Saturday, January 21, 2006
Bunny stew
Question for the TigerHawk Masses: Will this event tend to promote or undermine Islamic extremism in Indonesia, or is it entirely irrelevant? Your answer might depend, I suppose, on whether you think modernity and all its pleasures is the antidote to, or cause of, Islamic extremism. Or maybe it is both, like a too potent live vaccine.
2 Comments:
By 
Chris, at
Sun Jan 22, 07:41:00 AM:
Well, it looks like they already have FHM and Maxim published there, so Playboy should be just another addition to an existing market. However, Playboy has far more brand recognition, and that brand is licentiousness. This may (assuming that the magazine launches) be an interesting test of your theory. I for one believe that modernism is both a cause and a cure. People in the West struggle with the desire for more freedom, more innovation, more license, coupled with a desire to retain some forms of restraint. I can remember when Playboy was thought of as hard core pornography, and copies of the magazine were relatively difficult to come by. Now it's nearly irrelevant to pornography, many more virulent forms of which are available to me on my computer for free.
If only Islam would show some signs of being able to address this dichotomy without resorting to violence and oppression, we could be sure that we were making some sort of headway toward detente. It seems to me that peaceful coexistence is about all we can hope for with Islam. I fear that it will turn out to be the case of communism vs. capitalism, or last man standing.
By Lanky_Bastard, at
Mon Feb 13, 11:55:00 AM:
Can't believe I missed this post.
Indonesia is about to get a genetically hardwired desire for more freedom. Freedom is good in the abstract, but better in a swimsuit. Maybe some will react with violence. I almost hope they do. Then the masses can choose between violence or bikinis.
