Understanding the "terrorists"

I was standing at a kids bday party in Chucky Cheeze awhile back, and while tasting this hollow food, watching the blinking lights & overweight kids, I had an epiphany. I suddenly understood something fundamental about the middle east. It's so easy for us to use the rational part of our brain and say "democracy", "capitalism", "freedom"---who would NOT WANT that???

But the brain operates on deeper levels than surface logic---it's got built in mechanisms to maintain stability and consistency. Consistency of values (reverence & spirituality), consistency of self image and consistency about the nature of the world & of humanity.

My epiphany was that the greatest fear in the Muslim world is not of freedom or democracy. It's that WITH democracy will come Chucky Cheeze, WorldCom, porn & mullets!!!

These things represent fundamental differences of values and notions of world order. Our ancestors survived by fighting for consistency and stability, and those mandates are deep and mostly unconscious. But they drive so many choices...........

And a part of me agrees with them----they should fight like hell to avoid suburban mediocrity.