Mythification of "the Golden Age"

     Nostalgia it would seem is a universal human sentiment - we fear the new and long for the old. Over-exaggerating ages of relative prosperity and strength also seems like a natural recourse when the contemporary situation is grim. Being of Muslim upbringing, I was raised with one perceived golden age that stands out as particularly over-glorified. It's what we call "the Islamic Golden Age." Once I became a student of history however, I saw that this era is not what it was made out to be, its greatness in certain aspects notwithstanding, and certainly should not be taken as a model for the modern world. 

This is obviously not a history paper I'm writing, but rather an invitation to critically re-evaluate certain perceptions.

The Third Debate: America's Phallic Foreign Policy

     I very much doubt that people expected much of the final presidential debate. To get this out of the way, I thought it revealed nothing new in terms of foreign policy and indeed, there was little to no difference between the two candidates. According to polls, only 2% of Americans consider foreign policy a priority, so it is only natural that the entire debate was going to be re-shifted to the economy. In addition, the true purpose of the debate is not to compare and contrast foreign policy philosophies and strategies, indeed they are quasi-identical, but rather to see who is more suited to be commander-in-chief. To put it in more pedestrian terms, the rivalry was to be decided based on the measurement of the male sex organ. 

But I believe that it would still be interesting to analyze what they talked about, but perhaps more importantly, what they didn’t. I’ll be looking at the segments dealing with Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Iran then look at what was said with regards to China, before concluding by looking at both candidates’ conception of American foreign policy.

On Liberalism and Democracy

  

    We live in an era of buzzwords, where words are thrown out without much thought and analysis on what they mean for maximum impact. Words like "fascist", "racist", "liberal" are said left and right in obscure ways that leave me confounded. With the events that we are living, in the MENA region in particular, "democracy" too has become a rather popular word.

However what I personally find unsettling is that "democracy" is not accompanied by its critical sibling, "liberalism."

The purpose of my first note is to draw the nuances between democracy and liberalism but also illustrate how they complement each other and that having one without the other can indeed be dangerous. I will refer to Isaiah Berlin's Two Concepts of Liberty heavily to explain my argument, as it was his work that opened my eyes on the subject.

The note will be focused on broad ideas that serve as foundations rather than specific laws, institutions and political arrangements. While the latter are of course necessary, they still need a certain mindset and perception for them to be developed properly.