Terror and Liberalism

Posted on 26 September 2018 by Paul Berman

One of our most brilliant public intellectuals, Paul Berman has spent his career writing on revolutionary movements and their totalitarian aspects Here he argues that, in the terror war, we are not facing a battle of the West against Islam a clash of civilizations We are facing, instead, the same battle that tore apart Europe during most of the twentieth century, only in a new version It is the clash of liberalism and its enemies the battle between freedom and totalitarianism that arose in Europe many years ago and spread to the Muslim world.The author considers the wars against fascism and communism from the past, and draws cautionary lessons But he also draws from those past experiences a liberal program for the present a program that departs in fundamental respects from the policies of the Bush administration A fluid and lucid essay by one of America s best exponents of recent intellectual history The Economist Free Read Terror and Liberalism By Paul Berman For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Viva la Muerte Long live death Popular Slogan of the Spanish FascistsOnward, Christian soldiers,Marching as to war,With the cross of JesusGoing on before English hymn, lyrics by Arthur SullivanI cannot help but be conflicted over this book.The main idea here is that Islamic fundamentalism bears the same intellectual history and shares many similar traits to European totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century On the one hand, it s an interesting idea, and it least attempts to say that Isl Viva la Muerte Long live death Popular Slogan of the Spanish FascistsOnward, Christian soldiers,Marching as to war,With the cross of JesusGoing on before English hymn, lyrics by Arthur SullivanI cannot help but be conflicted over this book.The main idea here is that Islamic fundamentalism bears the same intellectual history and shares many similar traits to European totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century On the one hand, it s an interesting idea, and it least attempts to say that Islamic fundamentalists are not so alien to the Western tradition ...Berman on The Charlie Rose Show, discussing this book in 2003 is an extremely sound bite ish scarcely mammalian noise of a fraction of a sliver of a byproduct of a spark of a blurb regarding this book I can t say enough about Berman s book, really He lays out a very interesting and condensed yet comprehensive historical analysis of fascistic movements and the mythology based death cults that fuel them He carries this out by drawing from political Berman on The Charlie Rose Show, discussing this book in 2003 is an extremely sound bite ish scarcely mammalian noise of a fraction of a sliver of a byproduct of a spark of a blurb regarding this book I can t say enough about Berman s book, really He lays out a very interesting and condensed yet comprehensive historical analysis of fascistic movements and the mythology based death cults that fuel them He carries this out by drawing from political history and theory obviously , philosophy, and even literary works and movements such as the brief but effective references to Baudelaire and Camus The parallels he fleshes out between these types of movements and the deep historical time lines and conceptual trajectories that they occupy and create are very, very incisively perceptive and striking Again, I think it s a great book.The basic thing that people like Paul Berman, ...Paul Berman wrote Terror and Liberalism in 2002, heady days when a large percentage of the American populace fully expected to be hit by another terrorist attack, and the invasion of Iraq was starting to become the subject of a lopsided heated debate It helps to keep this in mind when reading Berman s passion...I read this book, admittedlyof a pamphlet almost a diatribe than a book, when it was first published in 2004, and thought it was quite good It is an attempt by a left leaning liberal to expose what he sees as the essentially fascistic undertones in Islamism, and thus an attempt to block the apolegetics for Islamism and for Islamic terrorism that has long been issuing from the Left I fully accept his indentification of Sayyid Qutb with fascism Berman cites extensively from Qutb s o I read this book, admittedlyof a pamphlet almost a diatribe than a book, when it was first published in 2004, and thought it was quite good It is an attempt by a left leaning liberal to expose what he sees as the essentially fascistic undertones in Islamism, and thus an attempt to block the apolegetics for Islamism and for Islamic terrorism that has long been issuing from the Left I fully accept his indentification of Sayyid Qutb with fascism Berman cites extensively from Qutb s own writings, and I think the case is incontrovertible.I discussed this book with a man I knew, a very well placed journalist, who was then and has long been intimately connected with the backrooms as a sort of hidden advisor of Israeli politics He granted that Berman had a point, but...I recently wrote an article which made what I thought was a fairly germane point about radical Islamism s ideological links with contemporary European revolutionary and totalitarian movements Traditionalist Islamic scholars had been making this point for a long time, so I was surprised at the outrage over this argument from leftists Among other things I was accused of lifting ideas from this particular book, which I had in fact scarcely even heard of And so, I decided to give it a read.The I recently wrote an article which made what I thought was a fairly germane point about radical Islamism s ideological links with contemporary European revolutionary and totalitarian movements Traditionalist Islamic scholars had been making this point for a long time, so I was surprised at the outrage ove...In this fascinating and eloquent work by the Philosopher King of the hawkish left , a diverse array of literary, political, philosophical, and especially historical elements are brought to bear upon the appropriate reponse of liberalism to fascism and totalitarianism Berman discusses the historical development of modern radical Islamism, citing the influence of Sayyid Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood, the philosophy of Pan Arabism, and the unexpected influence of European literature, Nazism, and C In this fascinating and eloquent work by the Philosopher King of the hawkish left , a diverse array of literary, political, philosophical, and especially historical elements are brought to bear upon the appropriate reponse of liberalism to fascism and totalitarianism Berman discusses the historical development of modern radical Islamism, citing the influence of Sayyid Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood, the philosophy of Pan Arabism, and the unexpected influence of European literature, Nazism, and Communism to the philosophical influence of modern day Islamic extremism Berman draws a number of incisive connections between early anarchist revolutionaries, who would fastidiously refuse to carry out political assassinations if there was any chance that innocent bystanders would be injured, and the increasi...Extraordinary in scope, remarkable in its erudition, this is nothing less than a courageous, probing study of human nature Berman, on top of everything a writer s writer, is unfazed by the necessity of posing extremely basic questions...there is probably no better and less recognized writer regarding the state of the world than paul berman this book should really be required reading for all americans.I followed the threads of this essay without a sense of where I was being led, but when I had finished it, I did feel that I had learned something, even though I am unsure of how much I agree with Berman Berman offers a new angle of analysis of the so called War on Terror without proposing a definitive or detailed solution.The author refers to liberalism in the sense of Western democracy, an ideology that unites Americans and Europeans the word is not used at all in reference to the politica I followed the threads of this essay without a sense of where I was being led, but when I had finished it, I did feel that I had learned something, even though I am unsure of how much I agree with Berman Berman offers a new angle of analysis of the so called War on Terror without proposing a definitive or detailed solution.The author refers to liberalism in the sense of Western democracy, an ideology that unites Americans and Europeans the word is not used at all in reference to the political left wing, as common parlance has it In fact, while speaking glowingly of liberalism, Berman is highly critical of certain elements on both the left and right in the United States and in Europe.Of the constant Islamist talk of the n...Paul Berman s work is enlightening and interesting It isof an essay on the philosophies behind radical Islamism and its various iterations It also compares radical Islam to totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century communism and fascism He calls them all ideologies of death and says they are a continuum of hatred and death that try to knock out liberalism democracy and the like This is all very i...

English
26 September 2018

Paul Berman