Clash Of Cultures

Our enemies today do not question our economic and technological superiority, but they do question our moral and spiritual superiority. To study the anti-American critique mounted by radical Islam is to see oneself in the equivalent of a fun-house mirror: The reflection is at once both distorted and weirdly accurate. And, ironically, it resembles the critique many American religious conservatives have been making of their society all along.

Read the rest here. I frequently lament the Las Vegasification of our society, partially because promoting democracy is more difficult when thousand-year-old cultures perceive it as a social and moral ideology---defined by "Girls Gone Wild" moral laxity---instead of a political one. The above piece offers some constructive suggestions, and it's worth reading.