The Clash of Civilizations is real

Some- time after political scientist Samuel Huntington published an essay in 1993 laying out his theory of the Clash of Civilizations, critics slammed and discredited him.

Then, this former democrat veered to the politically conservative side supporting restricted immigration to the U.S.

This change of heart on such a hot button topic got him labelled a reactionary.

That’s not all, Huntington predicted America’s neo-liberal world order would fail, as people the world over reasserted their identity along cultural lines after asking the question “who am I” with resultant pushback.

The clash of civilizations is the tussle between contrasting cultures and religions a new source of conflict post-cold war according to Huntington.

His critics claimed his work caused the very sorts of conflicts he predicted, blaming him for instilling in American elites an outlook of inevitable war between the West and other civilizations, especially Islam.

They insinuated Huntington was an imperialist, making them by implication anti-imperialists because there was no clash of civilizations so his theory encouraged a false perspective.

This overlooks the fact Huntington believed in the strengthening of western civilization as opposed to remaking other civilizations in its image, the real imperialism.

Most likely his critics were miffed he supported cultural pride and diversity against their ideas of levelled, anti-cultural societies united behind the values of western universalism.

If Huntington’s theory seemed farfetched in the middle of the nineteen nineties 9/11 made people sit up and take notice.

More precisely, the World Trade Centre attacks were the beginning of this Clash of Civilizations.

Right after 9/11, one newspaper headline screamed; Muslims defy laws of physics, but the attacks were no freak of nature but a well-planned, well-coordinated event plotted at the highest levels.

Even more sinister, by implying 9/11 was an unnatural feat it purposely ruled out a physical explanation for the rapid collapse of the World Trade Centre Twin Towers.

Certainly, the American elite feared Orthodox civilization especially the culturally traditional variety represented by Christianity.

9/11 was laid at the door of religious fundamental extremism, with orthodox Christianity bracketed with the Islamic ideology of Jihadism, or conquest.

Yet, the promotion of this false equivalency was deliberate, but many people accepted its premise because it tied in with their worldview.

New Atheism exploded in the wake of 9/11 with the Four Horsemen of the movement publishing books that were instant bestsellers.

With 9/11 blamed on Islamic extremists, an abrupt about turn occurred some years later when Islam became an ally of progressives in the fight against national sovereignty with mass migration a means toward this end.

In any event the Clash of Civilizations is more than East vs West, Islam vs Christianity or the Developed world vs the Developing one, it is a multi-faceted front.

It is also Brexit vs the E. U, Israel vs Palestine and last but not least the Democrats vs the Republicans.

It is the veritable 21st Century Clash of the Titans with huge socio-political-economic repercussions all round.

Opposing ideologies like classical liberalism vs progressive liberalism paired with religion on the one hand and progressive slash non-religion on the other also constitute the ‘clash of civilizations’ a feature rather than a bug in many western countries right now.

The Clash of Civilizations concept is not new; many others have touched on the subject albeit by another name.

It is interesting that secessionist Yugoslav Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim faction’s waged dirty wars against each other in the attempt to eradicate religion in Yugoslavia, yet these wars pointed to the direct involvement of communist factions.

KGB defector, Anatoly Golitsyn, alluded to the assault on religions in all its forms as a tactic to achieve specific goals.

From today’s vantage point, it looks like Samuel Huntington was something of a prophet as the major cultural issues of the time plays out.

CIA decoy Osama bin Laden reportedly said; the interests of the Muslims coincide with the interests of the socialists in the war against the crusaders.