The true battlefront of the 21st century: Open systems versus closed systems
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th, politicians and TV pundits have been searching for a model to explain the conflict we find ourselves facing. "New World Order" doesn't fit any more. "The Cold War" is long gone. Over the past few weeks, however, one idea has mentioned again and again to describe the global situation we face in the 'new' 21st century -- the clash of civilizations.
The phrase is actually the title of a Foreign Policy article written in 1993, and later turned into a book in 1996, by Harvard Professor Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations." The main theory behind Huntington's work, in his own words, is "The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict (in the coming years) will be cultural." And the "fault lines" between the seven or eight major cultures in the world will be where the battle lines will be drawn.
One reason the theory is currently drawing so much attention is that it provides a tidy context for the post-Sept.11th world. Explaining our struggle as 'The West (us) against Islam (them)' enables politicians and pundits to create the 'other' always needed in any war (and finally something to replace the Soviet Union as the 'bad guy' in action movies) and as well as 'empowering' us to avoid looking at how we may have helped create the situation.
To be fair to Prof. Huntington, his theory is fair more complex and nuanced than is being presented in media reports. For instance, it recognizes that "Western arrogance" plans a key role in the clash of civilizations. It acknowledges that not all cultures act as monoliths, where all people speak as one. Even Huntington himself has said that what is currently happening in Afghanistan doesn't fit his model because we actually do have Muslim nations -- Pakistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, for example -- assisting us against the Taliban.
But politicians and TV commentators hate complexity and nuance, and love generalities and easy-to-digest theories, so it this more simplistic "us-versus-them' version of 'the clash of civilizations' that has become the foreign policy flavor-of-the-month.
As convenient as this theory seems, it ultimately falls apart for me (even the far more researched and credible version presented by Huntington). It is too narrow, conservative and simplistic. Yet is there a theory that provides a better look at the future world we face? There is, and I heard it articulated three weeks ago at the Pop!Tech2001 conference in Camden, Maine.
Pop!Tech brings together some of the brightest and most articulate people who work in the world of technology -- not to talk about ROI or venture capital, but to talk about ideas. One of the speakers at the conference was John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electrontic Frontier Foundation, Fellow at the Harvard Law School, former cattle rancher and lyricst for the Grateful Dead, and a thinker who has been called 'the Thomas Jefferson of cyberspace.' It's his theory of the conflict of open systems versus closed systems that provides the best context for the struggles we will face in the 21st century, regardless of what larger culture we live in.
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