JOHN GRAY ON AL QAEDA

As long as we're on the subject of Al Qaeda, here's what the British don John Gray, my preferred philosopher, says on the first page of one of his handy little books: "No cliché is more stupefying than that which describes Al Qaeda as a throwback to medieval times." He goes on to point out that its "closest precursors are the revolutionary anarchists of late-nineteenth-century Europe." Not a view widely held by the common run of experts. Nor is this:

The modern myth is that science enables humanity to take charge of its destiny; but "humanity" itself is a myth, a dusty remmant of religious faith. In truth there are only humans, using the growing knowledge given them by science to pursue conflicting ends.

This of course includes Al Qaeda whose suicide warriors are a rebuke to the belief governing Western societies "that modernity is a single condition, everywhere the same and always benign." Or that: "As societies become more modern, so they become more alike." Or that: "Being modern means realising our values -- the values of the Enlightenment, as we like to think of them.

If Gray (whom I've written about before) offers any consolation, it is this:

The new world envisioned by Al Qaeda is no different from the fantasies projected by Marx and Bakunin, by Lenin and Mao, and by the neo-liberal evangelists who so recently announced the end of history. Like these modern western movements, Al Qaeda will run aground on abiding human needs.

But that hardly means there will be an end to terrorism. "Once Al Qaeda has disappeared, other types of terror -- very likely not animated by radical Islam, possibly not overtly religious -- will surely follow," Gray writes on the concluding page of his handy little book. "The advance of knowledge does not portend any age of reason. It merely adds another twist to human folly."

Postscript: The term "neo-liberal" may seem confusing to Americans. It is more or less equivalent European usage for our "neo-conservative." Bill Osborne has provided a fuller explanation of what it means in Marketplace of Ideas:

Some of neo-liberalism’s most important tenets are cutting public expenditure for social services such as health insurance, education and cultural programs. This is consistent with its other policies, such as the deregulation of the market to allow the free flow of capital and limit restrictions caused by issues such as environmentalism and job safety; privatization of state-owned enterprises such as schools, parks, toll highways, hospitals, utilities, and water supplies; and the replacement of traditional concepts such as "the public good" or "community" with values emphasizing "individual responsibility." (We thus see that in its technical economic meanings, neo-liberalism differs from the common American political usage of the term "liberal." Neo-liberalism refers instead to the historical meanings of market-liberalism as freed from government intervention or involvement.

Es claro?