This book seeks to provide an insight to the unprecedented and imperceptible changes that are arising as part of the processes of Globalization. In particular, it will focus on the consequences of Globalization: the way that a rational, economic process impacts on societal cultures throughout the world. The central thesis of this book is that a consequence of Western Globalization has been such as to have largely destroyed the sameness and continuity of societal cultures across the world. And this is experienced by members in both Western and non-Western societies as death of a way of life leading to a loss of identity. Faced with such unbearable experiences members of societies are unable to make sense of their environment. They respond to this experience in various ways but there are two particular responses that are constantly present in all societies. The first is dependency, which may hardly be a surprise. But more interestingly the nature of the dependency is highly primitive and is in the nature of a search for a Messiah or saviour. For large numbers of Western societies the object of their dependency needs is evangelical religion; while in Muslim societies nearly everyone turns to Islam, as an object of their dependency needs. The other particular response is through violent rebellion. In Western societies we see young people rioting in the streets; in Muslim societies we see suicide bombers and others engaged in global terrorism.
As was explained in the last chapter, the approach taken is to view societies-as-a-whole, whereby the field of study is concerned with looking at a society as a society and that acts done by individuals or sub-groups of society are regarded as acts done on behalf of that society. Put another way such acts are part of a societal dynamic and are not seen as individual actions. In taking this approach we can begin to view the current societal dynamics in a different manner: one that enables us to gain a deeper understanding of what is undoubtedly a dangerous situation. Thus the view taken here is that Al Qaeda or other Muslim terrorist groups are doing something on behalf of Muslim societies. And of course this also applies to acts committed by individuals and groups in Western societies. In this book the notion that Al Qaeda and others are simply a small group of global Muslim terrorists is rejected. For politicians and perhaps members of Western societies it may be an anxiety-reducing notion to consider that the problem is able to be managed by seeing the problem in a small compartmentalized manner, but this is to ignore the true source of the problem which is a serious and disturbing conflict at the boundary between Muslim and Western cultures. Understanding the important notion that terrorism committed by Al Qaeda is something done on behalf of Muslim societies identifies the source of the problem. And this leads to the ultimate purpose of the book that is to explore some of the issues concerning the development of inter-cultural relationships.
In this chapter I want to set the scene for what will follow in subsequent chapters which are intended to take the discussion and exploration further until we are in a position in the concluding chapter to achieve the ultimate aim referred to above. At the centre of this exploration is the process that we call Globalization which, it is suggested, has created societal dynamics such as to make this a most complex and complicated period of our history. Even though the changes have been and continue to be in the nature of a revolution, for most of us the continuance and profundity of change makes it nigh impossible to keep pace with what is happening. We, and members of societies throughout the world, are part of these changes. It is “us”, our culture, that is being torn apart, and we are frequently overwhelmed by the emotions aroused. It’s rather like being in the middle of a constant and continuing fight where it’s impossible to think and reflect. It’s as much as we can do to concentrate on the current situation and to work out how to survive in the world at any given moment. But that should not detract from the extreme nature of the changes that are a consequence of Globalization and which are affecting members of societies throughout the world in equally extreme ways, as will be shown throughout the book.
I don’t use the term “revolution” lightly, but on any scale this is a period of history that is changing our very way of life. If it were an earthquake we were studying it would be rated exceedingly high on the Richter scale. Or to use the terminology of Thomas Kuhn (1962) it is a point where we are living through a Paradigm change: a point where the old way of thinking and behaving is no longer valid and helpful. A period in time when we are developing a new Paradigm: a new way of life. At this point we do not know the nature of the new Paradigm as we are still experiencing the death of a known way of life. How things will develop we cannot say at this time. However, as difficult as the task of understanding may be, such are the consequences that the need for understanding is paramount if we are to develop peaceful inter-cultural relations. I have described above just how difficult it is for members of society to go beyond something other than a general impression that they are in the process of profound societal change. There is the added problem that psychological and unconscious processes are also evoked by the extreme anxiety arising from the current dynamics: these can and do result in polarization leading to conflictual inter-cultural relations.
Before getting involved in the more detailed discussions that will support the main purpose of this book, I want to explore something of the way that Western and Muslim cultures have collided and created an abrasive and dangerous interface: one where Globalization leads to global Muslim terrorism. This is largely the story of the way that Western Globalization, coming on top of what was an already existing lack of trust in and fear of domination by the West, has greatly increased the fears and anxieties of members of Muslim societies. And this has in turn threatened their individual and group identity and raised their dependency needs whereby they have turned to Islam. A problem is that Islamic leaders also feel that their identity is threatened by the advances of Globalization. We therefore have a combination of factors; high dependency on Islam and Islamic leaders who respond with violent aggression towards those who would attempt to change their way of life. With religious leaders behaving in this way it can only result in members of Muslim societies acting in the same manner. A result is that aggressive violence against the West becomes part of Muslim culture: it is the way of life for members of Muslim societies. This then leads to individuals and groups being unconsciously mobilized to act on behalf of Muslim society to carry out acts of aggressive violence against the West. Thus we have Osama Bin Laden, Al Quaeda and other Muslim terrorists who are engaged in global terrorism.
Muslim terrorism is, on several dimensions, of a different nature to that of other terrorism. Prior to the recent Muslim atrocities, acts of terrorism were mainly either intra-national such as the acts of terror committed by the IRA in the United Kingdom, by ETA in Spain, or by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, or they were acts committed by terrorist groups against foreign interests in their own societies. Muslim terrorism is a new phenomenon, it is inter-cultural and it is global in nature. It is also at a different level whereby those concerned commit acts of terrorism that are of an unprecedented degree of violence. A measure of the unprecedented nature of global Muslim terrorism is the way that Western security services were totally unaware of the threat. The resultant wringing of hands by governments and security services after the atrocity on 9/11 and subsequent atrocities around the world, serves to show that there was little if any belief of such a threat even to the extent that valuable evidence that was available was ignored. It is possible that the absence of a society-as-a-whole perspective helped to bring about this result.
Globalization has had serious consequences for all societies, Western and non-Western alike, and I do not want to ignore the dire effect of Globalization on every other society but there are various reasons that we need to understand why Globalization should have a more profound effect on Muslim society than on other societies throughout the world. Exploring the context enables us to consider that even before Globalization began its seemingly inexorable intrusion into and destruction of the societal cultures of the world, relationships between Muslim and Western societies were never amicable. Each society had a distinctly different culture that was a very different way of life. Other than the important fact that both we and they are all human beings, the way we and they live our lives is markedly different. This may be true of other cultures such as Chinese culture but it is not to the same degree and there are other factors that affect Muslim societies. For example, they are economically and militarily weak compared with some other non-Western societies. Muslim or Islamic society is part of many nations and does not have a specific national voice to provide a political response. And it is not wealthy enough to provide a copy-cat economic response such as that of the South Americans and Chinese. This really leaves them with few options and the response of Muslim or Islamic societies is to aggressively reject Western values and attempts to impose a Western way of life on them.
Over the years, Western know-how, economic and military clout ensured that the West controlled oil production that was the main source of revenue for most Muslim societies. But this was more of a “working arrangement” than a relationship between Muslims and the West. Even while this working arrangement was in place several Muslim societies were engaged in constant anti-Western activities. And, most of the Muslim world is committed to the destruction of (Western) Israel. Seen from a systemic perspective we can view the interface between Israel and the Muslim world as a microcosm of that between Muslim and Western cultures. Put another way, Israel is to be seen as a symbolic representation of Western societies. Thus we see the hatred and the violence that Muslims have for the West being displaced onto Israel. From this perspective we should be under no illusions about the feelings of members of Muslim societies for “us” in the West. Taking this notion further we might also wish to consider that the Iranian view that Israel should be wiped off the map is Iran doing something on behalf of Muslim society.
Thus we can see that a combination of Globalization that has the effect of seeking to impose a new way of life on Muslim societies and a Muslim society that has traditionally found all things Western as abhorrent to their way of life combine to produce a highly threatening and chaotic situation whereby members of Muslim societies seek for relief from the severe threats they are experiencing. Although they could control oil production that would damage the West, unlike other non-Western societies they are relatively economically weak. They are also militarily weak and such military that they do have is in the control of various Muslim societies. From this point we might try to put ourselves in the shoes of Muslim leaders. By Muslim leaders, I of course refer to Islamic leaders, because unlike Western secular states Muslim society is to a great extent controlled by Islam. Faced with such an intrusion into their way of life it might not be surprising if they responded by saying something like “they will not change our way of life”. For the most part though they will doubtless experience the situation as helpless and hopeless and from this position will become even more angry and frustrated to the extent that they may consider extreme measures to preserve their way of life.
From this point it is a relatively short step from the angry tirades of the clerics, who are to be seen as doing something on behalf of the Muslim society, to the global terrorism that has ensued. We in the West are inclined to ignore those matters that don’t sit easily with our understanding. When this happens we stereotype, for example “the mad Mullahs” and the “barbaric killers”. But, difficult as it may be, we would be better advised, to listen carefully and to try to understand what is being said both by the suicide bombers and by the Clerics. What they say is said on behalf of members of Muslim societies. To listen is to begin to understand; to ignore is to perpetuate the inter-cultural clash. I should add that this message equally applies to members of Muslim societies who are also inclined to ignore those matters that do not sit easily with their understanding. Thus here we are, Muslim societies fighting to preserve their way of life as a result of the effects of Globalization and responding by committing acts of global terrorism against the West; and Western societies fighting to preserve their way of life against those acts of terror and responding by an attack on Iraq, an intrusion in Afghanistan, and a war on terror. And that is where we are at this time in some sort of inescapable vortex.
In the last few pages I have tried to convey the way that Globalization and terrorism are indivisibly linked and the way that a consequence of Globalization coming on top of previous experiences of Western societies has resulted in Muslim societies responding through the use of global terrorism. To shed further light on the complexity of Globalization and in particular its consequences on Muslim societies I shall use a variety of sources. One of those sources is the period of history known as the Industrial Revolution. In Chapter Three I will show that there are several benefits to be gained from this source which was a period that had many similarities and consequences, and we are fortunate that we now have the benefit of hindsight which enables us to gain a deeper understanding of the present. From this historical perspective I move forward in Chapter Four to an exploration of Globalization with a view to trying to understand the nature of the processes and the political and economic intentions behind those processes. In Chapters Five and Six I seek to show the effect of Globalization, first on Western societies and secondly on non-Western societies. These chapters lead to a final chapter that is concerned with exploring some of the issues concerning the development of inter-cultural relationships.
By way of further introduction the following discussion on the way that Globalization and global Muslim terrorism have developed in parallel will provide an opportunity to locate the study of Globalization and terrorism in an overall time scale and in a manner which enables comparative development and linkage. In this way, we can gain a further level of understanding of the way that global Muslim terrorism has developed as one of the consequences of Globalization. The process I will use is to rely upon the development of the World Wide Web (www) and the development of Al Qaeda as symbolic representations of the development of both Globalization and global Muslim terrorism respectively. As was described above, with the advent of Globalization there developed Al Qaeda as a global Muslim terrorist organization. From media reports and other public records it is possible to trace the beginnings and activities of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda which enables us to track progress over a period of time. The significance of Al Qaeda is that they are to be seen as the main Muslim global terrorist group who have been mobilized to fight by Muslim society. In other words, they were and are to be seen as doing something on behalf of Muslim society.
It is a difficult and complicated task to trace the beginnings and activities of Globalization. However, we can work on the basis that the World Wide Web (www) was such a substantial element in the development of Globalization that by tracking the development of the www and other associated developments we can achieve a fairly accurate record of the progress over a period of time. In this respect, Tom Forester, in a book titled The Information Technology Revolution published in 1985, predicted that the future was going to see a period of very rapid change in technology, to such an extent that there was talk of another Industrial Revolution. He also suggested that the coming changes would be based on the computer, on telecommunications and on the power that they give us over the manipulation of information. Perhaps even more significant than what he says is what he does not say: he made no mention of Globalization or the www whatever.
In 1993 Daniel Burrus, in a book called Technotrends, did refer to Globalization when he stated that technology alters reality. His view was that without advanced technology there would be no Globalization, and that we would not have the capability to manage the decentralization of power and authority. He stated that without the technology, global demographic changes would be greatly limited. For Burrus technological innovations therefore represented the enabling change agent. What had of course changed between 1985 and 1993 was the introduction of the World Wide Web, the main technological enabler and driver of Globalization. The development of the www should be seen in the context of previous developments regarding electronic communication (email). However, it is suggested that without and until the www was available the rate of progress and development of Globalization was nowhere near as significant as after it became available.
By concentrating, in a symbolic manner, on the development of the www and the rise of Al Qaeda we are able to begin to appreciate the way that Globalization and terrorism have developed in a parallel manner. The two short histories of the www and Al Qaeda in the following chart are chronological records of developments. They are not intended to be detailed records, rather they are intended to be a concise record that will enable the reader to easily compare one against the other. The intention is to show a time line.
Development of the World Wide Web (www) and the growth of Al Qaeda: a comparison
Directly or indirectly, www is now part of the everyday life of nearly everyone. By providing quick and easy access to a multitude of information, it has opened up enormous possibilities throughout the world. What seems so surprising when presented in this way is the relatively short life span of www. What seems to have been part of our life for ages has really only been available to us for a short period. As is shown in the above table it was in 1993 that the real breakthrough was made when CERN made their knowledge available free to anyone and it then became available on PC Windows and Mackintosh systems making www available to virtually anyone with a personal computer. By 1995 it was seen to be having a huge impact on members of societies throughout the world. Thus we might trace back to 1995 and onwards as the moment that Globalization was seen to be having such a disruptive effect on societies throughout the world: the moment when societal culture became more of a “dynamic process” than being “evidenced by sameness and continuity”. This in itself tends to support the argument that Globalization has had a huge impact on societies throughout the world. That is a matter that will be the subject of a much fuller and deeper discussion in later chapters.
At the same time we will be aware that by any measure the activities of Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda followers have been without precedent. The scale and nature of the terrorist activities carried out by Bin Laden and others in the name of Al Qaeda has been at a level only previously experienced in wartime. As with the development of the www, so the development of Al Qaeda has been a relatively recent phenomenon. Viewing the development of terrorism in this way enables us to see the way that it has built and escalated in recent years in much the same way as the www. We can also see how Osama Bin Laden became known to the world at about the same time as the development of www, and how his rise, and that of Al Qaeda, coincides with the rise of Globalization. The 1993 attack on the World Trade Center coincided with the date that www was made available to all; and the 9/11 plot was in being in 1995 when Globalization was being driven by the www.
Having shown the uncanny way that the undoubted driver of Globalization, the www, and the main global Muslim terrorist response, Al Qaeda, have developed in parallel we may agree that there is something compelling about the notion that there is a mutuality and connectedness between the two. However, this is but a skeleton and to flesh out the body of the argument requires that we need to go much deeper. In particular we need to understand the inter-cultural conflict that has developed as one of the consequences of Globalization. I’m going to start that deeper process of exploration by referring to the experience of history. In particular that period of history that is now being called the “first Globalization”: the Industrial Revolution that is generally accepted to have covered a total period of 59 years from 1789–1848.