First bit of holiday reading: Al Queda And What It Means To Be Modern by John Gray, Professor of European Thought at the LSE (as a friend pointed out, what a great job title - but what a responsibility too!)
A couple of m'learned colleagues have read this recently, and found it an utterly fascinating and valuable read. I've also found it to be a sobering and thought-provoking read. It's a short book, but packed full of just about everything you need to know about now, and I guess, just how we got into this mess in the first place. Even though I might 'agree with' (as much as one can) the rhetoric and theory of modernity, within a broadish brushstroke of post-enlightenment progression through science and rationality, Gray's book is a necessary brake on an unswerving and uncritical belief in these ideas, pointing out that Al Queda is clearly a by-product of modernity and globalisation, and how a hawkish desire to paint it as 'medievalist' is not just misguided and abhorrent Christian fundamentalism (which it certainly is) but also utterly misses the point. That political agenda based around 'making the world a better place' through deploying a US-led market-driven ideology in an IMF-framed mould, imposing same as a blanket across the globe, attempting to smother cultural difference, are thoroughly incompatible with the insanely fractured realities of human civilisation. Of course, Gray's particular brand of liberal pluralism (which again, it's difficult not to side with) could be equally crudely subtitled "why can't we all just get along?". It doesn't necessarily offer much of practical use to those of us involved in a technology-driven culture, except an increased focus on maintaining a broad awareness of local difference perhaps.
Highly nutritious brain food nonetheless, and I think it'll always be a really important book for me.
