Chronicles of a Wandering Mind

Reading the discussions about the Danish cartoon controversy, I find it difficult not to get depressed. If the bloggers that are listed in memeorandum is any reflection of the state of the society, we may be facing a tipping point.

From the tone and the content of the discussions (and the news), it is hard not to get the sense that the discussion has moved beyond the what may be a healthy discussion about the limits of freedom of speech. The discussion (if you can even call it that) is highly polarized and hijacked by the extremists.

Despite the fact that there are some thoughtful, constructive articles,  most of the stuff is not really about the particular event (cartoons) but more reflection of the underlying tensions at both ends. It is not difficult to see that the anger against the muslims has been growing steadily in Western countries last couple of years, as well as the anger against the West in the muslim countries. It may just be that the cartoon incident may be a trigger that unearthed this somewhat dormant anger, at least provide a medium where it is acceptable (as it’s shared by many) to express such anger publicly.

In such an environment, I am not sure that it does any good to discuss the actual event anymore. It was just a symptom, and it is almost irrelevant now. We are back at the depressing analysis by Samuel Huntington: Class of Civilizations. It is not clear yet whether the Danish Cartoon controversy will be the trigger that escalate the conflict from something that happens somewhere else in the world to our daily lives, but it certainly seems to have the potential.

One can only hope that sanity will prevail and people will understand the potential consequences of escalation.