I'm traveling and using my Ipad, so this essay won't be as polished as it otherwise would be.
The postmodernists insist that we are living in an era dominated by the postmodern condition, the condition in which there is no grand narrative and instead there are only narratives, none of which has the right to be considered The narrative.
This is a post-Enlightenment viewpoint, an anti-realist viewpoint that claims that there are no foundations that can be relied on which leads to the rejection of a grand narrative. Those subscribing to this viewpoint attack science, though as I have complained on many occasions, they never raise their voices against those preaching the gospel of global warming.
Postmodernists are perhaps disappointed Marxists who, frustrated at the failure of capitalism to fail, attack it in other ways by focusing not on workers, but on those who are more marginalized (women, blacks, homosexuals, and those from the Third World).
Part of this attack involves saying that "knowledge" is nothing but the vaporings of those in power as they work to oppress the marginalized, and so their discourses can be discounted. Moreover, the self is nothing but a social construction based on one's race, class, gender, and so on.
Instead of accepting this position, I claim instead that we are experiencing the pre-Islamist condition. This condition was brought on by leftists, especially the postmodernists with their insistence on relativism, but it is a condition that they themselves find nearly impossible to see. If you believe that all narratives are equally valid, you aren't likely to be worried about any particular one that preaches disaster. Many narratives do that, after all, but there is no reason to prefer one to another.
Also, cultural relativism doesn't condemn any cultural practices, so postmodernists aren't likely to be fearful of any encroachment on Western society by the Other (in this case, Islamists). And finally, the continual ladling out of guilt to everyone in the West for the sins of imperialism, slavery, and what not by all leftists are hardly likely to make them see any dangers. Indeed, they may even welcome them, for they may believe that Western civilization should die.
The pre-Islamist condition is that condition in which the Islamists are gaining strength at the same time we in the West are losing our will. That the Islamists are gaining strength throughout much of the world has been noted by plenty of other people. In Egypt, for example, women did not typically wear headscarves fifty years ago, but today nearly every Egyptian woman does. A Nigeria that was peaceful thirty years ago is now riddled with sectarian violence. Iran was making progress towards a Western-style state when it was wrenched backwards by Khomeini and his gang.
Here in the West, the Islamists have, to the extent that they can, pressed other Muslim immigrants to adhere to their beliefs. They have been aided by leftists who insist that immigrants don't need to assimilate and who take the most conservative of Muslims as spokesman for all. Accordingly, authorities in the West turn to such Muslims when dealing with any Muslim-inspired problem, instead of looking at those who are more moderate.
Meanwhile, the will to resist by Westerners has been seriously weakened by leftists, who as already mentioned are ladling out the guilt with all the gusto they can. With respect to Muslims, they are pushing the line that any criticism of Muslims is racist and is to be avoided. It's nothing but Islamophobia. Saner heads who point out that there are Muslims who are beyond the pale are brushed aside. Most on the left who would be appalled at this development aren't concerned because they believe the Muslims are too weak to present any problem. It's part of the pre-Islamist condition that those who are inadvertently pushing us into it are the least likely to see that it's a problem. I've already explained why the postmodernists won't see it, but those leftists who aren't postmodernists won't see it either because they have such a weak sense of who has power and who doesn't. For them Fox News is very powerful, while the huge media complex consisting of the NY Times and most other newspapers somehow doesn't have power.
Anyone who has such a view of the world is unlikely to see Islamists as very powerful. Nor do they see them as very abhorrent, else there would have been many protests against President Obama's sidling up the Muslim Brotherhood.
A clash seems inevitable, except that when it happens (in, say, thirty years), will there be any liberals or leftists who will be willing to stick up for the West?
Enough for tonight.