World Disorder

World Disorder by Amin Maalouf… At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the world is showing many signs of disorder. An intellectual disorder characterized by the unbridled claims of identity, making it difficult to achieve any harmonious coexistence and genuine debate. An economic and financial disorder is dragging the entire planet into a zone of unpredictable turmoil, which itself embodies symptoms of a disturbance in our value system. Finally, a climate disorder resulting from a long period of irresponsible practices… Has humanity reached the “threshold of moral bankruptcy”? In this book, the author seeks to understand the reasons for our arrival at this point and how to escape it. In his view, world disorder is linked more to the simultaneous exhaustion of all civilizations, especially the two cultural groups to which the world claims to belong—the West and the Arab world—than to a “war of civilizations.” The former is plagued by a lack of loyalty to its own values; the latter is trapped in a cocoon of its historical impasse. It’s a disturbing prognosis, but it also offers a glimmer of hope: the turbulent period we’ve entered may ultimately lead us to formulate a mature vision of our affiliations, beliefs, and differences, as well as the fate of the planet that concerns us all.