Americanism, the fourth great western religion.
I don't hide my love of America (PBUH), but I don't know if it's really a religion. But I do see America (PBUH) as an idea increasing applicable to a dysfunctional world. Just my thinking, is all. A blurb:
If America is a religion, it is a religion without a god, and it is a global religion. People who believe in America live all over the world. Its adherents have included oppressed and freedom-loving peoples everywhere—from the patriots of the Greek and Hungarian revolutions to the martyred Chinese dissidents of Tiananmen Square.Gelernter also shows that anti-Americanism, particularly the virulent kind that is found today in Europe, is a reaction against this religious conception of America on the part of those who adhere to a rival religion of pacifism and appeasement.
Besides, if one treats environmentalism, pacifism and the general nuttiness of jihad as religion, the why not Americanism? Makes for an interesting century. Of course, the way my mind works, I put that blurb together with the blurb from John Robb's new book, Brave New War:
This evolutionary leap in the methods of warfare makes it possible for extremely small nonstate groups to fight states and possibly win on a regular basis. The use of systems disruption as a method of strategic warfare gives rise to a nightmare scenario in which any nation—including the United States—can be driven to bankruptcy by an enemy it can't compete with economically. We are staring at a future where defeat isn't experienced all at once but as an inevitable withering away of military, economic, and political power through wasting conflicts with minor foes.
How can we defend ourselves against this pernicious new menace? Brave New War presents a debate-changing argument that no one who cares about national security can afford to ignore: it is time, says Robb, to decentralize all of our systems, from energy and communications to security and markets. It is time for every citizen to take personal responsibility for some aspect of state security. It is time to make our systems, and ourselves, as flexible, adaptable, and resilient as the forces that are arrayed against us.
See if al-Qaida and Associated Militias (remember, it's a brand now) can unmoor themselves militarily and philosophically from the nation state, maybe the west ends up doing the same, to survive.
Like I said, interesting century.
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