@Political Interest
Hello Political Interest my friend!
Thank you for understanding, Annatar. Again this response comes late.
You're welcome and no worries; anytime you post you give food for thought.
I would also imagine that some level of self-doubt is necessary. Self-doubt is I think a sign of intellectual caution.
Too much doubt of self induces paralysis I suppose, lol, but that doesn't seem to be a problem with you; pretty well balanced.
It is difficult for me to understand career politicains who are only interested in glamour, money and power. If they wanted to be rich and famous they could go into business. I've never understood being in government just for the sake of it, especially if you can't enact any of your ideas or actually campaign and then implement what you campaigned on.
Hirelings of others I suppose, who go into politics already cognizant of the fact and are okay with it as long as they get their benefits. Ultimately it's the mystery of iniquity at work, a puzzle.
It's fascinating that everywhere where they actively persecuted religion, notably in the communist countries, there was a resurgence when liberalism emerged from the 1990s onwards. In the Slavic world people became interested in Christianity again. There was an Islamic revival in the former communist countries of Central Asia and in the North Caucasus. In China there has been a large increase in the number of Christians.
It is fascinating indeed, I think that it can't be persecution alone that produces these effects, but it helps to be tested in the fire to show your love and devotion as you understand it.
In the West we did not have this type of persecution, people just lost interest in organised religion. I can't understand why when we can practice any religion we want to there is such little interest in it among the general population. It is not as if we are going to be arrested or denounced for being religious.
But perhaps it is more sublte than this? In the West it was not necessary to use harsh methods of repression to put down religious activity but cultural pressure and assimilation into post-modernity has meant that the conformity of the masses is more thorough than even the most Stalinist workers republic.
I agree, because not least for the reason that Modernity creates a worldview that can easily spread and be amplified at a moment's notice. Even if one were not to hold to my own traditional Christian views on Cosmology, Biology, etc..., One could agree, I think, that there is more in common between your average ''Liberal'' and ''Conservative'' because they are both taught Copernicanism, Darwinism, Einstein, and so forth. Both are largely secular and share more common assumptions about the world and reality than either realizes, the ''Conservative'' being stalled out on an earlier stage of modern thinking.
I often despair when I chance upon new information that upsets my world view. I have actually had sleepless nights because of it. In the end I have to realise that this is just part of living in the world, internal peace of mind and absolute conviction of one's world view is very difficult to achieve. Again there needs to be some measure of faith and hope.
I have had less and less of those trust issues myself about being wrong or right. I'm more certain now, but if I'm wrong I have hope that it won't be held too harshly against me, every idle word.
If we didn't speculate I don't think we would have any type of interest in any intellectual activity, we probably wouldn't even be on PoFo.
Indeed, that's a fact! Lol
What we will notice is that Europe will start to have a conflict within itself between religious and secular citizens. Religious citizens will mostly be Muslims. But eventually I think most Europeans will eventually lose the choice of being liberal. Being liberal and post-modern will not be a sustainable future, I think in large part because of demography. Contrary to 2000s vintage type opinions most Muslims are not going to just adopt the hedonism and hyper-individualism of Western post-modernity just because they live in the middle of it. There will be a fundamental difference of opinion between Muslim citizens and secular ones over issues like gender relations, sexual freedoms and even the question of democracy itself.
My mental map of the future of Europe has this look about it; Islam being dominant over all of Europe to the Elbe and the Danube rivers, with Britain Islamic, and Wales, Scotland and Ireland non-Islamic. The Iberian, Italian, and Balkans Peninsulas under the control of the followers of Muhammad, basically all the former Roman Empire and then some.
There will be Muslims and Christians, but most Secularists will be dead or, having a measure of self-preservation and felicity for this life, will convert to Islam.
There is some level of indifference as well, I would imagine. I suspect that a large amount of people are just not interested in religion.
The Pagan view of life; ''what's in it for me?'' And if they come to believe there's Nobody there to deliver on a bargain, they turn from superstition to atheism. Most Neo-Pagans these days are Atheists or Agnostics who like the trappings of religious belief but cannot abide Monotheism.
I think all of our lives are a choice between following the Lord God and not following Him.
Yes, right up to the end, but God is merciful.
I am sure there will be. And I would hope to be part of them if only I would respond sooner!
Don't worry, everything happens in it's time for a reason.
Agreed, we definitely have such a responsiblity.
I think the observations offered in this thread are very honest and insightful.
Thank you, I'm trying anyway.
Very much so. And it is somewhat of an irony that people with our political backgrounds are the ones warning about extremism and contiuned bifurcation of the political extremes.
A definite irony, lol. Without Monarchs, we tend to teem and crash like waves upon each other, without real purpose what for all our ersatz devotion to political religions.
I see nothing wrong with trying to make a better world. Marx's error was not in trying to improve material conditions but his belief in class struggle and his anti-religious stance. I dare say we can even have the trappings of socialism without its excesses.
It's possible, I'm looking at it still.
It could be that syncretic politics will be the trend of the future. Perhaps these new syncretic ideologies will be the basis of radicalism in the latter 21st century?
If the previous couple centuries are any clue, I'm thinking that these ideologies will be the basis for new radicalism, to a point.
I have noticed that Anarcho-Capitalism which has been mentioned is a very strong current in a lot of these far right groups emerging, especially in the US. It may be because I have more of a European centric perspective that I did not notice it, but certainly in North America there appears to be such a development.
It certainly is of great interest to me, and I do think that this trend of more Anarcho-Capitalism, de facto or otherwise, will continue.
Do you think they will play a sort of role between the Neo-Fascists and Neo-Communists?
I see the emerging Right as being a temporary coalition between the Anarcho-Capitalists and the Neo-Fascists, Neo-Communists will turn elsewhere...
What role do you think Islamists will play in all this?
Islamists are the future of the Right, of Anarcho-Capitalism, and vice versa. Neo-Fascists will die out or turn Left. This is what I will explore next.