[Dean's World] Dave Price: On The Dean vs. Spencer/LGF Brouhaha

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Posted by Dave Price:
On The Dean vs. Spencer/LGF Brouhaha
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1148093958.shtml


   Wow, I hadn't noticed how heated this disagreement was when we did our
   little joke yesterday. Now that I've read it, I feel compelled to
   respond.
   I feel like I'm kind of in the middle on this. I've read [1]LGF on and
   off for a long time, and mostly I don't have much problem with Charles
   Johnson's point of view. I think one has to consider that he's fairly
   brave to do what he's doing, which in and of itself in some ways
   vindicates him. I guess if I had to identify smething that bothered me
   about LGF, it would be the "us vs. them" [2]mentality it sometimes
   seems to have, which is... unhelpful, I guess I would put it.
   [3]Spencer seems a tad xenophobic at times and I don't agree with some
   of his views, but he doesn't bother me as much as he apparently does
   Dean, and he (like Charles) does report some things which probably
   wouldn't be reported anywhere else (BECAUSE OF THE OTHERNESS!! as
   [4]Jeff might say).
   Much of Islam needs an Enlightenment, esp. Arab Islam. For that to
   happen, many Muslims need to be freed, esp. Arab Muslims (I think Rudy
   has more than proved the effects of democracy in regards to
   militarism). We should simultaneously embrace our [5]Muslim friends
   and fight our Muslim enemies, and strive not to confuse the two -- or
   push them closer to each other (in some ways, this goes back to
   identity politics again; if we tar all Muslims with the same brush,
   that will tend to make them stick together).
   I think we can all agree on what our goals should be. The practical
   question is: how do we get there? What serves those ends, and what's
   counterproductive? That's what interests me.
   [6]This makes fascinating reading in that regard. It details how the
   Shinto religion was similarly used by the Japanese imperialists, and
   how it was disassembled postbellum.

     From then on, Japanese political, social, military and religious
     institutions centred themselves on the figure of the Emperor, who
     had now become an icon of everything good and pure and holy; the
     very essence and spirit of Japan. These ideas were also heavily
     promoted in Japanese schools.
     These beliefs set the political and military course of Japan until
     1946, and turned a hitherto rather private nation into one of the
     world's most feared bullies.
     ...
     Shinto was dismantled as the state religion of Japan after the
     Second World War by 3 key documents:The Directive for the
     Disestablishment of State Shinto (1945)
     The Imperial Rescript renouncing Divinity (1946)
     The post-war Constitution
     The three documents parallel Shinto purification rituals, since
     their purpose is to restore purity and cleanliness to a once good
     religion that had been polluted by political action.
     The first of these documents is one of the most powerful modern
     condemnations of the abuse of religion. The purpose of the
     Directive [The document itself can be found at link to document]
     was not to destroy Shinto but to:
     prevent recurrence of the perversion of Shinto theory and beliefs
     into militaristic and ultra-nationalistic propaganda designed to
     delude the Japanese people and lead them into wars of aggression
     The restructuring of the Japanese education system was a key
     initiative in the religious reforms.
     Although Shinto is no longer a state religion many Japanese still
     regard Shinto as the national religion, but post-war Shinto is very
     different from the pre-1946 version, having been cleansed of the
     political, nationalistic and militaristic elements that were
     included in State Shinto.

   We didn't have to demonize or mock Shinto's followers. Really, mostly
   all we had to do was make Japan a liberal democracy.

References

   1. http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php
   2. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20659_Koranic_Tuna-_Recovered&only
   3. http://jihadwatch.org/
   4. http://www.proteinwisdom.com/
   5. http://www.freemuslims.org/
   6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/features/nationalism/nation_2.shtml