Editor,
A disturbing resemblance is becoming increasingly clear in the actions of Osama bin Laden-type Islamist groups and the Bush administration - reactionary agitation that is fundamentalist on the one hand, nationalist on the other.
Bin Laden and al-Qaida seem determined to recycle global affairs to the glory days of the Muslim-dominated Middle Ages. Meanwhile the White House, instead of progressing into a period of equitable globalism, wants to go forth with the unfinished business of the Cold War - the overt domination of the planet.
America, it seems, must remain the uncharitable master of the less fortunate and downtrodden and forever beholden to its own limited consumerist perspective. The terrorist and Bush-flavored Republican agendas both represent a failure to accommodate a post-postmodern world, to lead the aspirations of American and Middle Eastern citizens into a true climate of fully immersed interconnectedness,
beyond the kaleidoscope perspectives that marked the last half of the 20th century.
Sept. 11, 2001, made it unavoidably clear that a new narrative, one that speaks with many voices but nonetheless as one, is crucial for the security and safety of civilization.
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Now is the time to enhance the confidence and capabilities of diverse cultures through their widespread exposure and education to their unique talents and resources.
Unfortunately, Bush has reacted to this imperative by reaching into the past, by avoiding the problems of isolationism, and by hiding behind the promise of a reconstituted military-industrial behemoth.
The terrorist mind-set looks for the same solution, albeit on a different scale.
Though Bush has seemingly bedded down with the philosophy of the enemy, the bin Laden doctrine must be rejected at all costs.
A fight between reactionary ideologies can never constitute progress.
Kurt Xyst
UNM alumnus
