>
>I'm not so sure about "also." Is this not the relevant distinction between
>"unintended" and "unforeseeable?"
Is what not the relevant distinction?
>But hatred of some of the most positive Western values (yes, there are
>some)
>is not as inconsequential as some on this list would like to believe,
>either. The left is in for a rough ride until we're all willing to
>acknowledge that.
Leaving aside the question about whether it is ethnocentric to call Western values "Western," something I have done in print (as you know, Yoshie), you are in the wrong neighborhood, Luke, if youy think this is the hidey-hole of the relativist pomo academic left who is afraid to criticise female genital mutilation or whatever because it done by Other Cultures. Anyway, I am a certain as I could be that the bin Ladans of this world would regard the "Western" habit of electing legislatures and enforcing due process in criminal procedure, etc. as a harmless if decadent heresy, not worth the expenditure of a single car bomb or suicide hijacker, if the Western democracies didn't keep invading and bombing the Mideast, supporting Israel's occupation and military adventures, and generally acting as if our superior values gave us the right to ignore them whenever it conflicted with the naked self-interest of our rulibg classes.
jks
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