Rogue Identities Posted by Michael Signer

A very interesting post by John Ikenberry is up at TPMCafe about two books on identity, and why people seem so willing to create chaos, and kill themselves, for the sake of claims that (to the rest of us) subvert the very reasonable goal of a calm and peaceful world order.  The two books are Cosmopolitanism by Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton, and Identity and Violence by Amartya Sen.

Ikenberry writes:

So Appiah and Sen are worrying about the same danger – the solitarist belittling of human identity. They have a similar vision of a proper functioning and enlightened human society. It is a world were people are complexly integrated into various realms of political and social life. Overlapping and multiple identities reinforce restraint and toleration....

It seems to me that what these two intellectuals are searching for is really some sort of perfected global version of Western liberal society. After all, Europe and the West has been here before, starting perhaps with the religious wars of the early modern era. Western societies entered the modern democratic age when they succeeded in pushing ethnic and religious identities down into civil society. They semi-privatized these identities and created different layers and venues for the expression of social, political, and religious identities and affiliations.

To me, the crowning irony of the advanced capitalist, globalizing world is that local navel-gazing fractures become increasingly more important because they pose a threat to the very self-evidentness of the new world order -- and I wonder whether "identity" can explain it all.  The problem with those who attack the modern world is something like the modern/primeval distinction that was being floated a lot to explain Al Qaeda's actions on 9/11, but is something deeper, more primordial, and more intractable -- a weave of geography, history, ethnicity, nation, language, and cultural sense of embattlement. 

Some sectors of the world have a deep, blood-line urge to retreat and consolidate -- to become "rogues."  Iran has had this tendency since well before the White Revolution, and we see it resurging today.  North Korea has essentially decided to reject the modern world.  Whereas India seeks to become as cosmopolitan and integrationist as it can.

Why?  Why do certain countries (or sectors) decide to reject the world, whereas others join it?  No deep answers, only questions -- curious what those of you who have read either or both of these books think... or if, like me, you've read neither what you think anyway...

Comments

[Doc]

...i think the core answer lies in the way DNA expresses itself, as well as the fact that said expression is continually further tuned by a physical migration toward "like likes like": humanity is a bunch of inbred tribes.

couple that with [as you put it, Michael:
"...something deeper, more primordial, and more intractable -- a weave of geography, history, ethnicity, nation, language, and cultural sense of embattlement"] the ineffableness of life, and, as Popeye said: "IyamwotIyam. Toot toot!"

[Fred Hapgood]

Indians grow up in a world defined by multiple religions and languages. India does not "seek" to become cosmopolitan. It is already there.

To a moderately aware Indian the rest of the world is just more India.

[runescape money]

runescape money runescape gold runescape money runescape gold wow power leveling wow powerleveling Warcraft Power Leveling Warcraft PowerLeveling buy runescape gold buy runescape money runescape items runescape gold runescape money runescape accounts runescape gp dofus kamas buy dofus kamas Guild Wars Gold buy Guild Wars Gold runescape accounts buy runescape accounts runescape lotro gold buy lotro gold lotro gold buy lotro gold lotro gold buy lotro gold lotro gold buy lotro goldrunescape money runescape power leveling runescape money runescape gold dofus kamas cheap runescape money cheap runescape gold Hellgate Palladium Hellgate London Palladium Hellgate money Tabula Rasa gold tabula rasa money Tabula Rasa Credit
Tabula Rasa Credits Hellgate gold Hellgate London gold

[kamil]

There are certain things in life related to smoking that simply cannot :)
parça kontör
parça kontör bayiliği
parça kontör bayilik

[goonzu gold]

I once have a lot of goonzu money in the game and i will go to buy goonzu gold to add my stock. I like the game very much and i like to earn the goonzu online gold with my friends together. I want to join the cheap goonzu gold and i can get a lot of equipment to arm myself. I like the game very much come on to join us!

[gw gold]

I hope i can get GuildWars Gold in low price.

[hero online gold]

If you have hero gold, you can get more. If you gave hero online gold to me, I still have my idea to achieve.

[Runes of Magic Gold]

Once I played Rom Gold, I did not know how to get strong, someone told me that you must have Rom Gold. He gave me some Runes of Magic Gold.

[cheap requiem lant]

I appriciate him. I prefer the
requiem moneyin the game. In fact, the
cheap requiem lant is expensive.

[buy shaiya gold]

or you could not continue this game without shaiya online gold. If you buy shaiya gold, you can continue this game.

[cheap coach handbags]

Thank you for your sharing! I like i very much!