Reflecting on the beheadings of Americans in Syria and the experiences of the last thirteen years, Fareed Zakaria writes:
What did I miss in that essay 13 years ago? The fragility of these countries. I didn’t recognize that if the dictatorships faltered, the state could collapse, and that beneath the state there was no civil society — nor, in fact, a real nation. Once chaos reigned across the Middle East, people reached not for their national identities — Iraqi, Syrian — but for much older ones: Shiite, Sunni, Kurd and Arab.
How can he possibly not have known? That was obvious even to people with a smattering of ignorance about the region.
I do disagree with one other thing he writes: “It’s not an Islam problem but an Arab problem.” I don’t think it’s an Arab problem, either. I think it’s a traditional society vs. modernity problem. In that sense it’s an Islam problem and an Arab problem but not limited to those.
Like all other 21st century men, Fareed Zakaria believes that human history began 100 years ago, and humans have reached their zenith.
He may have heard of the Bronze Age, but he has no idea of what bronze has to do with human history. He probably thinks it refers to art or commerce. In any event, they were barbarians with no connection to him.
He is slowly waking up to the fact that his nice safe world is not as nice and safe as he thought. He will flail about trying to make sense of a world he cannot understand because he will never give up the fantasy he was taught.
The philosophy that underpins Islamic fanaticism is a nihilism based upon narcissism, and the philosophy is a-theistic. It is the same philosophy that ravaged Europe during the 1930’s, and I suspect Islamic Fanaticism has its roots in Europe not Arabia.
Fareed Zakaria is a perfect example of the Ivy-League educated know nothings who make up most of the political and media elite in this country. At least Zakaria went back, looked at what he wrote and tried a bit of self-reflection.