[Marxism] Le Monde on "The war of a thousand years"

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

Still battling the 'flu, I was reading Le Monde, where Alain Gresh writes:

"In the US view, each incident in Iraq fits into a certain logic: the
attacks in the Sunni triangle must be the work of supporters of Saddam
Hussein or of international terrorists linked to al-Qaida; Muqtada al-Sadr's
resistance is explained by the involvement of Iran, classified as part of
the axis of evil; each armed action is further proof that "they" hate
western values. As a US corporal in Iraq said: "We have to kill the bad
guys". But for every bad guy that the US kills, several more are created
each time an apartment block is bombed or a village is subjected to search
and destroy operations. (...) The cold war, particularly during the 1980s,
didn't mobilise people. It was mostly played out at the level of military
high commands. Communism had already lost much of its attraction and the red
threat no longer provoked witch-hunts. But the war on terror is proving
popular. Parts of both western and Islamic opinion are prepared to believe
that, behind the present conflicts, civilisations really are clashing. The
key divisions in society are no longer between the powerful and the weak,
rich and poor, haves and have-nots, but between them and us. The countries
of the West should forget the struggle between classes, and line up in the
battle against the Other. What would be the result? A thousand-year war
whose only result would be to bring comfort to the established (dis-)
order." http://mondediplo.com/2004/09/01terror

The definition of us-and-them in ideology becomes so much easier if "us" is
universal and "them" is an abberation in the way of progress. In this sense,
Ben Wattenberg proposed that "We are the first universal nation. 'First' as
in the first one, 'first' as in 'number one.' And 'universal' within our
borders and globally." (Ben J. Wattenberg, The First Universal Nation:
Leading Indicators and Ideas about the Surge of America in the 1990s (New
York: Free Press, 1991), p. 24). In another article he wrote:  "A unipolar
world is a good thing, if America is the uni." Ben J. Wattenberg,
"Neo-Manifest Destinarianism," National Interest 21 (Fall 1990), p. 54.

When you think about it, Ira Levin's premonitions in his science fiction
novel "This Perfect Day", in which social life is ruled by the gigantic
computer "unicomp" and the masses are doped with regular injections, are not
so far from the mark... "Of course it seems wrong at first", Wei said, "But
the ultimate decisions have to be made by untreated members, and untreated
members can't and shouldn't live their lives on cakes and TV and Marx
Writing." He smiled. "Not even on Wei addressing the Chemotherapists", he
said, and put steak into his mouth." - Ira Levin, This Perfect Day (London:
Pan Books, 1970), p. 258-259.

Jurriaan




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