I blog from England, which is even more politically correct than the United States. Tony Blair's common-sense proposal to eject radical clerics preaching violence against the United Kingdom has been met with hysteria. "I see similarities with Hitler," says Mohammed Naseem of Tony Blair. Sheikh Muhammad Umar opines: "The solution is not to ban these organisations, it is to engage with them. What Tony Blair need to do is he needs to do more casework. We need to have dialogue with these groups, not alienate them." Meanwhile, the national media, which is well left of the American media, is in an uproar over police on the lookout for men who fit the profile of the 7/7 bombers and the 7/21 wannabe bombers. One young male South Asian reporter walked about the London Underground with a hidden camera while wearing an overstuffed backpack. With an indignant tone, he showed viewers how police stopped him three times. One man's outrage is another man's good police work. On the television, one would never know such a thing as "England" exists, as "Britain" and other more inclusive labels have replaced it. So sensitive to offending Muslims are the authorities that Greater Manchester officials banned a newlywed couple from playing Robbie Williams's "Angels" after their civil marriage ceremony. Along with Bryan Adams's "Heaven" and Aretha Franklin's "I Say a Little Prayer," "Angels" risked offending non-Christians. When should we expect a crescent to join St. George's Cross on the Union Jack?

Dan, not sure how much chance you've had to "touch the natives", but I was wondering if you felt that the broader English population feels this way as well. I get the sense that the British public is more conservative than the its media would have us believe.

The Western World is being attacked from the outisde by Islamic Extremists. While this happens, political correctness eats it up from within. If the Western World is to survive it must find the moral courage to defend itself.

I don't know if _political correctness_ is eating the West up from the inside, per B.Poster. Isn't PC just one (waning, liberal) manifestation of a much deeper and broader cultural problem? Namely: relativism? Western culture is unwilling to make distinctions (which are supposed to be _true_ and thus apply to others as well as oneself) between the base and the noble; between the useful and the good; between the merely desired and the desire-worthy?

The right suffers from this as well, since we focus on the individual right to buy/chose whatever one wants. The good is reduced to the desired/chosen. Even religion, which should be the complete opposite of this relativism, is often seen (esp in America) as one more _consumer_ choice that the individual makes between the many flavors available in the supermarket.

Scully

I think your ana-lysis is spot on. When I used the term political correctness, that was overly simplistic. I think what you are suggesting is our culture lacks a basic ability to distinguish right and wrong. I agree that both "liberals" and "conservatives" suffer from this. I think the problem can be traced to the decline of Christian thought and influence within Western culture. If Western culture is to survive, I think we need to return to our Chirstian heritage.