The Daily Evolver

The recent terror attacks in Paris brought to light, once again, the difficulty in reconciling the values of modern, secular societies like France and premodern societies such as those in much of the Arab world. This relationship is complicated by the past sins of the West, from the Crusades all the way up to the wars after 9/11, which, Jeff explains, "took the lid off Iraq, which has put the Muslim world in arrested development and even in a functional regression since". It may be tricky to claim the moral high ground when you've been alternately toppling and propping up regimes to further your own ends for decades, but between the attacks on Paris and the stream of refugees into Europe, the West cannot ignore what’s happening. Jeff sorts out the cacophony of voices and gives us some perspective. The practice that's available to us is to put ourselves in the shoes of "the other," the hawks and the doves, the refugees and the terrorists. ISIS is not just a pack of psychopaths that want to see the world bu