The paranoid style in politics often
imagines unlikely alliances that coalesce
into an overwhelming threat that must
be countered by all necessary means. In Clash of Civilizations, Samuel
Huntington conjured an amalgamated
East - an alliance between "Confucian"
and "Islamic" powers - that would
challenge the West for world
dominance. Many jihadis fear the Crusader alliance between Jews and
Christians. They forget that until
recently, historically speaking,
populations professing the latter were
the chief persecutors of the former. Now Anders Breivik has invoked the
improbable axis of Marxism,
multiculturalism and Islamism, together
colonising Europe. As he sees
multiculturalism as essentially a Jewish
plot, Breivik has managed to wrap up the new and old fascist bogies in one
conspiracy: communists, Jews and
Muslims. Like his terrorist counterparts who kill
in the name of various Islamic sects,
Breivik is willing to slaughter people for
an invented purity. Modern Norway is a
latecomer to the world of nations,
becoming sovereign only in 1905. Vikings, Arctic explorers and
international humanitarians all went
into imagining the place. Given how readily jihadi texts are
dismissed as ravings, it is notable how
much attention has already been paid
to Breivik's wacky ideological brew.
This is a worrying portent of the line of
analysis that says that the "root causes" of Breivik's madness - immigration and
cultural difference - must be addressed.
Otherwise, European societies will lose
their social cohesion, to choose one
current euphemism for the Volk. To the extent such a view takes hold,
the far right may be forgiven for
concluding that terrorism works. As for
the rest of us, now facing terrorist re-
imaginings from both sides of obscure
battles in a mythic past, we may long for the leftist and anti-colonial
insurgents of bygone days. They at
least could offer plausible accounts of
what they were up to. To be sure, tactically speaking, Breivik
thought through his operation. Unlike
many jihadis, however, he lacked the
courage to face men armed like him,
and to offer his own life for his beliefs
as well as the lives of others. Nonetheless he wanted at his court
appearance to strut about in some kind
of military uniform. Smartly tailored uniforms, an
abhorrence of cultural difference, and a
desire for racial purity are all of a piece
with fascist mysticism. As with jihadi
ideology, it is precisely the non-rational
elements of fascism that give it emotive, and hence political, power. For
what Breivik and others see as under
threat in the West is the vital source of
meaning, of ultimate values, which
they associate with the communion of
a purified people. Since the West faces no obvious threat
of such existential scale and
significance, one must be fabricated. It
is here that the unlikely alliance of left
wing parties and Islam plays its role,
purportedly importing on a mass scale Muslims to colonise Europe. In Norway,
Muslims account for less than three per
cent of the population; in the UK, less
than five per cent. Even so, the
fantastical fear of the "loss" of Europe to
Islam animates many on the right. It is part of mainstream electoral politics in
Europe, and has long been an element
of right wing discourse in the US. In this vision of danger,
multiculturalism plays a key role. Many
will have noted Breivik's odd
invocation of "cultural Marxists", folks I
have only spotted in small numbers in
university departments and cafes frequented by graduate students.
Breivik's reference is in part to the
Frankfurt School, a group of German
Jewish scholars who fled Hitler for the
Western cosmopolis of New York. The idea is that "Jews" have
encouraged cultural mixing in the West,
fatally compromising its purity and thus
its values, while Muslims and Jews
retain their cultural strength and
identity. Europe must therefore declare "independence" and fight the Muslim-
Jewish-Marxist hordes, apparently
starting by killing their children. We can only assume that Breivik has
confused the computer fantasy games
he played - using a busty blonde avatar
named "conservatism" - with political
analysis. What is truly frightening,
however, is that the core of this vision of multiculturalism as a threat to the
West is shared by leading political
parties in the France, the UK, Germany
and Italy, among others. This is why
there is every chance that Breivik's
murderous and cowardly rampage will achieve some of its aims. Immigration,
it will be argued, has unbalanced "our"
people. It is already being curtailed in
all the leading Western powers. Shut up, obey, and collaborate The irony is that the West brought us
empire on a global scale and drew its
cultural, economic, and political
strength from interconnections with all
parts of the world. The cosmopolis of
New York, London and Paris - a "brown" not a "white" West - are more
appropriate beacons of a West flush
with power and confidence in its values
than the imaginary purification
achieved through concentration camps
and closed borders. But just what might be corroding
values in the West? This was one of the questions that
animated the Frankfurt School and
those who influenced it. They focused
on the interaction between capitalism
and culture. They noted the ways in
which capitalism progressively turned everything into something that could
be bought or sold, measuring value
only by the bottom line. Slowly but
surely such measures came to apply to
the cultural values at the core of

society. Even time, as Benjamin Franklin told us, is money, a doctrine which
horrified Max Weber in his searing
indictment of the capitalist mentality as
an "iron cage" without "spirit". Note for example the ways in which
the great professional vocations of the
West - lawyers, journalists, academics,
doctors - have been co-opted and
corrupted by bottom line thinking.
Money and "efficiency" are the values by which we stand, not law, truth or
health. Students are imagined as
"customers", citizens as "stakeholders".
Professional associations worry about
the risk to their bottom line rather than
furthering the values they exist to represent. Graduates of elite Western
universities, imbued with the learning
of our great thinkers, are sent off to
corporations like News International.
There they learn to shut up, obey, and
collaborate in the dark work of exploitation for profit, for which they
will be well rewarded, at least
financially speaking. Thanks in part to the grip of corporate
power on the media and on political
parties, few today in the West can
imagine any other politics than those of
big money. In the US, and increasingly
even in Europe, the income differential between the poor and the wealthy
already resembles that of banana
republics. The downtrodden are asked
to bear the burden of a financial crisis
created by bankers. America's wealthy
fly their children to summer camp in tax-free private jets amid a real rate of
unemployment of over fifteen per cent. Neoliberalism has only accelerated
these processes at the heart of capitalist
society. Here is a far more convincing
threat to Western values and "social
cohesion" than the lunatic fears of
fascists. Notably, this is a threat that emanates from within, not without. It is
precisely social democratic parties like
Norway's Labour Party - Breivik's target
- which have sought to contain the
corrosive effects of capitalism and
ensure the survival of the West's most humane values. Tarak Barkawi is a Senior Lecturer at
the Centre of International Studies,
University of Cambridge.e well rewarded, at least
financially speaking. Thanks in part to the grip of corporate
power on the media and on political
parties, few today in the West can
imagine any other politics than those of
big money. In the US, and increasingly
even in Europe, the income differential between the poor and the wealthy
already resembles that of banana
republics. The downtrodden are asked
to bear the burden of a financial crisis
created by bankers. America's wealthy
fly their children to summer camp in tax-free private jets amid a real rate of
unemployment of over fifteen per cent. Neoliberalism has only accelerated
these processes at the heart of capitalist
society. Here is a far more convincing
threat to Western values and "social
cohesion" than the lunatic fears of
fascists. Notably, this is a threat that emanates from within, not without. It is
precisely social democratic parties like
Norway's Labour Party - Breivik's target
- which have sought to contain the
corrosive effects of capitalism and
ensure the survival of the West's most humane values. Tarak Barkawi is a Senior Lecturer at
the Centre of International Studies,
University of Cambridge.