noteworthy wrote:
] As an Algerian Jew writing in France during the postwar
] years in the wake of totalitarianism on the right (fascism) as
] well as the left (Stalinism), Jacques Derrida understood all
] too well the danger of beliefs and ideologies that divide the
] world into diametrical opposites: right or left, red or blue,
] good or evil, for us or against us. He showed how these
] repressive structures, which grew directly out of the Western
] intellectual and cultural tradition, threatened to return with
] devastating consequences. By struggling to find ways to
] overcome patterns that exclude the differences that make life
] worth living, he developed a vision that is consistently
] ethical..

There is also a group that would feel that differences are an impediment to life and that uniformity is actually the best thing to enforce on a mass. No group will ever be accused of having an intellect (even mensa), but an individual can be smart. I would like to see statistics on how many individuals in the world fall into that category, but I suppose that supposing intellectual superiority is not politically correct seeing as it makes idiots feel stupid.

]
] Belief not tempered by doubt poses a mortal danger..
]

Only at it's worst. Belief riddled with self-doubt isn't really belief is it? It is, rather, disbelief.

] As the process of globalization draws us ever closer in
] networks of communication and exchange, there is an
] understandable longing for simplicity, clarity and certainty.
] This desire is responsible, in large measure, for the rise of
] cultural conservatism and religious fundamentalism -- in this
] country and around the world..

It would be great if you could qualify that with solid proof. It seems like a blind stab at trying to figure out how things work, when the workings of only some things can ever be figured out at all.
]
] .The alternative to blind belief is not simply unbelief but a
] different kind of belief -- one that embraces uncertainty and
] enables us to respect others whom we do not understand. In a
] complex world, wisdom is knowing what we don't know so
] that we can keep the future open.

And there are also known knowns. These are things that we know that we know. There are Known unknowns. These are things that we know that we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things that we did not know that we did not know. Not everyone should respect everyone else. Then, an ideology becomes as much of a demogogue as any established faith. Fundementalism can be religious, or humanist. Either way, it's misguided.