Crazy years and a Prozac-filled Great Depression of our own vs. great years of civilization-building by networking and learning from and with others. This, rather than any new tech, will be much more interesting, because we need to fix the foundations first! https://twitter.com/Post_Apathy/status/1329767167525605382

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.athwart.org/building-an-alliance-sacree/amp/ 1/n If Charles' (see my previous thread) vision for the future was decidedly a postliberal state under Christianity, Ahmed proposes an alliance between the Abrahamic faiths along with a vision of a multi-racial multi-religious future society.

2/n Whereas Charles looks at societas christiana, Ahmed looks at the Ottoman Empire for inspiration. The empire guaranteed freedom for its multiple ethnic and religious groups under a millet system, a system of non-territorial association.

3/n Under it, the empire and its inhabitants, though from different backgrounds and with different values, coexisted and prospered. When the millet system was replaced by European-style centralized government, the unique, complex and layered social fabric of the empire withered.

4/n For Ahmed, modern nation-states impose homogenity, reduce people into mere economic units, and encourages violence between people with different values. However, the age of the nation-states is passing and there's increasing return from centralization to decentralization.

5/n Ahmed's view of the human nature is fractal. "Rather than reaching ever higher levels of homogenization," he says, "human beings devolve into ever more fragmented allegiances, identities and tribes." Thus, we need governance that accomodates our natures - "fractal localism".

6/6 Ultimately, the Abrahamic faiths have the necessary social technology to help build lively and beneficial communities. Instead of engaging in petty fights, Christians, Muslims, and Jews should cooperate and learn from each other and build together a societt that benefits all.

For me, Ahmed brings to the table very interesting perspectives on institution building and Islamic political and social theory and praxis, perspectives that I've been - and I think many of us are - ignorant of. His call for the sacred alliance should be taken seriously, too.