Fascinating!

Correct Link http://oregonmag.com/LawrenceOfArabia.htm

bump for a must read.

Is the point that you can pull out any combination you want if you have an infinite supply of myths to pull from?

Myth Explains Behaviour of Lawn Mowers on Sunny Days

I have no doubt that I can pull the needed myths from the 10,000 year supply we have access to.

Excellent article and great find. Thanks.

I have no doubt that I can pull the needed myths from the 10,000 year supply we have access to

If that were all there was to the article, you might have a point. But it is not.

Plus, I would not discard myths so easily. They are usually fundamental to what we are and can mirror a society and how it responds to life. Different cultures have different myths because cultures are different.

In any case, the article stands well on its own.

Both Pipes and this author have, in my opinon, an amazingly clear grasp of the fundamental problem with Islam as it faces a modern world. I hope the mainstream media can muster sufficient intellectual courage (and ability) to "cut to the chase" on this and quit being so thirsty for drama in their slant. But, as I said on another post, the mainstream media's first bizness is showbizness. Contrary to media-based, current mytholgy, Islam is on a collision course with the West (and the rest of the non-Islamic world, for that matter.)

Being Arthurian (I love that) as we are, I'll wager all the money on the West.

•••

I think the point is that you cannot merely transliterate English into Arabic (or any other language, for that matter). If you study Arabic, and don't study Islam, you cannot understand the Islamic Arab. The meanings of words are traditional. You can with difficulty learn Spanish pretty well with a Spanish-English dictionary--but you wouldn't be reading this if you did not already know English. No dictionary taught you your first language; that you learned by oral tradition.

I hope the mainstream media can muster sufficient intellectual courage (and ability) to "cut to the chase" on this and quit being so thirsty for drama in their slant. But, as I said on another post, the mainstream media's first bizness is showbizness.

General-interest journalism is nonfiction entertainment. It'd be wonderful if it stopped being that way. I'd settle for having the public generally understand that that is what it is. Most people have swallowed so much propaganda from journalism that they just can't see that.

Why Broadcast Journalism is Unnecessary and Illegitimate.

General-interest journalism is nonfiction entertainment.

Quotable!

That is so true! Great quote!

Thanks for correcting the address for this post, xm.....I try so hard, but still goof! But I'm glad you all are enjoying this article as much as I am.

Good point.

Good article. I'm reminded of something I said here on another post the other day using a quote from the movie Lawrence of Arabia.

"With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me, it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the most reliable." I think it is likely that the Taliban know that it isn't Lawrence who is hot on their trails, but a lot of ill-mannered Afghani's who have suffered them long enough.

They can run but they can't hide, for long.

I've always thought I had an allergy to fantasy tales, but realized, reading this article, how influential the Arthurian tales have been in my life. I'd simply not appreciated how vital even today are the legends of our culture.

BBBump for the Sunday readers.

bump for Sunday evening reading pleasure.

The Arthurian legend runs deep in our culture. It is retold over and over again..."Star Wars" being the most recent and famous example. For all the media's obtuseness, in the days after 9/11 one could hear the echoes in much of the writing about President Bush. The West NEEDS him to be Arthurian, and thank God he intuitively understands this.

He speaks of this war as a "calling" and "a just and noble cause." This is what people need to hear, because they recognize, somewhere inside, that this is the reenactment once again of the old legend.

A very interesting article.

So how do we explain the fact that our success in
Desert Storm seemed to inflame the passions
and anger of such Arab's as Bin Laden?