Poverty and the Flood

The October 2006 issue of Vanity Fair contains two important articles, which are worth reading: Empire Falls, by Niall Ferguson, and Under Egypt’s Volcano, by Scott Anderson. In Empire Falls, Fergusson uses historian Edward Gibbon’s theories on the decline and fall of Rome to make an interesting, if not convincing, case for the same state of conditions currently in play in the West. Gibbon’s blamed Rome’s decline on external military overreach, internal corruption, social decadence, religious transformation, and barbarian invasion. Fergusson counters with the War on Terror, the cult of personality, superficiality, reality TV, cultural decline, immigration, and the rise…

Cornell West has a brave op-ed piece on the moral disaster that is the Middle East: As we witness another sad chapter in the Middle East — the loss of precious human beings, the presence of deep hatred and revenge, and the absence of Socratic questioning and empathy for all — the spirit of Spinoza haunts us. Where are the courageous thinkers who ask the hard questions that shatter our simplistic and sentimental frameworks of pure Israeli heroes and impure Arab villains (or vice versa) in the conflict? Is it possible for Jews to reject the ugly Israeli subjugation of…

Today a group of confirmed Muslims attacked another Muslim in a mosque today. Now I understand that there are politics and frustrations involved, but using the mosque as a place of violence can’t be a good thing. Historically it’s where Imam Ali was assassinated, and where Baruch Goldstein committed his atrocity. Have we really sunk to a level that we consider it acceptable to kill and pray in the same place? Isn’t that the worst stereotypes of Muslims made flesh? I know the Minister wasn’t killed, but I’m not sure that wasn’t the ultimate goal. In any event, in a…