If you want to understand Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz, one should look back to the Ford Administration where they were proposing secret Soviet weapons systems, of which there was no evidence, in order to block détente. One should look back to Leo Strauss, whose teachings influenced the Neo-cons. To understand Bin Laden, one should learn of Sayyed Qutb, and what happened to him in the `50's. Adam Curtis, in this BBC documentary series, shows in the history of these two world-views some ideological similarities. He proposes that the projection of Al Qaeda as a large Islamic KGB style organization with sleeper cells, networks, and bunkers is an invention of the Neo-cons and that they are missing the real threat from the ideas of these Islamic groups. No American network has agreed to show this series in the US.
I saw this documentary series, The Power of Nightmares, at the San Francisco International Film Festival. This essay is my own interpretation of the film and the Q&A afterwards.
How do you fight an idea?
This series tells two histories, one of Radical Islam and the other of Neo-conservatism. Both have curiously similar worldviews. Neo-conservatives proposing phony weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is not an isolated event. He shows how in the Ford administration phony Soviet weapon systems were proposed to slow détente with the Soviets. He traces the roots of the Neo-conservatives back to a political philosopher in Chicago, Leo Strauss, who believed that Western liberalism has a fatal flaw. Freedom and a culture of questioning all values and moral truths will lead to people becoming absorbed in their own selfish desires. The bonds holding our society together will dissolve and society will collapse into chaos.
In Chicago at the same time as Strauss was Sayyed Qutb, an Egyptian studying the American education system. Qutb was horrified by American life. Freedom in America brought out in people a focus on the superficial. His American neighbors were interested in movie stars, automobiles and having the perfect lawn. Americans were isolated from each other and consumed with their own selfish lives. Qutb believed that the American ideas of the ultimate importance of the individual were dangerous, as they would seduce Muslims into following their own desires and not the Koran.
The solution for Strauss is that an elite must provide a compelling story, a myth. This story would inspire Americans to work together and keep our society strong. The story could be religious or political but did not necessarily need to be true. The story that developed is that of an America that has a unique ability to see what is good and to destroy those forces of evil in the world. What must be avoided at all cost is the liberal tendency toward compromise, negotiation, weakness and seeing issues as shades of grey.
For this story to be compelling we need a powerful enemy. For many years this was the Soviet Union. Not a Soviet Union with a collapsing economy and with outdated weapon systems. No, the Soviet Union is strong and clever, these apparent weaknesses are a ruse to fool us. It must be defeated and its defeat is our victory, and proves the correctness of our policies. With the Soviets defeated we need a new enemy. First it was the Taliban, then Saddam and now Bin Laden.
Qutb returned to Egypt with the idea that Egypt could still have all the advantages of a modern economy if the leaders promoted Islam as a moral force to contain people's selfish desires. He joined a political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which supported Nasser in coming to power in 1952. Qutb was alarmed by what he saw. Nasser welcomed American investment and brought in the CIA to help with security.
All the values from America that he feared were coming to his home country. The Muslim brotherhood organized against Nasser, Qutb was arrested and tortured in prison. He realized from that torture the error in his thinking. He had thought of Americans as selfish and isolated but realized that deep down they are evil and barbarous. He called it "jahiliyah", a state of barbarous ignorance. Americans could see themselves as free and good and be completely unaware of their true nature.
So since then various Islamic groups have tried to shock the Muslim world to see the dangers in Western ideas. Our leaders are corrupt and no longer true Muslims. They must be killed. Then other groups were targeted until it was seen that all segments of the Muslim world have been seduced into jahiliyah and can be legitimately attacked. These groups were remarkably unsuccessful. For all their violence the Muslim world could not be convinced of the correctness of their vision.
Finally they succeeded. With American help these groups push the Russians out of Afghanistan and later as the Taliban form a society free from these seductive ideas. Alas their victory is short lived.
How do you fight an idea? The Radical lslamists clearly don't know. The Neo-cons have an answer but it is counter productive. They see the problem in mythological black and white terms seeing an evil organization, a cancer that must be destroyed. They believe we must be strong and not squeamish to do what is necessary. The battle against the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization was won but with the torture the battle of ideas was lost. They refused Gorbachov's request to help negotiate the withdrawal of Russia from Afghanistan and set the stage for the Taliban. With the defeat of the Taliban the Radical Islamists were divided into many small groups, unable to work together because each was convinced that they alone were true Muslims. So in a way Strauss was right. With the right unifying idea, the American invasion of Iraq, the divided Islamists are able to unite and work together.
Al Qaeda is a dangerous organization and set of ideas. Al Qaeda as an Islamic KGB with sleeper cells in the US, an elaborate network of agents, fortified bunkers in the mountains and such is a Neo-con myth. Much of what the Radical Islamists had was destroyed when the Taliban were overthrown in Afghanistan. What is alive is a set of ideas about America; America as an evil force in the world. The radical Islamists until now have been unsuccessful in convincing others of the truth of these ideas but with the help of the Neo-cons, who knows what is possible.
So my question is "How do you fight an idea?" Are corporations, the religious right, neo-conservatives, Muslim extremists, right to lifers, intelligent design, secular humanism, gays, labor unions, pornographers etc. etc., organizations that if you disagree with are to be defeated by any means necessary or do they represent ideas that need to be respected and debated?
Part one
Part two
Part three