It's now more than a week after the pope made his speech. Yesterday I listened to an interview with Clinton (former American president, in case anyone has forgotten). His view on the pope's remarks and the Danish cartoon: they make it more difficult for Muslims moderates. I also read a great article on Muslim rage - Jill Fallon's My Personal Day of Rage.

I thought about Clinton's evaluation (he's not someone I dismiss casually). And my thinking brought me to remembering what I'd heard about the impact of the Danish cartoon on Danish Muslims. According to that report, the discussions sparked by the cartoon moved the Muslim community forward by at least three centuries - because before that, the Muslim views were not challenged and until that happened, they could not be changed.

So have the Danish cartoon and the pope's remarks - and maybe even Fallon's article - hurt or helped Muslim moderates?

First, the cartoon and the remarks are not one and the same.

The Danish cartoon (to these nonMuslim eyes anyway) is a small mild portrayal of a grizzly truth - the use of the Muslim prophet as justification for bombings and other violence against innocent civilians, including Muslims. The pope's remarks are more blunt and directly confrontational: violence done in the name of religion is against the nature of god. He was called a Rottweiler long before he made these remarks. His remarks - deliberately forceful, provocative - did bring to mind the image of a Rottweiler. Big teeth. A strong bite. One often has to be careful around Rottweilers.

That brings me to a question. Why did the Danish cartoon spark greater protest?

Well, a cartoonist is a more vulnerable target, doesn't have the authority of a huge organized religion behind him. Also, the cartoon came first. Plus, there is the question of whether anyone can make an image of the prophet. Masses of Muslims acted in outrage that anyone dared to make such an image - and totally ignored the message of the cartoon. (The offended chose to ignore that there are numerous other images of their prophet, against which they have not protested, and that the violence done in the name of the prophet creates a very vivid image in people's minds.)

But I still haven't answered my own question. Have the cartoon and the pope's remarks hurt or helped Muslim moderates.

My guess is they've helped. Someone had to do this work. The Danish cartoonist and the pope have drawn a lot of fire and anger away from Muslim moderates. More of them may actually have gotten more courage to speak out. Plus moderates may have moved further in their thinking in response to the cartoon, the pope's remarks, and all the discussion this has generated. In fact, another guess I have is that there are more Muslim moderates than before. (That remains to be seen.)

So far I have no evidence - but I do know that Christians have become increasingly moderate over time, as the Christian fundamentalists have been challenged over and over.

Of course irate fundamentalists (Christian and Muslim) may be ever more allergic to the moderates. But at least in Canada, the very conservative Christians are much more moderate than a generation ago. A similar shift may take a couple of decades in the Muslim world, but that's what I see happening.

****

In the short run, what would I see?

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" - so said Shakespeare, or perhaps it was some other famous British writer. I think the comment popped into my mind becuse people who are losing may get ever more angry. It doesn't mean they will win, or that they should win. A spurned woman doesn't increase her chances of winning back her beloved if she rages. On the contrary. And eventually a lot of spurned people learn.

I'm back to a central point. The more that people around the world do to break the shell of Muslim self-righteousness, the better.

So for now at least, based on my own assessment and knowledge, I will disagree with Clinton.

signed,

Elsa
September 25, 2006

copyright © Elsa Schieder 2006, 2009 - all rights reserved

Click here for Give Peace a Chance,
another idea piece.

For a "favorite" stupid opinion, click here for Stupid Opinion #One.

For Elsa's creativity blog, on the writing of these ideas and much else,
click here.

Opt-in for Updates
NEWSLETTER

top of page



IDEA * EVALUATION * CONCLUSION * INSIGHT * COMMENTARY * CONTROVERSY * INTELLECTUAL CONFLICTS * CONFLICTING VERSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS * DIFFICULT AREAS * THEORY * THEORIZING * FEMINIST THEORIES * PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORIES * ENVORINMENTAL CONCERNS * UNDERSTANDINGS * COMPLEXITIES * UNCERTAINTIES* GUESSES * HUNCHES * GUT FEELINGS ABOUT THINGS * EXPERIMENTS TO VERIFY IDEAS * VIEWPOINTS * OPINION * THOUGHT-PROVOKING IDEAS * STIMULATING THEORIZING - IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS *

The Idea Emporium - why and what

One of my lifelong concerns has been trying to make sense of reality. What is happening? Why is this happening? And with that I come to ideas - ideas about reality, ideas that need to be checked against reality, not just believed in like the tooth fairy is accepted by a child. But how does one check them? What qualifies as proof, as evidence?

And why, so often, is evidence of no interest to people? We have masses of evidence of how good many people are at denying evidence when it goes against what they believe. Millions have denied, and continue to deny the equality of women and men, of Jews and nonJews, of atheists and Muslims, gays and heterosexuals. People are incredible experts at denying reality - what is seen, experienced. Of course we need to interpret reality - we do not know it "pure" but through our limited senses, our limited memory, our limited ability to perceive and make sense of the amazing array of information that does gets perceived.

Still, it boggles the even slightly rational mind - how can so many people be so utterly blind to, let's say, findings about nutrition? It amazed me to find out, when I was growing up, that there was evidence for the health benefits of whole grains over refined products - because masses of people stuck with white flour, white rice, white sugar. How could they be so closed to evidence? Somehow they had a wall against the evidence.

The ideas I want to explore are those that go with, not against, the evidence, that try to make sense of evidence.

So, the Idea Emporium - a place for ideas.
The Idea Emporium - a place where ideas are explored.
The Idea Emporium - a place where ideas are entertained , played with,
looked at from many angles.
The Idea Emporium, a place where ideas are evaluated.

What is an idea, by the way. I hadn't thought of that when I chose the name of The Idea Emporium. It just seemed the obviously right name. It was months before I realized I had a hard time putting into words what I meant by idea. I began to think about the word. Sentences with the word, idea, floated into my mind. Like, "I have an idea. Why don't we order pizza?" That was an eye-opener for me.

My guess is that most of us use the word without knowing exactly what it means. "I have an idea of what we might do. Maybe we could go out for Chinese food. But It's just an idea" - meaning this need not come to pass, but we think it might be fun. That is obviously not what I meant by idea.

"I have an idea. Maybe you left your hat in the car." Again, no

""My idea is that we go in together and talk to her." No.

These are all legitimate uses of the term, idea, but it's not what I meant when I came to name The Idea Emporium. And I'm sure it's not what people might expect if they click on The Idea Emporium - because it's not what most people mean by the word "idea."

Word has a built-in dictionary. This is what it says:

Idea -
a personal opinion or belief;
a thought to be presented as a suggestion;
an impression or knowledge of something;
a realization of a possible way of doing something or of something to be done;
the aim or purpose of a plan or project;
the gist or précis of something such as a book, report, project or plan;
a thought about or mental picture of something such as a future or possible event;
a concept that exists in the mind only;
a mental image that reflects reality.

The last is what I'm most interested in - ideas that reflect reality as well as possible. But I've decided that I like it that idea is such a wide term.

Here I am taking idea to mean (and I think this is what most of us think of when we think of the meaning of the word, idea) some thought one has about something. "I have an idea" - meaning, I am not sure this concept fits reality, but it is a hypothesis I have formed.

I also think that, when I named The Idea Emporium, I was blurring words together in my mind - idea, concept, conception, understanding, hypothesis.

The Idea Emporium - a place for all these things.

This is not the same as people having "an idee fixe" - meaning, a fixed idea, a rigid belief that something is one way or another.
The sooner people get rid of such ideas, the better. The Idea Emporium is not a place to set out rock-hard beliefs and stone people with them, hurling them like missiles at all and any that come within striking range.

That is not The Idea Emporium.

The Idea Emporium - a place to present and explore ideas - for now my ideas.

That does not mean the idea need to be timidly set forth, all hemming and hawing, tentative even when the evidence is strong.

The Idea Emporium – the goal is smart opinions, critical thought, perception, good analysis.

The Idea Emporium. Smart opinions - meaning, drawing on every resource possible, rather than "it's my opinion, that's why I believe it, and it's as good as yours any day. Who are you to say blacks can do math, women can learn to read, Jews deserve to live. I have every right to my opinion." Personally, I'd rather do my best to think well, but many others are clearly proud of their avowed right to be thoughtless.

That's not The Idea Emporium.

The Idea Emporium. Critical thought - that means we do our best to think well, to apply logic, information, all our capacities.

The Idea Emporium. Good analysis. Again, that means we try to ensure that we use valid arguments - not, "because it's my opinion," "because I say so" "because I know that's right" "because my god says so" "because everyone knows that's right" . We both draw conclusions from evidence (so there may be evidence showing patterns and tendencies in certain groups (for instance, I've done lots of research on the impact of rights movements on those who get involved, and have found lots of evidence for patterns of response) - and at the same time we are careful not to generalize, to draw conclusions beyond what we have evidence for, and even contradicting the evidence ("Women are ..." "Muslims believe ..." "everyone this happens to ..." "Jews are..." "Gays are ..."

The Idea Emporium. Perception. Not easy to perceive. We each do it through a filter of experience, memory, assumptions, and so on. We have all learned not to perceive many things - denial - and to magnify other things. The goal at The Idea Emporium (and this should be the goal everywhere) is to be as perceptive - taking in as much information - as possible.

The Idea Emporium. i could go on and on. But this is enough for a start. More important now to put it into action - because it's ideas came first, surging inside me, wanting to find a place to be heard.

I'm (among other things) a college teacher, so my teaching gives me one outlet for my ideas, to express them, modify them, listen to other ideas, test the evidence, the power (or lack thereof) of different arguments.

But that hasn't been enough for me. One small class at a time.

I have a sense that I have some ideas that could be valuable to many people - ideas many people don't have (many have very different ideas), ideas where my ideas may help other people struggling with some of the same concerns, and so on. I think these ideas could help make some kind of positive difference in the world, reach people who are reachable, maybe even break through some shells many people live inside, shells that stop them from perceiving things.

There will be space for the ideas of others as well. Right now I am starting with a few ideas of mine. But I envisage that The Idea Emporium is a place that will grow, enriching both others and also myself - that I and my ideas will grow from some of what comes back.

Elsa
July 30, 2006

copyright © Elsa Schieder 2006, 2011
publishing house - FlufferDuff Impressions 2006, 2011

Questions - on rage, hatred, narcissism, empathy, caring, peace.
Good thinking and analysis. Logic plus emotion.
The Idea Emporium - facts, ideas, conclusions.
Plus stupid opinions exposed.

Opt-in for Updates
NEWSLETTER

IDEA * EVALUATION * CONCLUSION * INSIGHT * COMMENTARY * CONTROVERSY * INTELLECTUAL CONFLICTS * CONFLICTING VERSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS * DIFFICULT AREAS * OPINION * WELL-REASONED OPINION * UNFOUNDED OPINION * STUPID OPINION * THEORY * THEORIZING * FEMINIST THEORIES * PERCEPTION * PERCEPTIONS * PERSPECTIVES * PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORIES *
THE IDEA EMPORIUM + THE IDEA EMPORIUM + THE IDEA EMPORIUM * THE IDEA EMPORIUM
ENVORINMENTAL CONCERNS * ANALYSIS * DISCOVERING UNDERLYING CAUSES * AMBIVALENCES * AMBIGUITIES * FEAR OF AND RAGE AGAINST IDEAS * FEAR OF EXPRESSING IDEAS *
ANTI-THINKING TORRORISM * ANTI-INTELLECTUAL TERRORISM * FALLACIES * FLAWED REASONING *
THE RAGE AGAINST UNWANTED IDEAS * THE RAGE AGAINST UNWANTED VISONS OF REALITY *
THE IDEA EMPORIUM + THE IDEA EMPORIUM + THE IDEA EMPORIUM * THE IDEA EMPORIUM
BLINKERS AGAINST PERCEPTION * BARRIERS TO THINKING * BARRIERS TO REASONING *
INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION * STIMULATING IDEAS * FERTILE THOUGHT * VIEWPOINTS * UNDERSTANDINGS * COMPLEXITIES * UNCERTAINTIES * GUESSES * HUNCHES *
FACTS * GUT FEELINGS ABOUT THINGS * EXPLORING IDEAS * EXPLORATIONS OF IDEAS *
EXPERIMENTS TO VERIFY IDEAS * REALITIES * REASONING * IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS *
THOUGHT OF THE DAY * PERCEPTION * PERSPECTIVE * DATA * INFORMATION *
OPINION PIECES * LOGICAL THINKING * CRITICAL THOUGHT * INTELLECTUAL LAZINESS * IDEA