The Return of Ideological Warfare

by John Thompson

01/01/04

If the 20^th Century is to have a consistent theme running through it’s history, it would be one of ideological conflict between and among nations over the best course for human society to take. Over the last decade, with the challenge thrown at us by the Soviet Union having finally collapsed, so many people thought that the issue had been settled. Not so.

The current war against Islamic Fundamentalism is only beginning, and it seems to be a war of Ghosts and Shadows, punctuated by all too public destruction once an attack goes through. However, ideological conflict cannot simply be thought of in terms of fighting alone... violence is only the icing on a very bitter cake.

Ideas seem like such harmless small things. From our lofty perspectives we can look back at, for example, the differences between the early Christian church and the Arian sects as being trivial and unimportant — the debate was almost 1700 years ago. Except it wasn’t trivial. The Church insisted (and still does) that Christ was the son of God and divine in himself. The Arians said that the relationship was allegorical rather than real. One view meant that Christ was the one and only Messiah. The Arian view would have made it possible for dozens of new Messiahs to have popped up over the centuries — making the history of religious warfare inside Europe infinitely worse than it actually was. Fortunately, the Arians were violently suppressed.

In World War One, the conventional 19^th Century belief in a stable social order lasting in a society undergoing constant technological progress was completely shattered; and the faith in the Liberal Democratic systems evolving out of the 19^th Century was much weakened. Into the seeming vacuum marched the Marxist-Leninists, Fascists and Militarists, the Social Darwinist Nazis and a variety of others.

When the "Right Wing" ideologues were beaten down in the Second World War, the World was too exhausted for another round of war between the West and the Soviets; and the nuclear deadlock was settling into place. In the end, the best policy the Western democracies could undertake was to deter war, contain the Soviets and let their ideological flaws rot out their system. This succeeded in the end, but did take 45 years to complete.

Ideological warfare can feature battles of incredible savagery — Stalingrad or Okinawa come to mind. It can also feature places of acute barbarity like Auschwitz, the Kolyma Gulags or their Chinese equivalents in Lop Nor. However, in a clash between ideologies, between differing notions of what the future of the human race should be, the frontline does not necessarily involve ruined corpses lying in shattered streets… Some of the worst sniping and skirmishing takes place within the confines of seemingly peaceful societies — in student halls on University campuses, in newspaper columns, and over the airwaves.

Ideologues must convince others of the rightness of their cause, proselytize about how they are the future that will strip away the old failed order, and seek to subvert or supplant the institutions of a society that they despised. This is how the Nazis, the Fascists, Japanese Militarists, Soviets, and any number of assorted Marxists behaved. It is also how Islamic Fundamentalists behave now.

In the prisons of the Western World, Fundamentalist clerics are making overtures to the perennially wrathful and sullen among our prisoners; telling them to join up and all their sins will be forgiven if they help to punish the society that jailed them. Fundamentalist activists run rampant on our campuses: Shouting down perspectives they dislike with all the enthusiasm Nazi Brownshirts once showed; convincing the idiot Marxists that they share a common foe in the status quo, and enthusiastically garnering new recruits.

Ideologues always know one truth — that they are the wave of the future. Against this, no other statements really matter so it is possible to preach the virtues of fire and sword to their followers, while discussing peace and conciliation with their enemies. So it was with Hitler, with Stalin, and so it is with the apologists and spokesmen for Islamic Fundamentalist groups within the cities of the Western World.

After a terrifying and expensive century and — despite (or because of it) several decades of seeming quiet at home — the publics of the Western World are in no mood for another round of ideological warfare. We have seen what we are capable of, and it frightened us. However, we also forget the price for not acting in time. Perhaps after the next 9-11 style attack we might smarten up.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: institute@mackenzieinstitute.com

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