The books on the right give a real insight into the America and the world we currently live in. Why are our politicians making statements that seem utterly irrational? Why did the Social Conservatives vote so overwhelmingly for Bush? Why does Osama bin Laden hate America? What makes terrorists willing to conduct suicide bombings? Some of the answers can be found in those books I have listed, and I am looking for more.
Fundamentalism and Social conservatives
For a better understanding of the social fundamentalist movement in the US and the Islamic fundamentalist movements in the Middle East, read Paul Berman's book, "Terror and Liberalism", Steve Bruce's book, "Fundamentalism" and Karen Armstrong's book "The Battle for God." All are shown in the column to the right.
Just as an aside, I read Karen Armstrong's book to understand fundamentalism, but as I read it, for the first time since I was a teenager in this miserable Bible Belt State (Texas) I now have a clear idea what religion means to me, and why I need to participate. Because I have been surrounded by fundamentalist Southern Baptists the only reasonable religious organization I have found has been Buddhist. If you are a secular westerner, then this book will give you hope for Christianity. Fundamentalism isn't Christianity, they have merely appropriated the language for themselves.
Back to understanding fundamentalism, I'd suggest starting with "Fundamentalism" for a precise description of the social movement, followed by "The Battle for God" which provides an outstanding history of the three monotheistic religions, their impact on the history of the West, and the sources of the fundamentalisms within each.
Berman's book "Terror and Liberalism" rather neatly generalizes the subject. Berman suggests that since WW I there have been a series of mostly authoritarian reactions against Liberalism. These reactions include Stalinism, Franco's conservatism, Fascism generally, Christian fundamentalist religion, Islamic fundamentalist religion, the Jewish fundamentalists in Israel, Baathism in Iraq and Syria, and a number of other movements. The key in Berman's view isn't a question of left or right ideology, but rather it is an authoritarian reaction against Liberalism itself and an attempt to return to some mythical fantasy from the past, which he calls the "Ur Myth." Each form of authoritariansim develops its own "Ur Myth" so they seem like they are each different from the other, but they aren't. Each is primarily a reaction to Liberalism. It's an easy read, but I would suggest reading either Bruce or Armstrong first to provide some context.
Modernism
The book "Against the Gods" by Peter L. Bernstein is rather ironically titled in this context. It is intended to be a really interesting and highly readable history of probability theory and its application to risk management. The tools were first used in investing and insurance, but they are also the basis of Economics and the Social Sciences. This is a history book not a mathematics book, and it gives an outstanding view of the social implications of what statisticians have done to our view of the world we live in.
The process called Risk Management is the exact antithesis of the premodern methods of making decisions for the future. Prior to the Enlightenment decisions were based on experience, Intuition (which G. W. Bush is proud to say is his method -- also here.), luck, hunches, or prophecy from God, the Gods, Astrology, or something else. The results were, as you might expect, erratic at best. The only reliable predictor of future results was the history of what had happened in the past.
Risk management is essentially the very modern process of determining what we know and what we don't know about likely future events, collecting appropriate information, and determining the likely cost of failure against the rewards from success. Based on this a reasonable decision can usually be made with some likelihood of gaining a profit or otherwise succeeding in the endeavor. In other words, risk management is a set of techniques that allow us to make decisions based on what the future is likely to bring rather than depending on what happened in the past. That makes risk management the intellectual essence of modernism. It allows us to apply logic and rationality to social decisions.
A synthesis of the two sections above
Karen Armstrong makes a big point out of the difference between a society that makes decisions based on what happened in the past, and one that makes decisions based on what is expected in the future. Societies based on agriculture move slowly, so that using past history is the best way to plan for the future. But that is also a prescription for a static, unchanging society. Modern Western civilization is the first in history ever to make decisions based on anticipated future results that are reasonably expected to be different from what happened in the past. The system of Risk management describes the new forms of thinking that allow this revolutionary form of society. It is that form of thinking that allows society to change and improve as it has over the last two hundred years. Commerce and the Printing Press may have given the West the Enlightenment, but probability and risk management have given us the world in which we plan for a future we have never seen or heard of before.
More Modernism
I added "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter because it is the single best introduction to the philosophy and excitement of modern mathematical thought which I have ever read. It does not require any problem-solving or homework. It is an approach a historian who failed algebra (twice) can love. Ask someone who has read it, and watch their eyes light up!
Back to Fundamentalism and related social movements
But not everyone can accept a world in which the only decisions about Man are made by Men. The uncertainty of it creates a level of anxiety they cannot deal with. So they have developed a logical form of religion that is based on the faith-based acceptance of an all powerful God. For Christians, that all-powerful God provides his guidance through the inerrant writings which were collected by the early church and called the Bible. The knowledge that there is someone in charge, that they know you individually, and that he will protect you from the otherwise unpredictable and uncertain things that happen in this modern world sharply reduce that anxiety. However, anything which threatens that belief causes severe anxiety and must be attacked.
I suspect that this same emotional reaction is to some extent found in all of the various anti-government, anti-tax, militia, anarchist, and such movements, as well as the fundamentalist forms of religion. Did some such belief motivate Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph? I suspect it did.
Fundamentalist Christianity is based on a literal reading of the inerrant Bible which is presented as God's complete word, true in all religion, ethics, history, and science. I offer S. I Hayakawa's classic "Language in Thought and Action" to demonstrate the utter impossibility of any human language to encompass all that the fundamentalists claim is found in the Bible. Hayakawa's book is still the best single introduction I have found to the language study called "General Semantics." Hayakawa wrote it to show how the Nazis were misusing language in their propaganda, and it is still used as a textbook today.
Terrorism - mostly in the Middle East - Applications of the studies shown above.
The next three books, "Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed -- and How to Stop It" by Rachel Ehrenfeld, "Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks" Loretta Napoleoni, and "Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden" by Peter L. Bergen all focus on terrorism in the Middle East. Before reading these, read "The Battle for God" and "Terror and Liberalism" for the context these terrorist movements have grown up in and why they exist as they do.
Middle East History
For a reasonably quick, enjoyable and easy to read history of the Middle East nations over the last two centuries that also set the background for modern problems there read "The Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in the Asian Heartland " by Karl E. Meyer. It is a good popular history of the region with a focus on the reaction to the Age of Imperialism.
A good Novel
Then, finally, I suggest the excellent "A Handmaid's Tale", a novel by Margaret Attwood. She presents a vision of the future in which the Christian Fundamentalists have taken over America. This is the kind of thing Science Fiction does really well, and the book is quiet compelling.
If you have read this far you are really a masochist! So leave a comment - agree, disagree, question, or best, what books have I missed that add to this thread of thought?
I'm exploring, and I'd like some company.
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