In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
Page Not FoundWe need to be united in the fight against fascism and repression.
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
||
Page Not FoundWe need to be united in the fight against fascism and repression.
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
||
Page Not FoundWe need to be united in the fight against fascism and repression.
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
||
Page Not FoundWe need to be united in the fight against fascism and repression.
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
How immigration is transforming our society.
The definition of “terrorist” has drifted far
from ground zero.
The return of the culture wars.
The Angolan war’s connection to suburban Arizona.
Market Magic's Empty Shell
Days of infamy and memory.
Let's review the tape.
Back Talk
The liberal media strike again.
Appall-o-Meter
Israel’s gravest danger is not the Palestinians.
Bush unilaterally junks the ABM accord.
Broken Trust
Washington gives Indians the runaround—again.
Mumia's death sentence is overturned, for now.
Coal Dust-up
Massey Energy, Inc. targeted by labor and greens.
In Person
Phil Radford: Last Call, Save the Ales.
BOOKS: Empire’s new clothes.
The Empty Theater
BOOKS: Joan Didion vs. the political class.
BOOKS: The Complete Works of Isaac Babel.
Ghost World
FILM: The Devil’s Backbone of the Spanish
Civil War.
|
December 22, 2001
The Great Game
A theme that comes up repeatedly in bin Laden’s guest’s monologues
is the idea that they are living in times as grand as those described in the
Quran. This war, he observes, is like “in the days of the prophet Muhammad.
Exactly like what’s happening right now.” He goes on to say “it
will be similar to the early days of Al-Mujahedeen and Al-Ansar (similar to
the early days of Islam).” And just in case we didn’t get the picture:
“It is the same, like the old days, such as Abu Bakr an Othman and Ali
and others. In these days, in our times.” It’s easy to chalk up this nostalgia to the usual theory about bin Laden’s
followers being stuck in the Middle Ages. But the comments seem to reflect something
more. Bin Laden doesn’t long for some ascetic medieval lifestyle, but the
idea of living in mythic times—when men were godlike, battles were epic
and history was spelled with a capital H. “Screw you, Francis Fukuyama,”
he seems to be saying, “History hasn’t ended yet. We are making it,
right here, right now!” We’ve heard this idea from many quarters since September 11, a return
of the great narrative: chosen men, evil empires, master plans and great battles.
All are ferociously back in style. The Bible, the Quran, The Clash of Civilizations,
Lord of the Rings—all of them suddenly playing out “in these days,
in our times.” This grand redemption narrative is our most persistent myth, and it has a dangerous
flip-side. When a few men decide to live their myths, to be larger than life,
it can’t help but have an impact on all the lives that unfold in regular
sizes. People suddenly look insignificant by comparison, easy to sacrifice in
the name of some greater purpose. When the Berlin Wall fell, it was supposed to have buried this epic narrative
in its rubble. This was capitalism’s decisive victory. Ideology is dead—let’s
go shopping. The end-of-history theory was understandably infuriating to those
whose sweeping ideas lost the gladiatorial battles, whether it was global communism,
or, in bin Laden’s case, an imperialist version of Islam. What is becoming
clear post-September 11, however, is that history’s end also turned out
to be a hollow victory for the U.S. cold warriors. Since 1989, many of them
have missed their epic narrative as if it were a lost limb. Without ideology,
shopping was just shopping. During the Cold War, consumption in America wasn’t only about personal
gratification; it was the economic front of the great battle. shopping, they
were participating in the lifestyle that the Commies supposedly wanted to crush.
When kaleidoscopic outlet malls were contrasted with Moscow’s gray and
barren shops, the point wasn’t just that we in the West had easy access
to Levi’s 501s. In this narrative, our malls stood for freedom and democracy,
while their empty shelves were metaphors for control and repression. But when this ideological backdrop was yanked away, the grander meaning behind
the shopping evaporated. The response from the corporate world was “lifestyle
branding”: an attempt to restore consumerism as a philosophical or political
pursuit by selling powerful ideas instead of mere products. Ad campaigns began
equating Benetton sweaters with fighting racism, Ikea furniture with democracy
and computers with revolution. Lifestyle branding filled shopping’s “meaning” vacuum for a
time, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy the ambitions of the old-school cold
warriors. Cultural exiles in a world they had created, disgruntled hawks spent
their most triumphant decade grouching about how America had gone “soft,”
become “feminized.” It was an orgy of indulgence personified by Oprah
and Bill Clinton. But post-September 11, History is back. Shoppers are once again foot soldiers
in a battle between good and evil, wearing new stars-and-stripes bras by Elita
and popping special-edition red, white and blue M&Ms. When U.S. politicians
urge their citizens to fight terrorism by shopping, it is about more than feeding
an ailing economy. It’s about once again wrapping the day-to-day in the
mythic, just in time for Christmas. |
|
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
ince the release of The Video,
Osama bin Laden’s every gesture, chuckle and word has been dissected. But
with all the attention on bin Laden, his co-star in the video, identified in
the official transcript only as “Shaykh,” has received little scrutiny.
Too bad, since no matter who he is (he is most commonly identified as the mujahedin
Khaled al-Harbi), Saudi he offers a rare window into the psychology of men who
think of mass murder as a great game.