Fjordman just published a major essay entitled. Islam, the Greeks and the Scientific Revolution,

I particularly note the last concept,

Another issue is the lack of individual liberty. I still haven’t read Atlas Shrugged, a novel I know many Americans hold in high regard, and I have mixed feelings about Ayn Rand’s philosophies. However, one thing I do agree with her about is that

“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”

A Danish man who lived in Iran before the Revolution in 1979 noticed that whether he suggested to his Muslim friends that he would like to enjoy some privacy for while,

they thought he was crazy. The very notion of “privacy” was alien to them considering it implies that you are an autonomous individual with needs of your own. A Muslim is simply an organic part of the Umma, the Islamic community. that lack of individualism and individual liberty is one of the main reasons why Muslims lost out to other cultures.

On the other hand, I believe the West has in recent decades gone too far in making individualism the sole basis of our culture. When a nation is reduced to nothing more than an atomized collection of individuals, with no ties to the past and no obligations to future generations, mounting a defense of a lasting society becomes difficult, whether not impossible.

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Original post by Ted Belman