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Milton Viorst, in a recently published
article, proposed that the idea of democracy may not be possible in the middle east because they had no Renaissance.
How to have elections where a party will be elected that will suspend all elections in the future? In general what is done is that these kinds of elections are suspended. The people are not allowed to vote for an anti-democratic government opposed to the one that has suspended the vote to prevent the change over. Something of an irony in some Islamic countries like Morocco or Algeria. In Iraq, the majority is Shiite Muslims who do not want a democracy, but rather a religious state. How is the US, (not that the Bush corporation wouldn't prefer an easily controlled autocracy anyway), to set up a democracy that is anything but a sham? This is the problem with Muslim countries, and with fundamentalism in general the world over; there is no separation between church and state. This is because the fundamentalists are supposed to live their religion all the time and not just on the sabeth. Most religions of the west are monotheist. There are two ways to interpret the idea of monotheism. First: one God is considered as everything all the time, including all aspects of every given present experience of the individual. The second is that there is only one God, but that God does not inhabit the earth. In the first case where God is considered to pervade the earth, the reality of the present given world may be considered to be a religious or spiritual state. In fact, not understood by those in the west was the ban by the Taliban on music in public places, except for perhaps that sanctioned by the church. This was because this 'noise pollution' is considered to despoil the reality of present natural experience. This kind of strict attitude was much like the first immigrants to America. When there is considered to be no distinction between heaven and earth or when the earth is considered to be a holy place, to be respected and revered, it is here described as Conservative. The pre-existent state (in this case what is natural) is of greater consequence than any change that can be created to replace it. Milton Viorst says that the west had a Renaissance, or created separations between earth, man and god. What has happened is that God has been evicted from earth and sent to heaven. What this essentially means is that with God removed, man can exploit, spoil and pillage the natural environment for its everywhere resources - if it is not holy. This is the introduction of Progressive Materialism. A changed, progressed, improved, advanced, refined or elite human created state is of greater consequence than the pre-existent state or natural world it replaces. This allows man to pursue riches and volitional abilities, as well as to raise the living standards of the population in general and build monuments to his ever-inflating ego. |
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