The Clash of civilizations.

• Author: Howell, Llewellyn D.
• Position: World Watcher

IN AN EMOTIONAL TIME, we still need reason to be able to understand the origins of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and, in turn, to be able to respond to them meaningfully. We have to choose a paradigm to structure causality, then select a response. As in medicine, the sequence is theory, diagnosis, prescription. Moreover, the tool has to be the correct one for the task. An excellent theory with no prescription is worthless.

Broad categories of theories and diagnoses have been dispersed throughout news analyses in the aftermath of the attacks. They range from the simple to the complex and are often intermingled. One is the sentiment that the attacks were an act of "evil." By ascribing the deeds to the existence of evil in the world, we incapacitate ourselves, since this explanation requires calling upon a deity or religious resources to expunge the source of the problem. Another is to argue that the terrorists are "nihilists" out to destroy all of humanity. Like anarchists, whose acts are in themselves the objectives, nihilism can be responded to only by eliminating the true believers or by convincing them one by one to replace their belief systems.

Some contend that the attacks were "criminal," and the individuals who carried them out were societal deviants motivated by base instincts, limited intelligence, or an inability to perform even near the mainstream of human society. If the actions are criminal, they are unending and can only be policed, not eliminated. There will always be a fringe to society, and nonconforming acts will always be represented in the actions of that fringe, requiring perpetual police and a police state.

Many have suggested that these were the actions of primitives, undertaken by the "uncivilized" against the "civilized." The act was so heinous, one Defense Department official said, that "maybe even some of those in the uncivilized world now realize that they are on the wrong side." The "barbarian" theory has the virtue of making the world into a simple "us against them." It provides us with targets and justification for immediate response and serves the purpose of a paradigm. If the problem is that there are people somewhere who are uncivilized, the solution is to civilize or, in the short term, eliminate them, by capturing, imprisoning, or killing them to remove the threat of future cataclysms. This explanation, though, removes the rallying motivation of war. War isn't waged against the ignorant or the...