Ants and Vikings

This article in the New Republic is very insightful. It's ostensibly about why radical Islamic movements (like the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot, Hamas) have a hard time transitioning from blood-n-guts resistance movements to responsible government administrators. It tells the story of Ibrahim Gharaybeh, an Islamist who was more concerned with building a civilization than with tearing down those of others...and who was marginalized by the Islamist movement.

There's been a lot of optimism that Hamas' win in Palestine would turn suicide bombers into garbage collecters. I confess that I was one of the (cautious) optimists. But it looks like those hopes have been dashed...Hamas refuses to recognize Israel; it condones a suicide bombing; the U.S., EU, and Japan have cut off funding; and as a result, Hamas is fighting for survival. It looks like the real reason to be happy about Hamas' ascension is my more pessimistic prediction, that Hamas would sever the rage-crazed Palestinians from the sympathy of the Western world.

More broadly, Hamas' failure to put down the bomb and pick up the garbage can offers us a vision of things to come. With Hezbollah the last armed faction in Lebanon and the Muslim Brotherhood slowly ascending to power in Egypt, we can expect more of the same throughout the Arab world. The Islamist movement (and its cousins in Iran) have decided that there's no point to building big towers or pretty parks or hospitals and schools that work, as long as there are enemies still waiting to be ground down and humiliated. They've decided that it's better to be pillaging Vikings than worker ants.

This is, of course, why we can't descend to their level. Yes, we have to fight against those among the Islamists who want to destroy us (for the US, that's al-Qaeda), but we have to keep building up our own civilization. For us worker ants, that's Job Number One. They rage and foam at the mouth; we make computers and art and electric cars. Every once in a while they manage to knock down some of our towers; we just build them up again, taller and better-looking than before.

And eventually more and more Islamists will realize, like Ibrahim Gharaybeh did, that spastic uncontrolled rage leads only to poverty and disappointment. Then one day, maybe not soon, they really will turn their efforts toward something more peaceful and productive. Look at what the Vikings are doing now.