Probably at the top of the list of what is currently
disturbing has to be the hideous actions of what we call ISIS. I must say that I never thought I would live
to see the day that beheadings and putting people to death by dousing them with
gasoline and lighting them up would be out there for me to see. I have not seen the videos of these acts, but
I believe the media when they tell me they are readily available for anyone to
see. How should we approach this topic
in the classroom? Do we bring it up and
condemn it or do we avoid mentioning it?
Do we show the videos and run the risk that besides causing some
nightmares, they might be alluring to some?
I haven’t heard one way or the other, but I suppose school districts are
thinking about whether they should have some sort of policy to police this; if
not, they should be.
But beyond these more potentially troubling concerns, how
should we discuss ISIS, assuming a teacher is willing to take on the subject? I think the first thing is to get some
perspective. Because something is
outrageous, it does not mean that it threatens our existence or that it is
beyond our ability to fix it. ISIS is an
entity that numbers fewer than 100,000 armed insurgents, localized in parts of
Iraq. Apparently, according to some
accounts, the departed tyrant Saddam Hussein’s officers are higher ups in this
force. They are a group with big plans,
setting up a caliphate and all; they have access to oil reserves and they are
in the abduction business, raking in thousands of dollars in ransoms they are
able to extract from the victims’ families.
Oh, they access to the Internet and social media that serves to
broadcast their propaganda to a worldwide audience. But all of that does not make them a potent force
that can threaten the states around them, much less the US or European
nations. Yes, they apparently can spur
some individuals to conduct ghastly attacks such as the one on the office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. But this does not rise to a national crisis;
it is a crime and developed countries have the wherewithal to address it. ISIS has no air force, no navy, no
allies. As a matter of fact, if they
continue on the same course, they will antagonize enough leaders and regular
folks that the victims’ anger will lead to action – as it has already done in
terms of Jordan’s response – and cause the eventual demise of ISIS. I do not see a healthy future for ISIS.
And this leads me to think of the work of a scholar I have written
about in this blog: Francis
Fukuyama. He, back in 1989, proposed
that we have witnessed the “end of history.”
The fall of Communism occasioned his pronouncement. And what he was specifically saying was that
with the fall of Communism, liberal-capitalism survived as the default
ideology. Let me quote the April 18,
2014, posting, Grading the End: “… his claim was
based on a Hegelian notion of history marching by the drum of ideological
conflicts (thesis vs. antithesis: old
organizing idea vs. new organizing idea).
He saw that, with the fall of communism, our collective experience on
the planet was at the point that such an advancement had come to an end.”
The argument is involved and a bit
complicated, but for our purposes here it is sufficient to say that because of
this development, there is a lack of competing ideas that serve to inspire war
between nations. And sure enough, since
the fall of Communism there has been a steep decline in the number of armed
conflicts between nations, particularly developed nations. What we have had are civil disturbances and
insurgencies motivated by religious ideologies.
But even here, we are talking about limited numbers, even in the case of
ISIS. Actually, Fukuyama’s argument is
holding up quite well. My only concern
today in terms of this argument is our current conflict with Putin over Ukrainian
separatists. But even there, sanctions
might do the trick; we will see. So, if I
were teaching about terrorism and ISIS and all those violent images our media
is full of – and rightly so – I think I would be well advised to keep all of it
in perspective. ISIS is not a mortal
danger to the US and my biggest concern is that any of my students be
attracted to the romantic notions of an ideology that glorifies martyrdom.