The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.
I’m a big fan of this theory. The most high-profile civilization clash is between Westerners and the Muslim world.
What is fascinating is how this confrontation can be represented in two archetypal weapons.
The ultimate selfless weapon: the suicide bomber.
The ultimate selfish weapon: the unmanned drone.
You can’t have a stronger contrast: archetypal selflessness against archetypal selfishness.
Which makes me wonder.
When the selfish fights the selfless, who wins?
It’s an interesting comparison. You should also add to the archetype comparison is that the “selfless weapon”‘s intent is to kill as many as possible and cause as much collateral losses as possible, while a “selfish weapon” is supposed to limit the collateral losses for the attack (if it were not the intent, a carpet bombing raid could do the trick just as well).
Right. But in reality, the selfless weapon kills neighbors and relatives, including children, whose lives would be most likely saved if the terrorism suspect had been arrested.
In the ideal world, or at least within the borders of many countries – sure, I agree. But unfortunately, dropping off a police squad to arrest a suspect in, say, Yemen, would cause more deaths than a drone attack.
Done in a reckless fashion, absolutely.