The development of human culture can be viewed as an evolutionary story with surprising plot twists. And so, just when we thought the world had become a big village and the vision of the end of wars was at hand, radical Islam arrived and blew up the celebration. Not only is globalization stalled, but extremism is expanding, and the clouds of world war are gathering on the horizon.
Is humanity on the verge of a U-turn? Not necessarily. Sociology is like an aerial photograph. From a low altitude, the phenomenon of ISIS and its ilk bodes ill. But from a higher vantage point, one that captures the entire historical space, there is room for optimism.
ISIS is not an exception in the landscape of fundamentalist Islam. Even the horrific beheading is not an unusual crime in these societies, nor is it the most extreme. After all, millions of people have been brutally slaughtered in the name of Allah in recent years. The West has turned a deaf ear and closed its eyes not only to Islamic terrorism and tribal violence, but also to the trampling of human rights by Arab dictatorships.
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Then came the high-speed Internet, unleashing the menacing evil into the digital air. Three chilling videos created an emotional and symbolic effect that a thousand news reports could not. When the truth is thrust into your face, questions that had been swept under the rug of hypocrisy, economic interests, and political correctness begin to be asked.
In its murderous war on its "infidel" brothers, ISIS is also setting a mirror to the Muslim nations. In the not-so-distant future, they will begin to wonder about the root of religious fanaticism, and a gradual process of disillusionment will develop. Religious fanaticism is a monster with a ticking clock of self-destruction and will eventually lose itself. Already today, amidst the desert chaos, a tectonic shift is beginning.
Muslim religious fanatics in Asia and Africa have begun to thrive, in part, because they present an ideological alternative to the increasingly radical Western "theology of freedom." Bulimic consumerism, enslaving materialism, the pursuit of money, narcissistic hedonism, the cult of the individual, superficiality and media stupidity, wild economic competition, the worship of external beauty, the lack of borders, and excessive pluralism - all of these weaken "white" democracy and undermine its image.
It is therefore conceivable that the attack on the secular world will lead the West to ask difficult questions about itself. For globalization to continue to develop, it is not enough to defeat external enemies. At the same time, an internal introspection and correction of accumulated value distortions are required.
So what will happen? In my opinion, we are facing a difficult period of "intermediate times" in the near future, at the end of which the Renaissance will appear. How long will the transition process last? Unfortunately, sociology cannot provide the answer to this question.
Oz Almog, Professor of Sociology, Department of Land of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa
