to think racism is getting worse in light of recent world events?

[thefutureofpolitics]

I ask this as when I opened Mumsnet this morning, there were a few particularly unpleasant threads about the wearing of burka. Are there just some really bigoted people around or is it fear created by recent world events? To these people, would it not be better to understand different cultures and learn from them rather than to tar every Muslim with the same brush of fear and suspicion? There is good and bad in every race and cultural diversity in Britain is a great thing.

Discuss.

Racism isn't peculiar to the British. It is no more racist to declare that someone doesn't like the Burkah (because of security) than for someone to declare they don't like the Western way of dressing (Because it is seen as being liberal). Racism works both ways. However, we should all be mindful that if we want to experience life in another country we should be open minded about their way of life and be prepared to conform.

In the end, we have to decide which imperium we prefer: Our decadent, liberal empire, built on a history of conquest, but straining for the ideals of freedom, justice and equality; or a harsh and pious empire, built on a history of conquest, straining for the ideals of religious submission, inflexible behavioral structures and a refutation of scientific values.

I like the one that doesn't murder gay people.

We seem now to have a state of permanent war. But these wars are not modern wars between sovereign states. We have a new global order that both undermines the sovereign state and calls it to action, both to wage war and to control it's citizens. It would seem that liberal ideals of peace and tolerance are being undone from within and from without. We have what Negri calls a state of permanent exception where democracy is suspended. More surveillance and control.

America is in a permanent state of exception. But globally too they are the exception, flouting their own institutions and international laws in pursuit not just of upholding western values but of exporting them.

There is also a return to a Christian concept of good and evil. We are not fighting to maintain our national borders, we are fighting off evil. This state of permanent war without boarders is horrendous but it's a consequence of many things, not just a bunch of scary fascists.

I don't know what the answer is but simple subjective opinion based on irrational ideologically manipulated fear and ignorance is not the answer.

I just think it's a contradiction to preach peace using war, tolerance with intolerance and equality to those whose inequality with us keeps our lights on, our cars moving and our economies ticking over. There is a huge amount of money in war!

This era of peace and tolerance is the anomaly; It was only generated by the threat of a war too big to fight. Now that America and Russia aren't ideological threats to each other, but instead merely competitors in the traditional arena of global politics, we will see a return to the proxy wars and manipulations of the Great Game.

Technology progresses, wealth liberates, but the fundamentals of human nature at a collective global level do not change.

I'm with you Meph