Good call, FL—I thought of Sayyid Qutb just before I saw that you mentioned him. Just look what the Western university did to Tom Wolfe and I think you can rest your case.
a phenomenon that's seriously overstated and, when it does exist, is widely ridiculed by students and colleagues alike
That's so true. And would be particularly true in the math/science/engineering classes our terrorist types are usually enrolled in. Atta wasn't majoring in comp. lit.
And it's also true, at least in my experience, that the visceral anti-Western reaction is mostly about sex. "They hate us for our freedoms" is a brilliantly slippery phrase, because it's true for senses of freedom having to do with sexuality, though not necessarily true for senses of freedom having to do with democracy and political participation.
The most frequent condemnatory word used about the West from Iranians is faw-sed, which means "rotten," in the sense of "decadent." And what that really means is: loose women. For people who are at all traditional, the freedom of women in the West is shocking and revolting. When you consider that, like the Qutb bit says, they can also see the same hypocrisies we decry, like racism, then, for them, there's nothing worth salvaging in this culture.
This great article describes the terrorists:
http://www.fpri.org/enotes/20041101.middleeast.sageman.understandingterrornetworks.html
Liked ogged said, they are not comparitive lit majors perverted by radical professors. They tend to be lonely science majors studying in another country who form isolated groups with others from their country of origin around radical mosques.
The disdain for sexuality shown by the terrorists may be related to the inability of these students to get dates. The lack of women in science/engineering majors may be a bigger problem than people realize. Why does Lawrence Summers hate america?
joe o,
I think you are onto something. I've thought for awhile that that was the same way Libertarians were created.
For whatever reason be unsuccessful at getting what you want, then suppress your desires, and voila, you invent a new world order with, suprise, you on top!
That's interesting, Tripp, but I'm looking at different data here. There are people who Nature designated to be dateless—some people really should be alone. Libertarians are those prototerrorists who defied their destiny by molesting each other. As far as I can tell, libertarians have the grossest sexuality ever.
For whatever reason be unsuccessful at getting what you want, then suppress your desires, and voila, you invent a new world order with, suprise, you on top!
hee hee, sounds just like Plato.
uh-oh. Terrorists and Libertarians don't have sex. Ogged and Fontana don't have sex. Ogged and Fontana are terrorists or libertarians.
"libertarians have the grossest sexuality ever"
wha? gross as in unpleasant? large?
Gross sexuality is like sexuality, but 144 times as potent.