The Breeding of Individualism and the Unraveling of Civil Society

As a child growing up in the United States, much of the social conditioning applied to my generation honed in on the importance of the individual and his or her right to self-advancement.  A sort of all-for-one entitlement program, the concept of rugged individualism maintained a hovering presence.  The assumption that a person could do and be anything was a major theme integrated into the pedagogy of the mainstream classroom.  It was argued, to raise the self-esteem of young people, schools should dismantle the practice of rewarding only those who excelled in a particular area in exchange for a practice of recognizing all students, regardless of the achievement, if any.   Most institutions maintained a discipline policy and that occasionally included a corporal component.   To a certain extent, depending on how it was reinforced in the home, this mode of rearing contained the potential to develop a certain degree of responsibility in the youth.  For most, it was recognized that attached to every action was a reaction; if someone violated the school policy or the expectations of public behavior it was expected that a consequence would follow be it through punishment or forthright disapproval.  If a young person failed to turn in their homework or hit a baseball through the neighbor’s window, it was generally understood that it came with a price.  Casually hollering profanity in the public square would be considered shameful and chances were, someone would let you know, regardless of age.  Before venturing outside the lines of acceptable behavior, those with sense enough to understand how the game was played would carefully weigh the risks.  Over the years, however, the same proponents who called for an end to the selection process of rewarding excellence (sometimes with material recognition but not always) also asserted their influence over the realm of behavioral management which has resulted in an erosion of societal values that have upheld the values of empathy and respect that traditionally held together the national fabric of social norms and civic responsibility.   

A Tree Has Fallen in the Forest

The following is a reprint from New Islamic Directions, reproduced here by permission. It begins with an allegory drawn between the modern phenomenon of silencing popular movements simply by ignoring them, the tree that falls silently in the forest, presumeably because no one is around to hear it come crashing down. In today's popular climate of hatred toward and fear of all things Islamic, political spin doctors in the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Newt Gingrich are doing their best to paint the Muslim world population with the stain of a terrorist threat or, at the very least, willing sympathizers to acts considered abhorrent to our Islamic prophetic tradition. One of the better portrayals of what this can lead to was exhibited in Author Miller's Focus. As it pertains to the following, it should be well understood nine years after the events of September 11th, 2001 that those responsible have repeatedly been condemned by representatives across the Muslim spectrum, yet...