Lately I've been seeing some dumb "theories" propagated, claiming to explain why the world's 1.2 billion Muslims are so darn violent, backward, what have you.
Both the conclusions and the explanations are utter bunk. Why? In a word: complexity. When we try to explain 1.2 billion people around the world with phrases like "sexual rage" or "masochism" we're really doing a disservice to the human race, and our own intelligence. As Mishra points out:
"It is no doubt comforting to cover a vast socioeconomic terrain and its baffling particularities, oddities, and discontinuities with a blanket explanation like "Muslim rage". But in a multilayered world of restless identities, the vocabulary of description and analysis must expand. This is less difficult than it sounds.
"Most of us have an instinctive understanding of how our own societies work: how differences in ability, income and status play out in public life, how material interests are negotiated and racial-religious conflicts managed, or how Lib Dems come to work with Tories. It may not be asking too much to credit other societies with at least some internal complexity while acknowledging that they might do things differently out there. The only other option seems to consist of an unattractive moral narcissism, and a rather weird obsession with headscarfs."
By Pankaj Mishra
January 6, 2010 | Guardian
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