As always, Tom Friedman manages to come up with an incisive article with a lot of clarity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05friedman.html?src=me&ref=general
The days are over when America used to be the sole superpower. But now what? Well, so now, we have an Iran with crazy ideas and a crazy leadership doing crazy things and we have an Afghanistan caught in its eternal web of poverty and poppy not to mention religious poppiness too.
Looking back upon the history of the 20th century, the story seems simple enough in retrospect: couple of World Wars which were essentially European wars with competing national or racial or political identities and ideologies.
What will the history of the 21st century look alike a hundred years from now? Perhaps there will be lots of little or regional turmoils and no big ones on the scale of those world wars. The key driver of those conflicts will be differing religious worldviews — truly a tragedy that all these religious ideas which have long outlived their relevance not to mention validity still can arouse so much feelings amidst people. I wish people would yawn at any mention of religion or any religious references whatsoever. But I am afraid that day is nowhere close to us. Being a citizen of India, I get to see how deeply embedded in people's psyches religion is. Of course, people in the so-called advanced countries are hardly much better ... it's easy enough to whip up religious hysteria in those nations as well despite their self-proclaimed advancements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05friedman.html?src=me&ref=general
The days are over when America used to be the sole superpower. But now what? Well, so now, we have an Iran with crazy ideas and a crazy leadership doing crazy things and we have an Afghanistan caught in its eternal web of poverty and poppy not to mention religious poppiness too.
Looking back upon the history of the 20th century, the story seems simple enough in retrospect: couple of World Wars which were essentially European wars with competing national or racial or political identities and ideologies.
What will the history of the 21st century look alike a hundred years from now? Perhaps there will be lots of little or regional turmoils and no big ones on the scale of those world wars. The key driver of those conflicts will be differing religious worldviews — truly a tragedy that all these religious ideas which have long outlived their relevance not to mention validity still can arouse so much feelings amidst people. I wish people would yawn at any mention of religion or any religious references whatsoever. But I am afraid that day is nowhere close to us. Being a citizen of India, I get to see how deeply embedded in people's psyches religion is. Of course, people in the so-called advanced countries are hardly much better ... it's easy enough to whip up religious hysteria in those nations as well despite their self-proclaimed advancements.
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