In 1945, Karl Popper published The Open Society and its Enemies, an analysis of the totalitarianism and irrationalism that had threatened liberal democracy with the rise of communism and fascism. Again, we see a similar pattern. A violent and irrationalist ideology, with striking similarities to fascism, threatens free and democratic societies. The terrorist attacks in New York, Bali, Madrid and London and the suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel are driven by a militant jihadism, openly hostile to democracy, freedom, pluralism and universal human rights (including women's rights and gay rights). And, again, many intellectuals and opinion-formers have chosen to appease totalitarianism. We must respond firmly to this ideological attack, and its murderous nihilism; and we must also challenge the Chomskified cretino-left which has made common cause with this totalitarian ideology.
Jeffrey Ketland (Philosophy, University of Edinburgh) |
