Dick Sim

Freedom to Argue Dick Sim

The United States and the European Union are facing a crisis. On the one hand, they each stand at a crossroads where centralized government policies have fostered a growing gap between the agenda of the political elite and many of their voters. Yet at the same time, they are also on a collision course with the Middle East and Africa. With immense and growing disparities in wealth, population, religion, and culture between the United States and Europe and their neighbors in the Middle East and Africa, how they deal with these disparities will have worldwide significance-but what worked well from 1950 to 2000 is broken. The Freedom to Argue addresses the moral dilemma of how best to help others without destroying one's own culture in the process. It explores the coming wave of Middle Eastern and African immigration and questions the failure of the African continent and why Muslims who grow up in completely Islamic societies are unable to assimilate into Western societies that have democracy, freedom of religion, independent and transparent judiciary systems, women's rights, and free-market capitalism. While Western civilization is not perfect, it is the best political and social system in existence. And although the West has delivered great wealth, its traditional values are in trouble. As the political and intellectual elite blindly devoted to multiculturalism ignore everyday problems of the working folks, the West now more than ever needs solutions-fewer laws, less regulation, and stronger cultural norms-to overcome global threats.