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this isn about islam the white house assured the muslim world when the united states declared war terrorism after the sept attacks but the novelist salman rushdie soon popped the new york times arguing course this about islam and proceeded bolster the thesis first famously propounded samuel huntington that history next act fated bloody clash civilizations spearheaded islam hear echo rushdie and huntington remind another famous intellectual with awesome capacity make sweeping statements about the future based historical tidbits cleverly arrayed sound like ticking bomb karl marx was also fatalist and determinist for four generations marx and his disciples managed convince huge part mankind that communism was historically inevitable just the fall dien bien phu and the launch sputnik gave credence the red scare sept has helped fuel the paranoia that islam determined get the west shocking and uncertain times the mind need for order powerful that will embrace almost any worldview provided respected intellectuals that sept about islam more certain than the belief that communism would triumph that tech stocks would soar forever the collective intentions billion people are much too complex for anticipate the sudden collapse the berlin wall should have reminded however what vladimir lenin and adolf hitler have taught that well packaged ideas can tilt history deadly direction beliefs wrong well right shape human institutions most argentines believe that the argentine peso will fall will plummet sure the setting sun believe that man robe capable marrying two friends they are married and westerners begin believe that every bad thing that happens the middle east and asia has muslim source this too will become self fulfilling reality not only will western brahmins reorganize the facts make the case but muslims themselves will polarize around their most radical leaders and strike back there are least three problems with this cultural religious approach politics first forces people think terms faith and emotions but when truth conflicts with your truth dialogue screeches halt does god allah really play politics second the cultural religious interpretation does not provide adequate conceptual tools for analyzing historical change and proposing concrete reforms third culture definition concentrates the differences between people rather than what they have common culture need not breeding ground for conflict provided understand that the human species like tree from which all branch out the richness human diversity comes later like the leaves spring all over the world men and women peace and good will are bringing people from different civilizations together through legal institutions and economics know from personal experience how painstaking this work often involves codifying unwritten customs and beliefs different cultures into statutes where different people can live and prosper together making interest payment practices compatible with catholic and muslim beliefs that making profit money sinful adapting joint stock company tools and limited partnerships traditional and widespread forms cooperation and adapting modern property law integrate customary practices for holding and trading assets while rushdie and huntington make broad brush statements culture people the third world and the former soviet union are slowly but successfully finding ways make their statutory codes more sensitive their cultural differences less oligarchic and more democratic today the real art using culture bring civilizations together can found not much ivory tower speculation but the less visible work political reformers whose legal fine tuning has been able nudge history forward with little bloodshed adapting laws avoid ideological and religious conflict nothing new the clashing civilizations within europe that spent the years between and slaughtering millions each other people were eventually brought together teams legal craftsmen supervised such pragmatic leaders robert schumann france alcide degasperi italy and konrad adenauer germany rather than write fat books how christianity inevitably leads conflict they hunkered down examine under the microscope the legal details existing and proposed institutions they figured out ways build bridges between cultures and engineer political institutions and reflected why the weimar republic failed and how adolf hitler squeezed and what did they find under the microscope that spite their differences europeans had much more common result the very nations that fewer than years ago broke the record for wartime carnage have come together the european union that shares parliament the same market and common currency begin ital pluribus unum end ital the only way you can deal with culture when you are politics without being swept away passion ideology determinism deconstruct large inimical concepts into legal categories where the hooks and loops that allow different cultures hang can found western nations this all the time avoid conflict but with tweezers not with front end loaders they employ large bureaucracies synchronize different practices and make legal texts uniform within their own countries the unified commercial code between countries the many integrated mandatory codes produced the european union the international standards organization western friends say that you buy the arguments rushdie and huntington you will have played right into the hands osama bin laden and company who are trying mask their political ambition with religious halo with economic alternatives offer western capitalism they recruit the poor the name culture and religion muslim friends say keep focusing the details economic development instead issuing outdated and self defeating begin ital fatwa end ital against your detractors the west adopt the much crueler device christians invented punish our intellectual trouble makers ignore them hernando soto economist and political adviser president the institute for liberty and democracy lima peru author the books the mystery capital and the other path editors become client the hernando soto column please contact one these sales representatives