Sometimes I just don’t understand. I try really hard, I do, but sometimes it’s not enough. Take for instance these three interrelated stories:
Government can’t avoid religion. This is in response to a question concerning terrorism and counter-terrorism. The author’s more disreputable conclusions is that to stamp out the ‘bad’ Muslims in the United Kingdom, the government should pour its money into the ‘good’ ones. While this is a fairly benign idea, maybe even a good one, the underlying principles are most intolerable: why should the government be giving any money to any Muslims (or Jews, Hindus, Christians for that matter)? A decision like this can only end poorly.
To outdo the her transatlantic cousins, Sarah Palin, and a whole slew of others are trying to prevent the building of a mosque near ground zero. Something about in the interest of healing, or its inappropriate, or it’s just unacceptable, as if it were every Muslim in the world who caused the Towers to fall. Some people are interpreting the creation of the mosque as a pissing on the greater glory of Ol’ Glory and are making a mockery of the the events that took place there. The real reason a mosque is being built there? Muslims live there and they want a place of worship, just like anyone else. Would anyone be up in arms about a church or a temple being built there?
And finally, the Huffington Post tries to beat everyone by asking if a civil society is possible in free economy. From the above two links, it seems only in the absence of a free market (that is, a society without government intervention) can uncivility be tolerated and promoted. Imagine if Apple or Microsoft or McDonald’s came out and said they were not willing to put up shop near a mosque. Or that they would only serve naturalized customers and no one else. Hatred and bigotry is some how seen as a crucial element in the inner workings of governments but is utterly disagreeable to us when we view it in light of companies whose reputations are built solely upon the free and voluntary interactions of the market.
Sometimes, I just really don’t understand how it all goes…
