There's a phrase that shows up lately everywhere you look. There are a few minor variations, but the basic phrase is, "rage and frustration in the Muslim world." Well, excuse me if I'm pretty tired of hearing it.

How about channeling all that "rage and frustration" into something useful? How about taking all those oil dollars and spending them on education systems that teach skills useful in the 21st century, instead of rote memorization of religious texts? How about recognizing that many of the causes of all that "rage and frustration" lie in their denial of reality and their insistence on blaming everyone but themselves for their problems? Is it possible that blind faith in a religious and social code that hasn't changed since the seventh century may not be the best way to achieve peace and prosperity in the 21st?

Muslims complain bitterly about American cultural and economic (and military) domination, but I don't see any effort on their part to do the thing that made that American domination possible: banding together to form a society in which people of every race, religion, and ethnic background cooperate to make life better for their children than it was for them. Is America a perfect society? Hardly. We still have lingering problems of ethnic and religious intolerance and economic inequality. But the last time I looked, people were risking their lives every day to enter American illegally in search of a better life. I haven't seen the same thing happening in Saudi Arabia or Syria or Afghanistan.

I have a lot more to say on the topic of blind religious faith and where it leads, but those are posts for another day. For now, let's just hope that, someday, all that "rage and frustration" can be focused on achieving something other than blind hatred. For the sake of those wonderful grandchildren I wrote about a few posts ago, I hope so.

Bilbo