Subtitled "Setting a New Course for the Twenty-first Century"
An interesting analysis of the current Middle East and where we find ourselves in general today. Maalouf has the advantage of having witnessed first hand the breakdown of social order and the slip into chaos in Lebanon.
He looks at how the West has misused its strength and created political and social disasters in countries in the Middle East, and indirectly helped create Islamic fundamentalism. He has a long chapter on how political leaders everywhere have lost any sense of legitimacy in the eyes of their people by being tied to narrow special interests of all stripes. He also talks about how a post-ideological world has fractured into a tribal world based on ethnicity, religion, skin colour, wealth.
He finishes the book with some chapters on how to rebuild, on how to reestablish a solidarity that can transcend cultures, ethnicities and religion. Very idealistic. Based on values of culture (I am reminded here of the effect on culture and its values of the cataclysm of WW I).
It is a nice vision, but I am more inclined to agree with Zizek's idea that change to the system will only come after collapse into chaos, probably provoked by environmental crises.
I find his non-fiction style a bit heavy and pedantic, but the ideas are interesting.
Worth rereading.
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