Relationship Between Conflict and Fantasy - Term Paper Example

TOPIC: Relationship Between Conflict and Fantasy INTRODUCTION: There are reasons given for the September 11, airplane attacks. In fact “Others held, with perhaps a greater semblance of plausibility, that the explanation of 9-11 was to be sought in what was called, through an invariable horticultural metaphor, the "root cause" of terrorism. Eliminate poverty, or economic imperialism, or global warming, and such acts of terrorism would cease” (Harris 2002). This is only one of the many reasons why conflicts between the fantasy of one state and other is resolved through global bloodshed. The following paragraphs explain the relationship between conflict and fantasy. BODY: Baudrillard theorized that globalization is considered to be a major issue and influence in respect to the september 11 twin tower and Pentagon suicidal plane attacks by a handful of terrorists. In addition, he emphasizes that technology is also a form of globalization and an important factor in our present days. Therefore, globalization extensively interferes with fantasy and conflict. The book, The Spirit of Terrorism, clearly states that the moral condemnation and the holy alliance against terrorism are on equal footing as the prodigious jubilation at seeing this global superpower destroyed. Better, at seeing it, in a sense, destroying itself, committing suicide (Baudrillard, 2003;p.4) Clearly, the suicide attacks by the fanatic plane hijackers were avenged. The United States retaliated by attacking the hiding places of Its Osama Bin Ladin as well as bombing and capturing Iraqs Saddam Hussein. Now, Osama Bin Ladin is hiding in some remote place in order to escape from the long arms of . He is on the run. He continues to hide and cannot come out in the open because the United States is stepping up its search and arrest order to get Osama Bin Ladin. One reason for Osama Bin Ladins hiding strategy is because he admitted on air in a Muslim television that he masterminded the suicide attacks on September eleven (Tobin 2004, 3). As the saying goes, do not do unto others what you do want others do unto you. Here, the United States is hunting down Osama bin Ladin to make him and his followers pay for their part in the murder of innocent civilians In New York and the Pentagon. On the other hand, the Osama Bin Ladin has his own reasons for masterminding the attack on the United States. Osama Bin Ladin believes that the United States is an enemy that should be brought down from it high military pedestal to its knees. What Osama Bin Ladin did not include in his calculation is that the globalized United States can easily muster enough military force to vanquish Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Ladin and their diehard followers (Baudrillard, 2003;p.4). Further, technology is a form of globalization. Information technology is the current fashion in many countries in the world. The internet is a very powerful tool to gather information on many topics. Business information on mergers, consolidations, business transactions and new technologies and business trends can easily be acquired at the click of a mouse. The old style of snail mail or sending business documents and information through the post office has been replaced by sending documents by fax or scanning and uploading through emails and other internet messaging systems. Likewise, people can talk to each other by using the webcam and online chatting services. The more popular chatting software are the Skype and the Yahoo messenger. However, other similar softwares are gaining ground in terms of popularity. In fact, e -learning is a current trend that is used by many schools. Here, the professors send their lessons, quizzes and major exams through the internet. The students then answer the questions emailed to them. Then, the student can easily see the quiz scores just by opening the school website and browsing over his or her online tests (Baudrillard, 2003;p.84). The advent of information technology has brought one corner of the globe to the other corners. Thus, technology is a form of globalization. This globalization is causing frictions between countries or even religions. For one, the Westerners love freedom. However, there are people who are so fanatically inclined that their belief is the right belief. They feel that it is their duty to impose their belief on other people. In fact, they are willing to sacrifice their own human life on earth in the pursuit of their belief. These people believe that they will go to heaven if they commit suicide as they fulfill their duty to kill their sworn enemies (Jonscher 1994, 16). Admittedly, the United States is using the information technology and other related technologies to impose its own beliefs and government style on other people. For example, the United States had invaded Iraq to thresh out, detain and put on trial Mr. Saddam Hussein for crimes on his Iraqi people as well as the United States plan to stop Saddam Hussein from producing weapons of mass destruction. However, the United States and its allies were not able to find any traces of weapons of mass destruction when it occupied Iraq. In the same light, Adolf Hitler ordered the massacre of thousand of Jews in Poland and other parts of Europe. He felt that the German race is the superior race and that it was the German peoples duty to wipe the Jews from the face of the earth. Here, Germany conquered many countries because it war technology was very advanced. This shows that technology is a form of globalization (Mcginn, Kudyba, and Diwan 2002, 85). Globalization interferes with fantasy and conflict. Different groups of people have their own fantasies that they want to be converted to reality. The United States wants to impose its democratic principles on all nations around the world. On the other hand, people like Hitler, Mussolini, the Japanese of world war 2, Alexander the Great, Spain, Portugal, and other sectors of global societal traveled the world since the good old days in order to impose its brand of society or government on the people. We could remember the story of the civil war where the Union soldiers wanted to impose its policy of freeing the slaves from their owners in the South. On the other hand, the Northerners wanted to free itself from the North and set up its own country because it wanted to continue owning their slaves. The reason for the Norths feelings that slavery should be abolished was because the Northerners were more industrialized as compared to the Southerners who needed the slaves to till the farms. Here, the Norths fantasy conflicted with the Souths fantasy. The fantasy of Hitler to erase the Jewish people from the map conflicted with the Jews right to survive until the next century. Also, the author stated that fifteen suicide bombers gave up their lives in the pursuit of their fantasy of eradicating the conflict brought about by the United States (Baudrillard, 2003;p.8). Globalization interferes with fantasy and conflict. In terms of the Iraq war, globalization interfered with Iraqs fantasy and conflict. Iraq had captured Kuwait and made it its province. The government of Saddam Hussein believes that it is the Iraqs duty to make its fantasy true by annexing Kuwait. However, this Iraqi fantasy conflicted with the Kuwait peoples fantasy that they are free not to welcome Iraqs trespassing and uninvited annexation of their free Kuwait. The United states as well as many members of the United Nations believe that globalization should step in and force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait(Rajaee 1997, 6). CONCLUSION: The airline hijackers used the technology of the airplane to ram it into the twin towers in New York as well as the Pentagon. The United States and its allies used technology and globalization to counter any attacks that would be launched to undermine the supremacy of the United States in the global market place. People like Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon de Bonaparte, Chinas Mao Tse Dong, Used technology to try to control their global part of the world. They were serious in their efforts to put their fantasy into reality by eliminating conflict or obstacles along the way. CONCLUSIVELY, all parties to a conflict can advantageously use technology as an important globalization tool to further its fantasy often at the expense of other people, country and the like. Works Cited Harris, Lee. 2002. Al Qaedas Fantasy Ideology: War without Clausewitz. Policy Review : 19+. Jonscher, Charles. 1994. "Chapter 1 an Economic Study of the Information Technology Revolution". In Information Technology and the Corporation of the 1990s: Research Studies, ed. Allen, Thomas J. and Michael S. Scott Morton:5-38. New York: Oxford University Press. Mcginn, Dennis, Stephan Kudyba, and Romesh Diwan. 2002. Information Technology, Corporate Productivity, and the New Economy. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Rajaee, Farhang, ed. 1997. Iranian Perspectives on the Iran-Iraq War. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. Tobin, Theresa C. 2004. "1 A Terrorist Attack: Response and Reflection". In Perspectives on 9/11, ed. El-Ayouty, Yassin, Gerald J. Galgan, Francis J. Greene, and Edward Wesley:3-15. Westport, CT: Praeger. Read More