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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

How do you fight an Idea?

Ideas are funny things. Once they have emerged it is almost as if they have a life of their own. They grow, change, mutate and sometimes fade away and die. But is it possible to hasten the death of an idea? Is it possible to kill one? Or are ideas merely fought with the fittest surviving longest?

There have been many ‘wars of ideas’ if you give it some thought. Christianity Vs Paganism, Christianity Vs Islam, Capitalism Vs Communism, Tyranny Vs Democracy and so on ad infinitum. Presently we are apparently in the middle of another war of ideas – the so-called War on Terror. Terrorism is the idea that you can use terror to influence political decisions. Terrorism is a tactic usually employed by the weak against the strong but in its broadest sense it can be used by the strong against the weak too. Think of the terror raids against cities in World War Two, the use on nuclear weapons against Japan or the more recent ‘shock and awe’ of the Second Gulf War. States are certainly not above using terror against their enemies foreign or domestic. The terror used against the Kurds by Saddam Hussein is clearly an example of this. More debatable is the use of fear as a tactic of the US and UK governments (amongst others) directed at their own citizens.

The question is: How do we fight against the idea, the tactic, of terrorism? How do we wage war on terror?

I suppose that the obvious answer is that you fight an idea with a better idea. Isn’t that how Capitalism finally triumphed over Communism? Capitalism was surely a better idea, a better way of ordering society to achieve the aims of its people. The same is surely true about Democracy? People want to be free and naturally strive for that freedom. Though seeing that most of the planet is far from Democratic this appears less than clear cut. So what idea would we use against terrorism? Freedom? Democracy? Capitalism? Are the promises of these ideas in action enough to fight the terrorist? Are these ideas seductive enough to stop the death and destruction brought about by the actions of these people? Somehow I doubt it.

Of course another way is to go directly to the source of the idea and fight it at that point. Ideas exist for the most part in peoples minds. But we all know how difficult it is to change people’s beliefs about things. Can you imagine arguing with terrorists (or people who believe in the utility of terrorism) and convincing them of the error of their ways? That sounds pretty much like a definition of futility. Of course there is a much more direct route to ‘changing’ someone’s mind permanently on an issue – by blowing their brains out. No brain, no mind, no crazy idea. Unfortunately, apart from the moral implications of such a course of action, killing terrorists usually results in the recruitment of more like minded people. It’s kind of counter-productive on the whole.

So then, how do we fight terrorism? With bombs, guns and military invasion of state sponsors of terror? Well that doesn’t seem to be working does it? Maybe we can go back to the tried, tested and effective way of fighting terror. After all, the Europeans have had decades of experience fighting home grown terrorists from the IRA to Bader Meinhof and the Red Brigades. How where these groups defeated? Usually by good police work, use of the Intelligence Services and the occasional use of Special Forces. Of course the ‘idea’ of terrorism persists though many of its practitioners are either dead or in prison. Such an idea, that an act of terror can achieve political ends, will probably always be with us. Waging a war against it is pointless and dangerously counter-productive. Ideas are often quite bullet proof.

3 comments:

dbackdad said...

Terrorism is the idea that you can use terror to influence political decisions. -- Mission accomplished. Every terrorist act ... real or imagined ... has caused the US and UK to subjugate more and more freedoms. I'm sure that Bin Laden is enjoying this beyond all measure. It reinforces all the conceptions of the West that Muslim countries have.

The biggest thing that we could do to fight terrorism is to achieve energy independence. This would allow us to get the hell out of countries we have no business being in. It wouldn't necessarily solve the Israeli/Palestinian issue but that doesn't have to be our issue. We look the other way when Israel does things that we criticize the Palestinians for doing.

CyberKitten said...

dbackdad said: The biggest thing that we could do to fight terrorism is to achieve energy independence.

It would certainly make the US more secure & the world a safer place not to have soldiers based in Arab countries. As to the Palestinian issue - solving that would go a long way to reducing the threat from Islamic terrorists too. But we do need to understand the causes of terrorism and address them as much as we can. Taking away their grievances won't make it all go away, but it will help. Unfortunately there are few in the West who want to actually understand terrorists and far too many who want to demonise them for there own reasons. If we do not understand an emeny it is *far* harder to fight and defeat them.

Juggling Mother said...

How do you fight an idea?

with other idea's!

physical weapons will never work against an idea - tending to atually make it stronger and more virilent!

Get the propeganda machine running well and properly and soon the "idea" of terrorism will start to lose suporters home and abroad .

I remember vising soviet russia and trying to explain the down side of capitalism to them. They not only didn't understand the concepts I was explaining (unemployment, homelessness, the rich/poor divide etc), but refused to even contemplate the fact that they existed in the "democratic & free" states. All the people wanted there was to be America, and less than a year later the soviet Gov't collapsed. The biggest threat to world peace for 80 years, completely destroyed by an idea - not guns!

Look back over history and whole cultures, religions and idealogies have collapsed when new ideas have taken hold, not with wars, masscres or lands being gained.