{"id":1253,"date":"2009-06-24T23:08:48","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T03:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2018-08-08T23:42:39","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T03:42:39","slug":"17743-samuel-p-huntington-the-clash-of-civilizations-and-the-remaking-of-world-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1253","title":{"rendered":"17743. (Samuel P. Huntington) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a stu\u00adpid book. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, it\u2019s also been a very influ\u00aden\u00adtial one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunt\u00ading\u00adton starts out by play\u00ading the old \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d game, pop\u00adu\u00adlar from the late 19th cen\u00adtu\u00adry onward. Nobody any longer takes you seri\u00adous\u00adly if you talk about nation\u00adal\u00adi\u00adties in a sil\u00adly, anthro\u00adpo\u00admor\u00adphic way (\u201cThe Dutch are cheese-eat\u00ading, prac\u00adti\u00adcal peo\u00adple, but they are doomed to fail\u00adure as nation because they smoke too much mar\u00adi\u00adjua\u00adna and their feet must hurt from wear\u00ading wood\u00aden shoes\u201d). But if you shift the dis\u00adcus\u00adsion to \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d, big seg\u00adments of the globe defined by arbi\u00adtrary cri\u00adte\u00adria, you can get away with it. You can define these \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d any way you want, but usu\u00adal\u00adly they end up being noth\u00ading more than a map of the world\u2019s major reli\u00adgions. This is not sur\u00adpris\u00ading, since these mega-reli\u00adgions are usu\u00adal\u00adly accom\u00adpa\u00adnied by enough visu\u00adal cues that you can quick\u00adly guess which one you are in by the shapes of build\u00adings, cloth\u00ading, or oth\u00ader mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal evi\u00addence. There is, of course, some com\u00admon-sense truth to the obser\u00adva\u00adtion that places where Islam is pre\u00addom\u00adi\u00adnant have sim\u00adi\u00adlar\u00adi\u00adties, and places where Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty is prac\u00adticed are con\u00adnect\u00aded to each oth\u00ader, etc. It is an easy, but intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly dubi\u00adous fur\u00adther step to assume that the human race is divid\u00aded into mega-trib\u00adal sub\u00addi\u00advi\u00adsions, almost like species, and that these can be neat\u00adly drawn on a map. Anthro\u00adpo\u00admor\u00adphiz\u00ading these divi\u00adsions is mere\u00adly the old fal\u00adla\u00adcy of \u201cinnate nation\u00adal char\u00adac\u00adter\u201d writ larg\u00ader. It appeals to the impulse to see the world in car\u00adtoons. This is exact\u00adly what Hunt\u00ading\u00adton does, way, way too much to make his work credible.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also some rea\u00adson\u00adable\u00adness in see\u00ading cer\u00adtain blocks of ter\u00adri\u00adto\u00adry as units, for the pur\u00adpose of dis\u00adcus\u00adsion. These some\u00adtimes line up with the reli\u00adgions, but just as often they don\u2019t. Most his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans look at the land mass south of the Himalayas as a dis\u00adtinct, coher\u00adent area. That\u2019s why peo\u00adple in pre\u00addom\u00adi\u00adnant\u00adly Mus\u00adlim Pak\u00adistan have no dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adty see\u00ading their cul\u00adtur\u00adal kin\u00adship with peo\u00adple in pre\u00addom\u00adi\u00adnant\u00adly Hin\u00addu Uttar Pradesh. But, of course, when reli\u00adgion is invoked, these become two dif\u00adfer\u00adent \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d which are sup\u00adposed to have lit\u00adtle in com\u00admon, accord\u00ading to Hunt\u00ading\u00adton\u2019s par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar scheme. The civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion game tends to become irri\u00adtat\u00ading\u00adly pigeon-holey, like an argu\u00adment between two music store clerks over whether to file John May\u00adall under \u201cblues\u201d or \u201crock\u201d. Hunt\u00ading\u00adton, for exam\u00adple, files Korea with \u201cCon\u00adfu\u00adcian Civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion\u201d (i.e, with Chi\u00adna), and not with his sep\u00ada\u00adrate \u201cJapan\u00adese Civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion\u201d. Oh? Not glam\u00adorous enough to be a civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion of their own, the Kore\u00adans must be con\u00adtent\u00aded with being sub\u00adsumed either by Chi\u00adna, which strong\u00adly influ\u00adenced their cul\u00adture before 1700, or by Japan, which equal\u00adly strong\u00adly influ\u00adenced it after 1700. Which influ\u00adence is more impor\u00adtant? For once the civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion game places you in one tribe, you are sup\u00adposed to be moti\u00advat\u00aded and dri\u00adven by a spe\u00adcif\u00adic \u201cphi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy\u201d. This defin\u00ading phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy turns out, in Hunt\u00ading\u00adton\u2019s case, to be noth\u00ading more than a bunch of clich\u00e9s and images drawn from hearsay, or the pro\u00adnounce\u00adments of a few, not very cred\u00adi\u00adble sources. You would not for a sec\u00adond assume that typ\u00adi\u00adcal Amer\u00adi\u00adcan and Euro\u00adpean politi\u00adcians are qual\u00adi\u00adfied to make pro\u00adnounce\u00adments about the philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal essence of Europe and Amer\u00adi\u00adca, or that they must be tak\u00aden seri\u00adous\u00adly when they do, but a few inane phras\u00ades pon\u00adtif\u00adi\u00adcat\u00aded by Lee Kuan Yew are suf\u00adfi\u00adcient to estab\u00adlish the defin\u00ading char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtics of Con\u00adfu\u00adcian Civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion. It turns out that one of these is \u201cthe impor\u00adtance of the fam\u00adi\u00adly\u201d. Wow, that sure is a dis\u00adtinct val\u00adue. As we all know, nobody in North Amer\u00adi\u00adca thinks fam\u00adi\u00adlies are impor\u00adtant. It isn\u2019t sur\u00adpris\u00ading that if you ask a rich and pow\u00ader\u00adful Asian who runs a coun\u00adtry like a per\u00adson\u00adal pos\u00adses\u00adsion what he thinks is impor\u00adtant for peo\u00adple to admire, it\u2019s going to be obe\u00addi\u00adence to author\u00adi\u00adty, con\u00adfor\u00admi\u00adty, and def\u00ader\u00adence to rank. That\u2019s what any\u00adone who is rich and pow\u00ader\u00adful wants of peo\u00adple. Hunt\u00ading\u00adton is not about to walk through the slums and back\u00adwoods of Asia to uncov\u00ader its \u201cessen\u00adtial values\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under\u00adneath the illu\u00adsion of eru\u00addi\u00adtion in the book, there\u2019s a great degree of schol\u00adar\u00adly slop\u00adpi\u00adness. On two occa\u00adsions, Hunt\u00ading\u00adton states that Arme\u00adni\u00adans are Ortho\u00addox Chris\u00adtians, and uses this \u201cfact\u201d to but\u00adtress key argu\u00adments. Of course, any\u00adone even slight\u00adly famil\u00adiar with Arme\u00adnia and Arme\u00adni\u00adans knows that their church is not Ortho\u00addox. It is Mia\u00adphysitic, and is sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00aded from Ortho\u00addoxy by a his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal and the\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal gulf far wider than that which sep\u00ada\u00adrates Ortho\u00addoxy from Catholi\u00adcism or Protes\u00adtantism. But no mat\u00adter, Arme\u00adnia is pro\u00adnounced part of Ortho\u00addox Civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion by a process of pin-the-tail-on-the-don\u00adkey. The facts could have been checked in a few sec\u00adonds, but the \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d approach does\u00adn\u2019t place a pre\u00admi\u00adum on such bor\u00ading pro\u00adce\u00addures. And what of the dif\u00adfer\u00adence between Catholi\u00adcism and Protes\u00adtantism that was seen by so many gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions as a vast gulf, and pro\u00adduced so many the\u00ado\u00adries iden\u00adti\u00adcal to Hunt\u00ading\u00adton\u2019s about a \u201cclash of civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d? Hunt\u00ading\u00adton dis\u00admiss\u00ades the dif\u00adfer\u00adence between Catholics and Protes\u00adtants as trivial.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunt\u00ading\u00adton\u2019s knowl\u00adedge of cul\u00adtures is pret\u00adty shal\u00adlow, because his main inter\u00adest is real\u00adly in the \u201cclash\u201d part of the book\u2019s title. The book is real\u00adly about divid\u00ading the world into foot\u00adball teams so that you can imag\u00adine strate\u00adgies of play between them\u2026 who should align with whom, and who is the \u201cnat\u00adur\u00adal\u201d ene\u00admy of whom. That\u2019s why the book appeals to so many arm\u00adchair polit\u00adi\u00adcal pun\u00addits. You only need to remem\u00adber a hand\u00adful of \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d and their accom\u00adpa\u00adny\u00ading clich\u00e9 phras\u00ades to \u201cget\u201d every\u00adthing. No need to both\u00ader remem\u00adber\u00ading the names of hun\u00addreds of coun\u00adtries, or even con\u00adsid\u00ader the motives of indi\u00advid\u00adual human beings. Easy peasy.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Hunt\u00ading\u00adton is real\u00adly about becomes evi\u00addent toward the end of the book, when he engages in a tirade against the evils of \u201cmul\u00adti\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal\u00adism\u201d, a phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnon which he grotesque\u00adly mis\u00adrep\u00adre\u00adsents. The human race is, in his view, divid\u00aded into dis\u00adtinct species, and, sur\u00adprise sur\u00adprise, noth\u00ading but trou\u00adble can result if they min\u00adgle. He kind of sneaks up on it with hun\u00addreds of pages of stuff about regions and reli\u00adgions, but what it\u2019s real\u00adly about is how dirty for\u00adeign\u00aders should be kept out of Amer\u00adi\u00adca because then it will \u201cno longer be Amer\u00adi\u00adca\u201d. Why? Because they don\u2019t have \u201cWest\u00adern val\u00adues\u201d. And what are these \u201cWest\u00adern val\u00adues\u201d? Well, among them he repeat\u00aded\u00adly lists \u201cplu\u00adral\u00adism and tol\u00ader\u00adance\u201d. So Amer\u00adi\u00adcans and Euro\u00adpeans should, it seems, exclude peo\u00adple of dif\u00adfer\u00adent eth\u00adnic\u00adi\u00adty in order to pro\u00adtect \u201cplu\u00adral\u00adism\u201d!! He even casu\u00adal\u00adly states, as if it were a for\u00adgone con\u00adclu\u00adsion, that if the U.S. went to war with Chi\u00adna, then Mex\u00adi\u00adcan-Amer\u00adi\u00adcans would auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly refuse to par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpate, because it would \u201cnot be their war\u201d. This was so sil\u00adly that I actu\u00adal\u00adly bust out laugh\u00ading when I read it, star\u00adtling fel\u00adlow rid\u00aders in the sub\u00adway. The sub\u00adway car was a typ\u00adi\u00adcal Cana\u00addi\u00adan one \u2014 utter\u00adly and sub\u00adlime\u00adly mul\u00adti\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal \u2014 so the silli\u00adness of it was par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly deli\u00adcious. It\u2019s plain that under\u00adneath Hunt\u00ading\u00adton\u2019s wacky log\u00adic and feigned schol\u00adar\u00adship, there is noth\u00ading more than anoth\u00ader scle\u00adrot\u00adic old man hav\u00ading an apoplec\u00adtic fit because he went to the cor\u00adner store and saw signs in the win\u00addow in fun\u00adny-look\u00ading alphabets.<\/span><\/p>\n

This book has had an extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary influ\u00adence. But two groups in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar have been most delight\u00aded by it: The Bush \/ Cheney \/ Neo\u00adcon crowd that con\u00adtrolled the White House, and the Al-Qae\u00adda \/ Tal\u00adiban \/ Islamist crowd. Both were com\u00adfort\u00aded by its car\u00adtoon visions of an inevitable \u201cclash of civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d between \u201cThe West\u201d and Islam. It is the cor\u00adner\u00adstone of their world view.<\/span><\/p>\n

If peo\u00adple real\u00adly want to under\u00adstand the essen\u00adtial divi\u00adsion under\u00adly\u00ading the affairs of the world, then they should face up to the fact that Cheney and Osama bin Laden are on one side, togeth\u00ader \u2014 and decent human beings, every\u00adwhere, are on the oth\u00ader. That is the real \u201cclash of civilizations\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a stu\u00adpid book. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, it\u2019s also been a very influ\u00aden\u00adtial one. Hunt\u00ading\u00adton starts out by play\u00ading the old \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions\u201d game, pop\u00adu\u00adlar from the late 19th cen\u00adtu\u00adry onward. Nobody any longer takes you seri\u00adous\u00adly if you talk about nation\u00adal\u00adi\u00adties in \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-br-reading-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8008,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions\/8008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}