From: "cwright" <cwright-AT-21stcentury.net>
Subject: AUT: Re: Re: Fw: Antiterrorism redux
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 20:38:29 -0600


By a post-modernism, I mean that Political Islam is not harkening back to
pre-capitalism except as ideological cover.  In fact, Political Islam is
very much pro-capitalist and is the real underbelly of 'anti-imperialism'
(Bin Laden is an anti-imperialist in very real ways, but this proves that
that has nothing to do with anti-capitalism.)  Political Islam is the
reaction to 'The West' which recomposes society on a fully capitalist basis,
but which pulls on a kind of retrograde populism.  This is not a return of a
real aristocratic revolt against capital's power but the revolt of a
frustrated section of capital against the dominant wing.  Political Islam is
the fallout of 'modernism', the reaction against modernism from within
capitalism, which does not reject 'ijtihad' (original thought) but which
embraces it and modifies Islam to fit the prerogatives of the moment.

Negri's discussion of this is worth reviewing.  Since you can get Empire
online in a .pdf file, it is easy enough to read.  The argument is in the
section on Nationalism in the so-called Third World (around page 150 I
think).

Cheers,
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harald Beyer-Arnesen" <haraldba-AT-online.no>
To: <aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 1:03 AM
Subject: AUT: Re: Fw: Antiterrorism redux


>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cwright <cwright-AT-21stcentury.net>
> To: aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> <aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
> Date: 13. desember 2001 4:40
> Subject: AUT: Fw: Antiterrorism redux
>
>
>
>
> >Contrary to certain opinions, part of my oposition
> >to this anti-Islamism in the form raised in these articles and by Harald
> >involves a kind of pro-Western, Enlightenment-chauvinist (enough
> >pejoratives???) attitude that fails to take into account that Islamism is
> >not a feudalism or return to pre-capitalism (Islamism is NOT
> anti-capitalist
> >at all), but a kind of post-modernism.  On this much, i think Negri in
> >Empire is correct.
>
>
> "... but a kind of post-modernism". What does this precisely
> mean.
>
> Apart from that it is amazing to see how many people still are
> stuck in maoism, nationalism, and liberal cultural relativism in
> spite of claiming an internationalist position. The hopeful sign
> is that increasingly, it may seem, those daring to take up real
> internationlist positions, and not letting themselves be buried
> in this leninist, maoist, nationlist, liberal cultural relativist
> stupefying trash,  are precisely "third world" social revolutionaries.
>
> It also saddening to hear that the the Antiwar Coalition in London
> on November 18 seem all too willing to lign up with fascists, and
> this in fact in contrary to what was the case in anti-war demonstrations
> in Pakistan. It is a consistent line of  the "the left" in "the West" of
> writing apologiies and/or supporting the most reactionary forces in
> the "third world". A left rotten through and through, unable to utter
> one rational thought, whose only critique og Mussollini could be that
> he was too soft. The best service this "left" could do would be to
> lie down and die. Whatever else they may be, they are the useful
> idiots of imperialism.
>
> Harald
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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