Beyond the Clash of Globalisation and Nihilism

London, UK - 29th November 2008, 10:02 GMT

Dear ATCA Open & Philanthropia Friends

[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]

We offer our sincere condolences to the families of the victims of the Mumbai atrocities and pray for the well being of humanity and all sentient beings across the world.

The terrorist assault on Mumbai is the latest clash between globalisation and nihilism. The motives and the identity of the perpetrators are not clear, but do they really matter? The assault on freedom, democracy and globalisation continues. What was called "the West" is no longer geographical, it is ideological. The idea -- sophisticated or unsophisticated -- is economic. India is a booming economic power rooted in democracy, capitalism and open to Western culture. These are reasons enough for it to be a target. Barack Obama's election and America's Thanksgiving must have appealed to the nihilsts' macabre sense of humour this week. India's economic miracle has definitely galled them. So we have ended up with horrific gore and symbolism, which has the potential to reduce the foreign direct investment into India; disrupt India's high flying growth; and cause a provocation within India's diverse communities and with its neighbour(s). The Mumbai targets were clearly not political entities. They were 'progress targets'. The formless, unspoken, knee-jerk attacks took place against the symbols of high growth, lifestyle and technology as well as wealth creation.

It has been tempting to believe the war on terror is winding down. Violence has diminished. In reality, this is the kind of "long, twilight struggle" President John F Kennedy talked about. Calling this a clash of civilisations is too simplistic and increasingly inappropriate. It is, in fact, a clash of globalisation and nihilism. The nihilists are at war with globalisation itself, the advocates of a new dark age, and in this war there can be no substitute for a binary "1" in favour of civilisation as opposed to the nihilistic year "0". We have sat mesmerised by the unfolding events in front of the television screens over the last 58 hours. We saw the toll of bloody death rise hour by hour. We heard those who claim to know speculate endlessly on TV and in the media in regard to the 'who', 'why', 'where next' and 'how'. Would knowing make a difference in regard to the apex challenge at stake for humanity in the 21st century? On one level, these existential debates about 'who', 'why', 'where next' and 'how' reflect the increasingly amorphous nature of trans-national organised crime and extremism itself, where diverse groups tend to come together over the internet from anywhere and everywhere; not to give prior warnings of their dastardly attacks; and not to claim full responsibility for them afterwards.

All Mumbai proves is that nihilism's battlefield can take place anywhere and be tele-visualised everywhere. Little mentioned in the news accounts of the terrorist atrocities was the comment from Mumbai's security chief that some of the terror suspects seemed to be British citizens. This claim is still being investigated by the British authorities. Maybe the test on Mumbai, India's financial centre, was a dry-run for something bigger in the West. This time in Mumbai -- emblem of India's proud resurgence -- with apparently meticulous planning, some unfeeling intent and a real psychotic frenzy, there was a demonstration offered via blood, fire and mass suffering. But do we go on, endlessly, blood for blood, bullet for bullet? Like the extremists, should we also think about countless targets-to-neutralise on a continuous basis. Or think, instead, about this: what, or who, causes such things to happen? Who hates like that, and why? What makes a nihilist exactly that?

Risk management and security experts are pondering what India did to become a target just as some said 9/11 was America's foreign policy chickens coming home to roost. But the targets chosen by extremists are hated by them for what they represent and not what they do. Extremist groups from the diffuse, to the state-sponsored, and everywhere in between are at war with globalisation founded on Western ideas, ideals, culture and societies, not just with nation states and their foreign policies. If radical poverty and destitution, neo-imperialism and Western-style capitalism alone, were animating extremism, how would we explain that one of the first acts of the Taliban in Afghanistan was to blow up two massive 1,500-year-old statues of Lord Buddha carved into a cliff? The statues represented an alternate faith and the great work of an ancient civilisation. To the extremists, the presence of both was and is intolerable, as is democracy and freedom in India or anywhere else. This clash between globalisation and nihilism has now become one of the key fault lines for humanity's well being and progress in the 21st century.

We have to think in new and innovative ways to find long-lasting and realistic solutions based on humility. The single-minded false arrogance of the nihilist has to be challenged by the pluralist humility of the true globalist. The true globalist seeks to witness "One World" -- the One-in-All and the All-in-One -- manifest via a rainbow coloured society, living with co-operation and in harmony with each other, and facing the complex local and global challenges jointly.

[ENDS]

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