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Summary: A must read!
Comment: The War on Terror is a concern for us all, and understanding it is imperitive. Of course our governments make mistakes and do some very illiberal things, but there are plenty of writers, good and awful who document that. What this book analyses is the ideology of totalitarian islam and pan-arabism, the dangerous conclusion of moral relativsim, and also why we cannot reason with these people. It is monumental work that gets some real intellectual spunk into this highly misinformed debate, where the winner seems to have the most appealing linguistics, this book wins on all counts. Read it, it might change you.
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Summary: Brilliant!
Comment: Considering the current situation around the world, Paul Berman's book is one of the finest in print. The background material is laid out clearly and convincingly. I stopped taking notes because I found I was just copying everything written. Each sentence holds so much truth and gives you a better understanding of what terror and liberalism really mean. Once the concept of totalitarianism is spelled out your eyes are opened and you can see what your politicians and news moguls do not want you to see. A brave book from a brilliant author. Read it!
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Summary: A guide to the post 9/11 era
Comment: Paul Berman wrote a compelling book about the dangers that current terrorism provide for the cause of freedom and liberalism. This case - that there are forces that are at war with liberalism and that we need to rise up to the challenge - has been made enough by some commentators but not heard enough, especially in some circles and through the major media channels. In particular, in Europe such a case has been often derided as simply an ad hoc justification for an 'imperialist war' or, when recognised for what it is, an unnecessary war on terror. Paul Berman is no neo-conservative. Actually in the preface he raises the question whether this book should position itself on the left or right side of the political spectrum. The author clearly would like to put himself on the moderate left side, but makes often argument that are heard more from commentators on the moderate right side. The reason is simple: with regard to the current 'terror war', there is no right or left, but only a liberal society and its enemies. Berman traces the history of this clash, between liberty and totalitarianism, back a century, to First World, Second world war and the cold war. Liberalism has fought many enemies, and many faces of the same enemy. We need to recognise terrorists for what they are and they they, those who harbour them, and dictators are the enemy of liberalism, under another face maybe, but animated by the same avulsion for our principles of freedom and equality as previous totalitarianisms, such as nazism and communism, were. The fact that this call to arms comes from somebody that would like to place himself on the left side is even more encouraging, as today there are too many people willing to deny the reality of our world and indulge themselves in wishful thinking. And here is the second main contribution of this book. The denunciation of the wishful thinking of some - not to say most - of the people on the left (and some on the right too, but to a far lesser degree). The author draw parallels from recent history; as socialists in France took a sympathetic view of Hitler in the 1930s (because they were opposed to war in any circumstance), and most of the left were more than sympathetic with communism during the Cold War, so today, opponents of war fail to recognise the dangers we are facing. Berman does not fail to criticise American foreign policy when it's needed (he understands the current administration foreign policy strategy better than most other people); and it does not fail to criticise the failure of liberalism when they happens ("the totalitarian movements arise because of failures in the liberal civilisation"). However, it is also clearly states what we should be for: we are the anti-nihilists, we are for the freedom for others. And this is way this book should be read by everybody interested in understanding what is happening today; in particular it should be read by those who two years ago demonstrated against the Iraq invasion. Some of them had good and sensible reasons to oppose the invasion (some others did not), but the irony was clear: "the largest mass demonstrations in the history of the world were aimed at preventing the overthrow of one of the worst tyrannies in the modern age". We should be for the freedom of others.
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Summary: Appeasement or intervention
Comment: Terrorism and suicide attacks have a long history across the world. Berman is analysing the cultural foundations of totalitarian thought, which is leading states as well as dissident groups to commit acts of terror - carefully targeted or randomly causing the maximum number of casualties. In a mostly balanced discussion, Berman talks us through Camus' reaction to holocaust and gulag, "The Rebel", tracing back apocalyptic visions in Christian thought to the Book of Revelation: a realm of purity to be built by murderous struggle.
In response to Tariq Ramadan's contention that Islamic civilisation cannot be understood in Western terms of reference, Berman then examines the writings of one of the most influential Muslim fundamentalist writers, Sayyid Qutb, contrasting Camus' tales of rebellion with Islamic pledges for submission. What we see, though, is not the independent development of isolated civilisations: Arab and Islamic revivalism at the beginning of the twentieth century is profoundly influenced by European Socialism and, soon, National Socialism (Berman does not mention the even earlier wave of nationalism, shortly after Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in1798). Qutb himself acknowledged Western cultural influences, through readings and during a short visit as a student in the USA, which left him with admiration for scientific progress, but deeply appalled by what he saw as moral depravity. Berman understands Qutb's call for a Holy War to establish an authentic Islamic community as another manifestation of western totalitarian ideologies aimed at creating a perfect, utopian society, the "End of History", the People's Republic of China, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, brought about by a small vanguard of fighters prepared to die (the latter supported by Cold War aids from the West).
But then, disappointingly, in a single phrase on page 129, Berman takes sides, turning the experience of failed appeasement confronting Nazi aggression in the 1930s against support for Palestinian struggle for a viable state today: "Clinton's principal negotiator, Dennis Ross, has explained that, in the offer to Arafat, the new Palestinian state was going to be contiguous, except for the Gaza strip." The official map depicting the Oslo agreement has been published on countless websites; it seems Berman is giving the term "contiguous" a wholly new meaning. Thus, denying any possible rational argument for liberal understanding of suicide bombers, Berman is bringing in a psychoanalytical explanation ("sheerest speculation", he admits), with de Sade, Baudelaire, and Camus: "the sinister excites". His hopes lie with liberal thinkers raising their voices from within formerly totalitarian societies, East and West, but he is not an avowed pacifist, warning about the dangers of appeasement, the illusion of believing in a rational world.
What to do? Berman cannot answer Qutb's question, but his book does offer a wealth of thought and historical information to further this debate.
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Summary: Excellent Analysis of Middle-Eastern Totalitarianism
Comment: Paul Berman is from the left politically, but, as with Christopher Hitchens, is appalled at the current attitude of the liberal left to the Iraqi war and the Palestinian situation. He argues that the short 20th century (1914-1989) didn't see the final defeat of the totalitarianisms of left and right, but that these survive in the Middle East, both in the teachings of Islamic fundamentalists and with the secular Baathists. Both of these groups in their different ways incorporated elements of the worst of European totalitarian philosophies. And the left, following the ignoble traditions of many in the thirties (Berman cites the example of the French socialists under Paul Faure), pretend it isn't happening. One of the most interesting points that Berman raises, for me, is the question of the Palestinian suicide bombers. I find it quite extraordinary that this repellent form of terrorism is so remarkably effective in raising support for the Palestinian cause, and how many on the left think it quite reasonable (well yes, it's a shame about those innocent deaths, but...), and take it as proof that the Palestinians are suffering so appallingly under the Israelis that comparisons are blithely made not just with apartheid South Africa, but even, pace Tom Paulin and others, with Nazi Germany. But this is completely to misunderstand the mentality involved here. These suicide bombers are part of a profound pathology within the Arab world, a chiliastic movement, where death is glory. The same lazy shallow thinking, whereby everyone acts rationally in the light of their perceived interests, had it that the 9/11 bombers were protesting American foreign policy and the plight of the Palestinians. No, no, no. These people were protesting the very existence of liberalism. These people were fanatics. Read the book. It's well-written, and will make you think.
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