El sueño de la razón produce monstruos

El sueño de la razón produce monstruos
Considerations post 13/11 around Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations".

This post is meant to be first of all a tribute: to life, to freedom, to Paris, to the human capabilities that distinguish us from all other creatures.
This is a tribute to nonviolence, to peace.
And it is above all, a tribute and a moved commemoration of those who didn't come back home last Friday night. These are a few names certified by police, those people were among the identified victims of the terrorist assaults unleashed in Paris on 13/11/2015:
Alexander Nick
Ayad Thomas
Ben Khalifa Saadi Halima
Ben Khalifa Saadi Houda
Decherf Guillaume B
De Peretti Aurélie
Diakite Asta
Dogan Elif
DuBois Fabrice
Elodie Breuil
Gil James
Michelle González
Juan Alberto Gonzalez
Nohemi Hoche
Mathieu Houd
Djamila Jaimez
Michelli Gil
Jozic Milko
Elif Dogan
Mauduit Cedric
Mosser Marie
Perez Manu
Ribet Valentin
San Martin Elsa
Veronique Delplace
Patricia San Martín Núñez
Salines Lola
Solesin Valeria
Valle Luis Felipe Zschoche

What horrified the whole world a few days ago, and nurtured the on-going social shock we are all taking part in, is a great example, a violent demonstration of what Samuel Huntington argued for the first time in 1992 at the American Enterprise Institute, then published in his homonymous opera in 1996.

The enlightened and far-sighted approach of Huntington is undeniable, almost distressing in its veracity level, but still problematic.

The Clash of Civilizations, for Huntington, represents a development of history.
In the old time, the history of international system was mainly about the struggles between monarchs, nations and ideologies and conflicts were primarily seen within Western civilization. But after the end of the cold war, world politics had been moved into a new aspect in which non- Western civilizations were no more the exploited recipients of Western civilization but become another important actor joining the West to shape and move the world history.

The work and the genius of Huntington are particularly relevant to the debate involving human rights, cultural conflicts, globalization and multiculturalism, pluralism:
"It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future."

Huntington also argues that civilizational conflicts are "particularly prevalent between Muslims and non-Muslims", identifying the "bloody borders" between Islamic and non-Islamic civilizations. This conflict dates back as far as the initial thrust of Islam into Europe, its eventual expulsion in the Iberian Reconquista and the attacks of the Ottomans on Eastern Europe.

Huntington believes that some of the factors contributing to this conflict are that both Christianity (which has influenced Western civilization) and Islam are:
Missionary religions, seeking conversion of others;
Universal, "all-or-nothing" religions, in the sense that it is believed by both sides that only their faith is the correct one;
Teleological religions: their values and beliefs represent the goals of existence and purpose in human existence;
Religions that perceive irreligious people who violate the base principles of those religions to be furthering their own pointless aims, which leads to violent interactions.

More recent factors contributing to a Western-Islamic clash, Huntington wrote, are the Islamic Resurgence and demographic explosion in Islam, coupled with the values of Western universalism (/cultural imperialism?) that infuriate Islamic fundamentalists.

All these historical and modern factors combined, Huntington wrote briefly in his Foreign Affairs article and in much more detail in his 1996 book, would lead to a bloody clash between the Islamic and Western civilizations.

The first strong, visible, "popular" and socially shocking "clash" occurred on 9/11. We know the story and how those events' out-comes developed in the last 15 years we are still affected by today.
We have experienced a few days ago – 13/11 – the genuine, European relative of those terrorists attacks.
Late Friday night, Parisian citizens were attacked in 7 different sites: three teams of gunmen and suicide bombers were involved in the coordinated attacks across Paris and killed at least 132 people.

Let's get back to Huntington: he offers six explanations for why civilizations will clash:

Differences among civilizations are basic in how civilizations are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition, and, most important, religion. These fundamental differences are the product of centuries, so they will not soon disappear.

The world is becoming a smaller place. As a result, the interactions across the world are increasing, and they intensify civilization consciousness and awareness of differences between civilizations and commonalities within civilizations.

Due to the economic modernization and social change, people are separated from longstanding local identities. Instead, religion has replaced this gap, which provides a basis for identity and commitment that transcends national boundaries and unites civilizations.

The growth of civilization-consciousness is enhanced by the dual role of the West. On the one hand, the West is at a peak of power. At the same time, a return-to-the-roots phenomenon is occurring among non-Western civilizations. A West at the peak of its power confronts non-Western countries that increasingly have the desire, the will and the resources to shape the world in non-Western ways.

Cultural characteristics and differences are less mutable and hence less easily mediated than political and economic ones.

Economic regionalism is increasing. Successful economic regionalism will reinforce civilization-consciousness. Economic regionalism may succeed only when it is rooted in a common civilization.

In Huntington's view, inter-civilizational conflict manifests itself in two forms:
Fault line conflicts which are on a local level and occur between adjacent states belonging to different civilizations or within states that are home to populations from different civilizations: it is the case of the military action IS has been taking on in the past months.
Core state conflicts which are on a global level between the major states of different civilizations. These conflicts may result from a number of causes, such as: relative influence or power (military or economic), discrimination against people from a different civilization, intervention to protect kinsmen in a different civilization, or different values and culture, particularly when one civilization attempts to impose its values on people of a different civilization.
This is the case of what someone – with great drama and panic-nurturing lexicon – calls "the Third World War", or more pragmatically, the global conflict born out of the international reaction to IS' rise and its horrific "policies".

The analysis and the comprehension of this reality is what in Italy we may call "una bella gatta da pelare": its extreme complexity makes it easy to fall (and fail) in mistake.
It is inserted in multiple analytical frameworks, it involves plural, diversified, new, unknown actors, and it is a heart-aching discussion, and emotions without the guide and the light of intellectual effort can just overflow in further violence.
We must leave behind us every strategic studies/ criteria which used to help us in the analysis of past (actually recent!) conflicts.
I hope I wont be offensive to anyone saying that today, we are all ignorant on this subject, or better, we all have to learn, to read, to study, to think and listen and talk to each other and think again, if we aim "to win", to safe our lives and souls, condemning who wants to destroy human kind killing the democracy and freedom we stands for.