was a long time in the making. In this challenging work, Gilbert Achcar analyzes how this shift came about and examines its fateful consequences.
Achcar's
Clash of Barbarismstraces the rise of militant and anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism to its roots in U.S. policies aimed at control of the oil reserves of the Middle East, and above all, Saudi Arabia
the "Muslim Texas." Achcar examines the political premises of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and show how these led to the massive miscalculation of the September 11 attacks, with results both politically counterproductive and morally reprehensible.The major result of this miscalculation has been to complete a shift from the vision of a world order based on international law and respecting the rights of strong and weak nations alike, announced by George Bush, Sr., in 1991, to the world order being created by the administration of George W. Bush today, in which the United States asserts its own power and pursues its interests without regard for law or rights. In this context, we are living through a "clash of barbarisms" indeed.
This important and timely work is already scheduled for publication in French, English, German, Turkish, and Korean. It draws on first-hand knowledge of the Middle East, but looks beyond immediate events to clarify their geopolitical bases.
Customer Reviews:
Are these Individuals HUMAN BEINGS, or What?!.......2003-03-08
... I swear to almighty God, if I ever find myself standing face-to-face with ANY of the members of the current administration "serving" our nation in Washington, D.C., I will feel absolutely compelled to ask them the following question: "Are you a HUMAN BEING?!" ... I mean, are these people HUMAN BEINGS, or what?! ... Does ANYBODY out there feel like I do, and EVER question the basic HUMANITY of these characters? I find it UNBELIEVABLE - what these individuals are doing in the name of "serving" their country. If this is SERVING your country, I can HELP MYSELF. Thank you very much!
... Gilbert Achcar has written a masterpiece which serves as a mirror to our nation, staring us in the face. Interesting, how foreigners see us more realistically than we see ourselves. In reading this book, I have come to realize - without a doubt - that what this administration is doing in the name fighting a war on terrorism is exhibiting nothing more than the old saying of: "might is right in the world of greed and lust." ... To all those reading this who disagree, I say: READ THE FOLLOWING THREE PASSAGES FROM THIS BOOK, AND CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE! ...
... From page 37: "The United States is thus directly responsible for the resurgence of anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism. Over the past thirty years this resurgence has flourished in two successive waves. The Iranian revolution marked the climax of the first wave, in the 1970s; September 11 and the shock wave it sent out were the peak of the second wave, dating back to the 1990s. The United States is in fact doubly responsible for them. Not only did it contribute directly to propagating Islamic fundamentalism, but by helping to defeat and crush the Left and progressive nationalism throughout the Islamic world, it freed up the space for political Islam as the only ideological and organizational expression of popular resentment. Popular resentment, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism is not the culturally inevitable form of radicalization in Muslim countries; until recently most people in Muslim countries spurned the ideology. It won only by default, after its competition was eliminated by their common adversary."
... From page 58: "This method of action serves entirely rational ends, contrary to what many would like to believe. Bin Laden hoped to create a situation in which the U.S. population, weary of bearing the brunt of its government's involvement in a part of the world that it has no more interest in than it did in Vietnam thirty years ago, would put pressure on its government to disengage and get out. This is why he directed his warnings, as in his October 7 message, not only to the U.S. government and its Western allies but also to their peoples. He did so even more clearly in his 1998 statements, which called people to attention: "The Western regimes and the government of the United States of America bear the blame for what might happen. If their people do not wish to be harmed inside their very own countries, they should seek to elect governments that are truly representative of them and that can protect their interests." 8 "
... From pages 72 & 73: "Given the scale of the catastrophe that the Bush administration did nothing to prevent, its culpable negligence would have been more than enough to provoke the immediate resignation of any honest, responsible leader. But the very way the 43rd president made his way to the White House, not to speak of the Enron scandal and other events since the elections, showed that Bush is neither honest nor responsible. It is enough to make one marvel at the fact that Bill Clinton's lies in the Lewinsky affair almost drove him to resign or led to his impeachment. The surge in George W. Bush's popularity after September 11 shows that the events' true lessons are still far from having been learned. Indeed, it shows that people in the U.S. have drawn conclusions that are the exact opposite of the right ones. ... So far we have mentioned three factors to explain the origins of the political-religious terrorism targeting the United States: the presence of U.S. troops in the Saudi Kingdom, the Iraq embargo, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We will not dwell further on the way in which the Bush administration deals with these Middle East issues. It is clear enough that it has done nothing until now but throw more oil on the fire, forgetting once more that the United States itself falls within the perimeter of this conflagration."
... Wise words, indeed, that need to be HEEDED before we see even MORE "Blowback" ( as the CIA calls it ) of bad karma generating suffering and destruction onto American civilians right here in our own country! We are NOT immune! We are NOT safe, as Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia so rightly states. ... As the new book, BUSH'S BRAIN, so eloquently attests to, this whole Iraq War comes down to two things: Oil & Israel. ... We need to GO SOLAR as soon as possible! ... YOWZA! - The Aeolian Kid
Excellent, Balanced Viewpoint.......2003-02-24
I had the opportunity to listen to Achcar lecture at La Maison Francaise at NYU, and found his view intriguing, if not entirely acceptable, and certainly worthy of inclusion into a broader worldview. His English is faltering, but the translation is excellent and the book is well structured. Also, the book is about 100 pages long, and I found it an easy read, although not simply written. Reading the book would not take a great amount of time, and it provides a wealth of solid, but little known, historical and political information.
The largest takeaway from his analysis is a more balanced approach to international interactions, and a detailed analysis of the history of the Middle East and Islam, as it relates to political struggles. His analysis is akin to Chomsky's understanding of American political strategy, but also dovetails contrapuntally with more mainstream writers such as Brzezniski.
Only Barbarians Clash.......2003-01-26
After reading this slim volume, one receives the impression that it was a hurried effort, pieced together from previously published writings, not only of Gilbert Achcar's own work, but also of other writers. That, however, does not dull its message which is to portray the United States as the new Roman Empire, the political and military colossus of the 21st Century, the less than noble giant which can take what it wants from the world at large. And what the latter day Leviathan wants is not justice, nor fairness, demonstrating few of the noble principles which gave it birth.
Mr. Achcar who teaches politics and international relations in France intended this book to counterpoise with Samuel Huntington's better known book, "The Clash of Civilizations". He contends that it is the barbarism of the West which is currently evident in the US which clashes with the barbarism of the East as practiced by Islamic fundamentalists. His conclusion is that Professor Huntington is wrong; cultured societies don't war but barbaric societies do.
In an interesting comparison, Mr. Achcar depicts George W. Bush as a fundamentalist religious leader standing in fierce opposition to Islamic fundamentalists. The inference is that there are religious overtones to a war being planned against Iraq which -- much more likely -- is to control large oil reserves.
One point that the book brings out which is overlooked in mass media reports of the Bush Administration's war against terrorism. It is not true, the author asserts, that Islamists hate the USA for its freedom, for its wealth, for its non-Islamic ways. The US is hated for its uncritical support of international policies which are unfair and do not promote justice -- an antithesis of what the USA preaches. Those critics of the USA find a gross hypocrisy about such stands and they hate the duplicity of it all.
From a reader's point of view, the book was a little hard going at times perhaps because it is a translation, after all, from French. Nevertheless, for those who do not become edgy when learning uncomfortable facts about the most significant issue of this century, this book is recommended.
=pjr=
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The Barbarism of Reason: Max Weber and the Twilight of Enlightenment
Manufacturer: University of Toronto Press
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ASIN: 0802069800 |
Book Description
The London bombings of July 7th, 2005, revived the debates that raged after 9/11. What relation did they bear to the foreign and war policies of the United Kingdom and the United States? Were they symptoms of a “cultural clash” between deep-seated “values” or signs of a social crisis at the root of the ongoing conflict? How should we analyze the present-day emergence of fanatical forms of Islamic fundamentalism?
The title of the book alludes to the famous thesis on the “Clash of Civilizations.” Achcar develops a counterthesis, namely that the clashes we are witnessing do not oppose civilizations, but their dark sides. Each civilization produces a specific form of barbarism, which tends to take over in periods of crisis. Accordingly, the Bush administration doesn’t embody the values of Western civilization nor does Islamic fanaticism of the al-Qa‘ida type represent Islamic civilization. The clash between them is a “clash of barbarisms” in which the main culprit remains the most powerful.
The war of aggression and occupation in Iraq led to blatant manifestations of Western barbarism, most strikingly epitomized by the torture at Abu Ghraib, and inevitably nurtured fanatical Islamic and other counterbarbarisms.
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- R. G. Collingwood
- Profound Analysis of History, Society and Civilization
|
The New Leviathan: Or Man, Society, Civilization and Barbarism
R. G. Collingwood
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0198238800 |
Book Description
The New Leviathan, originally published in 1942, a few months before the author's death, is the book which R. G. Collingwood chose to write in preference to completing his life's work on the philosophy of history. It was occasioned by the Second World War and the threat which Nazism and Fascism constituted to civlization. The book draws upon many years of work in moral and political philosophy and attempts to establish the multiple and complex connections between the levels of consciousness, society, civilization, and barbarism. Collingwood argues that traditional social contract theory has failed to account for the continuing existence of the non-social community and its relation to the social community in the body politic. He is also critical of the tendency within ethics to confound right and duty. The publication of 120 pages of additional manuscript material in this revised edition demonstrates in more detail how Collingwood was determined to show that right and duty occupy different levels of rational practical consciousness. The additional writings also contain Collingwood's unequivocal rejection of relativism. David Boucher's introduction shows that The New Leviathan and The Idea of History are integrally related and that neither can be properly understood independently of the other. He is also concerned to show how many of Collingwood's ideas have a contemporary relevance, and that his ideas on barbarism are not so unusual as they might at first appear. 'A strange and fascinating book . . . The publication of this handsome new edition of The New Leviathan . . . is a welcome event.' Political Studies 'In his respectful and informative introduction David Boucher shows how The New Leviathan and the additional material appended to it fit in with Collingwood's thought as a whole.' History of Political Thought 'Throughout, the Introduction displays Boucher's usual mastery of the material, serious and probing approach, and judicious appraisal.' Collingwood Studies
Customer Reviews:
R. G. Collingwood.......2004-02-26
This is the book you want to read about Politics, Human Relations and Civilization by one of the great philosophers of our time.
Highly Recommended.
Profound Analysis of History, Society and Civilization.......2004-02-26
The terse style of this book, written in numbered paragraphs, accents the rigorous thought and analysis. This is the epitome of 40 years of prolific work in all the subject areas covered, by one of the most original minds of the past century. The short history of philosophy should go -- Plato -- Kant -- Collingwood.
The book is an apology (in the classic sense of that term) for Civilization. Here is an example of his style and what you can expect:
New Leviathan 37.18: "The will to civilization is the will to earn one's own self-respect and the respect of the other members of one's own community; and this is done (36.93) by the sheer exercise of will, joining with these others to do something about the situation in which you find yourselves."
Very rewarding reading. Highly recommended.
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