As I ponder what this book I’ve written is about, I realize that it is as much as anything an expression of my desire to transcend the tribal and of my frustration at those who pass off cultural chauvinism and narrow-mindedness as liberalism, who use ‘common sense’ as a proxy for forcing one culture onto another on the pretext of imposing ‘universal values;’ who scoff at subservience to backward traditions when they see it in others but are blind to it in themselves; and who refuse to look at the cultural systems of others as – at least initially – equals that deserve to be judged by more than
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