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Re: question re anti-systemic movements by wwagar 20 January 2002 20:35 UTC |
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Is al-Qaeda an anti-systemic movement? Chris Chase-Dunn was asked this question after his talk at the Braudel Conference last fall, although the term he used for anti-systemic was "counter-hegemonic," which is perhaps not quite the same thing. His answer was "yes." My answer would also be "yes." If the "system" is the contemporary world-system with its plurality of states and cultures, with its overarching capitalist world-economy, and with the United States as its current hegemon (albeit in possible decline), then al-Qaeda is anti-systemic. Or at least it appears to be, from what we know of the theology of its ruling circle, grounded in Wahhabism. There have been many comparable movements of neo-traditionalist resistance to the modern world-system throughout its history. Most references to anti-systemic movements in world-systems literature, however, have been, Gert says, to "leftist movements." Well, I would change "leftist movements" to "movements that leftists label politically correct." In the 1950s and 1960s, for example, a vast literature of Marxoid apologetics emerged to applaud any and all movements for national "liberation" that employed leftish rhetoric. Once such movements attained power, it was fondly imagined, they would punch their former colonial masters in the nose and build de-linked socialist polities. Although a few actually came close to doing just that (notably Cuba, not so notably the Khmer Rouge), the performance of "liberated" nations by and large has only confirmed a fundamental premise of world-systems theory: many states, one world-economy. The elites of the "liberated" nations, no matter what their rhetoric, have scrambled to enrich themselves, in collaboration with the megacorporate vampires of the West and the Pacific Rim. Nevertheless, world-systems folks still tend to classify movements of national liberation as anti-systemic. The same goes for movements for the liberation of gays, women, racial and ethnic minorities, and anybody else who has experienced and may still experience automatic exclusion from the banquet halls of the mighty. Somehow, even environmentalists have become "anti-systemic." Now make no mistake. Corporations should not plunder Mother Earth. Countries should not rule other countries. Minorities have a right to self-determination. Discrimination against anyone on the basis of race or ethnicity or sex or sexuality or lots of other things is criminal. The Left has an obligation to work for a society that is universally democratic, safeguarding the liberties of all. But movements that try to improve the fortunes of one segment of humankind or even movements that work to make things better for all of us in one or two specific ways are not necessarily anti-systemic. To be anti-systemic, for me, means to oppose the whole bloody system. It is one monolithic global organism. Countries that get rich do so by helping to impoverish others. People who get rich--whatever their nationality, race, sex, or whatever--do so by helping to impoverish others. In past centuries, the core nations and hegemons grew fat by enslaving Africans, murdering indigenous peoples, and ultimately by conquering most of the world. They also increased humankind's total wealth with the help of technological breakthroughs and managerial innovations. They used some of this wealth to buy off part of the working class in their own societies, but most of it went straight into the vaults of the rich or was invested in further exploits that now threaten civilization with ecocide. If world-system theory is correct, and I believe it is, this modern world-system cannot be reformed. Movements that seek to reform it may deserve our support, but in the final analysis, the goal must be to replace it. So, yes, al-Qaeda is an anti-systemic movement, hoping to take us all back to the Seventh Century. I would much prefer to go forward to a new era in human history, as distant from the Seventh Century as it, in turn, was distant from our Paleolithic beginnings. Warren W. Warren Wagar Department of History Binghamton University, SUNY On Sat, 19 Jan 2002, g kohler wrote: > I am wondering whether el Qaeda is an anti-systemic movement, in the > sense of world(-)system(s) research. > If not, why not? > In a very general sense, it might be considered as anti-systemic. > However, it is not clear to me whether it is anti-systemic in a WS > sense. (Is the adjective "anti-systemic" within world(-)system(s) > research reserved for leftist movements?) > > Gert > > > > > __________________________________________________________ > Get Premium UNLIMITED Internet Access across CANADA for > JUST $9.95/MONTH at http://www.get3web.com/?mkid=emt123 > >
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