Really I'm just re-hashing the original thought of someone more interesting--as usual--in this case, Olivier Roy. He points out that fundamentalist (actually, he calls them "neofundamentalist", but that need not concern us here) Muslims talk in the language of human rights and liberalism, even though their ostensible goals are the antithesis of what is traditionally thought of as the sine qua non of human rights and liberalism.
Similarly, the BNP call their opponents "fascists". Griffin brings legal proceeding to bare on someone who "racially abused" him. White peopel are the victims of racism too. Their frame of reference is the same: the same as my frame of reference, the same as radical takfiris, the same as a leftist NGO... The intellectual and cultural debate is no longer about whether communism or fascism is superior to liberal democratic ideals, but whose ideology matches up to those ideals best. The end of history, then, er, only not quite.
Do tell! You are doing a postgrad course in development studies?
There are a wealth of interesting macro models being published at the moment, which change the basic assumptions of the standard DSGE model with homogenous agents acting across an infinite time horizon with complete knowledge in Walrasian markets. Most of these models are designed to generate endogenous and self-reinforcing business cycles. (For example, John Geanakoplos' GEI leverage cycle model). Point being to develop models that don't assume crises away at the outset.
