The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the WestBasic Books, 2007 M08 2 - 312 pages Whether by choice or not, the West finds itself in a low-grade yet bitter war with Islamic fanaticism. It is a war the West is singularly ill-equipped to fight. The foe is resistant to any of the normal methods of conflict resolution such as negotiation, economic sanctions, or conventional armed confrontation. Since the Enlightenment, the West has forgotten how to oppose fanaticism, and it is Lee Harris's goal to remind us what we are up against. In The Suicide of Reason, he explains the logic of fanatical movements from the Crusades through Nazism to radical Islam; describes how the Enlightenment overcame fanatical thinking in the West; shows why most Western attempts to address the problem are doomed to fail; and offers strategies by which liberal internationalism can defend itself without becoming a mirror of the tribal forces it is trying to defeat. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 32
Page xvi
... struggle for survival and supremacy, there are no rules. Anything that achieves victory is automatically self-justifying. Methods that are looked upon by rational actors as barbarous, savage, or bestial are all deemed acceptable if they ...
... struggle for survival and supremacy, there are no rules. Anything that achieves victory is automatically self-justifying. Methods that are looked upon by rational actors as barbarous, savage, or bestial are all deemed acceptable if they ...
Page 4
... struggle for cultural survival. First, it has served as a powerful defense mechanism that has successfully thwarted all attempts by rival cultures to conquer, dominate, or even influence Islam. Second, it has given Islam the capacity to ...
... struggle for cultural survival. First, it has served as a powerful defense mechanism that has successfully thwarted all attempts by rival cultures to conquer, dominate, or even influence Islam. Second, it has given Islam the capacity to ...
Page 5
... struggle for cultural survival and supremacy—as good a weapon now as it was in the distant past. In the modern West, we have come to judge the success of a culture by purely utilitarian and materialistic standards. We believe that these ...
... struggle for cultural survival and supremacy—as good a weapon now as it was in the distant past. In the modern West, we have come to judge the success of a culture by purely utilitarian and materialistic standards. We believe that these ...
Page 6
... struggle for survival and supremacy. How, then, would we judge the relative success of Islam and the West? When we compare the modern Western ethos of carpe diem with the fanatical loyalty to tradition found in Muslim culture, we have ...
... struggle for survival and supremacy. How, then, would we judge the relative success of Islam and the West? When we compare the modern Western ethos of carpe diem with the fanatical loyalty to tradition found in Muslim culture, we have ...
Page 10
Radical Islam's Threat to the West Lee Harris. death struggle is too ... struggles. Our profound reluctance to face the possibility of future lifeand-death ... survival of our own cultural traditions but the survival of a tradition that ...
Radical Islam's Threat to the West Lee Harris. death struggle is too ... struggles. Our profound reluctance to face the possibility of future lifeand-death ... survival of our own cultural traditions but the survival of a tradition that ...
Contents
3 | |
15 | |
29 | |
The End of History? | 39 |
Clash or Crash? | 55 |
The Fanaticism of Reason | 61 |
part two Reason Fanaticism and the Struggle for Existence | 77 |
Demystifying Reason | 79 |
Condorcets Tenth Stage | 137 |
The Logic of Fanaticism | 205 |
The Legacy and Future of Jihad | 215 |
part five | 237 |
Our New World Disorder | 253 |
Conclusion | 265 |
Index | 281 |
Thomas Hobbes and the Politics of Reason | 105 |
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Common terms and phrases
achieved alpha boys alpha males anarchy argued artificial tribe become behave carpe diem carpe diem ethos century challenge Christian civilization clash of civilizations Condorcet conquered Cosmic Process create cultural traditions culture of reason Darwin defend democracy despotism dominate elite empire end of history enemy enlightened self-interest ethical example fact fanatical intolerance fanaticism feel force France French French Revolution Hobbes Hobbes’s human Huxley ideal inevitable instill Iraq Iraqi Janissaries jihad jungle liberal internationalism live mankind middle class modern liberal West Muslim fanaticism Muslim world natural neoconservatives North America Ottoman Pax Americana politics of reason popular Protestant radical Islam rational actor regime religion resentment revolutionaries rules Saddam Hussein shaming code simply slaves social status quo struggle for existence struggle for survival survival and supremacy things thinkers tion tolerant tribal actors tribal mind triumph violent visceral code warriors Western wish world order
Popular passages
Page 190 - Summer— and who by the application of brain and muscle to the natural resources of the country creates wealth, is as much a business man as the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of grain; the miners who go down a thousand feet into the earth, or climb...
Page 190 - ... town is as much a business man as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis; the merchant at the crossroads store is as much a business man as the merchant of New York; the farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day, who begins in the spring and toils all summer, and who by the application of brain and muscle to the natural resources of the country creates wealth, is as much a business man as the man who goes upon the Board of Trade and bets upon the price of grain...
Page 89 - ... all members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.
Page 87 - Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow-creatures, and inhabitants of the same world. It is a common subject of conjecture what pleasure in life some of the lower animals can enjoy ; how much more reasonably the same question may be asked with respect to these...
Page 87 - These poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, and their gestures violent. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow-creatures and inhabitants of the same world.
Page 190 - Wa say to you that you have made the definition of a business man too limited in its application. The man who Is employed for wages is as much a business man as his employer...
Page 90 - Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult — at least I have found it so — than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind.
Page 88 - At night, five or six human beings, naked and scarcely protected from the wind and rain of this tempestuous climate, sleep on the wet ground coiled up like animals. Whenever it is low water, winter or summer, night or day, they must rise to pick shellfish from the rocks; and the women either dive to collect sea-eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes, and with a baited hair-line without any hook, jerk out little fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating carcass of a putrid whale is discovered, it...
Page 151 - The progress of these peoples is likely to be more rapid and certain than our own because they can receive from us everything that we have had to find out for ourselves, and in order to understand those simple truths and infallible methods which we have acquired only after long error, all that they need to do is to follow the expositions and proofs that appear in our speeches and writings.