The
Power of Nightmares explores
how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden
and organized terrorist network is an illusion.
Director Adam Curtis theorizes
that it's a myth that has spread unquestioned
through politics, the security services and the
international media.
At the heart of his story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and
the radical Islamists.
A yearbook photo of Qutb. The frivolity of American campus life seem to
persuade him that western debauchery was at the root of many of the world's
problems. |
Sayyed Qutb: Father
of Radical Islam
In the 1950s Sayyed Qutb, an Egyptian
civil servant was sent to the U.S.
to learn about its public education system. As he
traveled around the county, Qutb became increasingly
disgusted by what he felt was the selfish and materialistic
nature of American life.
When he returned to Egypt,
Qutb turned into a revolutionary.
Determined to find some way to control the forces
of selfish individualism that he saw in America,
he envisioned an Arab society where Islam would
play a more central role. He became an influential
spokesperson in the Muslim Brotherhood but was
jailed after some of its members attempted
to assassinate Egyptian President Nasser.
In prison a more radical Qutb wrote several
books which argued that extreme measures,
including deception and even violence, could be
justified in an effort to restore shared moral
values to society. He was executed in
1966 for treason in Egypt. But his ideas lived
on and formed the basis of the radical Islamist
movement.
Leo Strauss
was a professor of political philosophy
at the University of Chicago. |
Leo Strauss: A Neo-Conservative
At the same time Leo Strauss, an American
professor of political philosophy, also came to
see western liberalism as corrosive to morality
and to society. Like Qutb, Strauss
believed that individual freedoms
threatened to tear apart the values which held
society together. He taught his students that
politicians should assert powerful and inspiring
myths - like religion or the myth of the nation
- that everyone could believe in.
A group of young students, including Paul Wolfowitz,
Francis Fukuyama and William Kristol studied
Strauss' ideas and formed a loose group in
Washington which became known as the neo-conservatives.
They set out to create a myth of America as
a unique nation whose destiny was to battle against
evil in the world.
Both Qutb and Strauss were idealists whose ideas
were born out of the failure of the liberal dream
to build a better world. The two movements they
inspired set out, in their different ways, to rescue
their societies from this decay.
Two
Movements
By creating an alliance with the growing Christian
fundamentalist movement in America the neo-conservatives
rose to power during the Reagan administration.
Senior American
civil servants and politicians came to believe
their view that the Soviet Union was an
evil force against which the U.S. should be presented
as a force for good.
The neo-conservatives turned
to fear in order to pursue their vision and created
a hidden network of evil run by the Soviet Union
that only they could see. They used anti-communist
propaganda which included Donald Rumsfeld's over-estimation
of Soviet military technology and the William Casey
led CIA assertion that various terrorist organizations
were backed by the Soviet Union to further their
cause.
At the same time, the Islamists faced a refusal
of the masses to follow their dream and began to
turn to terror to force the people to "see
the truth". Underground Islamic leaders like Ayman
Zawahiri, who would become a mentor to Osama bin Laden,
ordered the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar
Sadat in an attempt to shock the masses into seeing
their version of reality.
Afghanistan: A Battleground
In 1979, Soviet forces invaded
Afghanistan. War in this remote country
marked the beginning of key battleground in
the Cold War and an extraordinary alliance between
radical Islamists in Afghanistan and around the
world and the neo-conservatives in the U.S.
Washington
provided money and arms including Stinger
missiles capable of shooting down Soviet helicopters.
But it was Islamic Mujahideen fighters who would
fire them. Among the many radical Islamists drawn
to Afghanistan was a young, wealthy Saudi called
Osama Bin Laden. Long before 9/11, he was seen
by neo-conservatives in Washington as one of their
foot soldiers, helping fight America's cause.
After nearly 10 years of fighting, Soviet troops
pulled out of Afghanistan and shortly afterwards,
their own government collapsed.
Both the neo-conservatives
and the Islamists believed that it is they who
defeated the "evil
empire" and
now had the power to transform the world.
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