly , this recovery has taken the form of an emotional rejection of the West and its institutions and a wish to repalce them with Islamic ones . The wish in itself is not destructive . But the belief is that once Islam is imposed and the nation Islamised , the institutions will come on their own - that nobody will have to work on them , that they are the natural product of pure faith - this belief is fatal . This belief is the cause of the failure of so many Muslim societies . Equally fatal is the belief that , on the periphery of the Muslim world , there will always exist creative civilisations from which material things can be drawn - the assumption of an infinite reservior of material wealth - an assumption which was justified when Islam was expanding and conquering new territories , but not justified now that the Muslim world has been contained within itself .
Iran's Islamic revolution was born of the same desire - the people of the villages rejected the Westernised Shah and the new English and Western educated elite he sought to set up , and this rejection took the form of the revolution and the consequent Islamisation .
So tell me , PersianBoy - how successful has this rejection been ? How far has Iran succeeded in replacing Western-created systems and Western institutions ? Where are the big successes , and where are the failures ? Where , in your daily life , do you see Islam in action ?
