恐怖主义:全球化语境中的文化暴虐主义

Terrorism: The Culture Brutality in the Context of Globalization

恐怖主义是当代全球化进程的一个衍生物,它是一个现实的社会问题,同时又涉及文化间关系。从文化角度而言,它可谓是某些“非西方文化”对西方文化的全球化战略的极端化、暴虐化、反人道的反攻。与它外显的暴虐性相对应,在全球化语境中出现的亨廷顿式的“文明冲突论”,也具有尖锐的进攻性。在这种对峙中,安南、哈贝马斯等人所强调的文化间对话,既显得很有必要,又显得十分困难,甚至已经处于危机状态,因为文化间对话的前提是彼此有诚意、相互尊重、相互理解和相互学习。

The issue of terrorism has become a major topic in the international academic circles and with good reasons. It is extremely difficult to define terrorism. The authors point out that something is wrong with some scholars＇ methods of defining terrorism. Without a view of the context of globalization, one cannot grasp the nature of terrorism. Contemporary terrorism is a by-product of the globalization process for the time being. In the perspective of cross-cultural relationships, terrorism can be interpreted as some ＂non-Western cultures＂ fighting back at the globalization strategy of Western cultures, though in an extremist, cruel and counter-humanist way. Corresponding to the manifested cruelty of terrorism, there is the Huntingtonian ＂Clash of Civilizations＂ which is also rather aggressive. Kofi Annan and Habermas point out that conflict or clash is only one of the various forms of the relations between among cultures. If we neglect the mutual influence, mutual learning and mutual promoting among cultures, and even worse, if we take the clash of cultures as the only possible form of relations between different cultures, it is not only a theoretical error, but will cause a severe realistic outcome as well. However, cross-cultural dialogues proposed by Kofi Annan and Habermas and others are very hard to be carried out though they appear rather necessary. In spite of this, the authors still agree with their attitude and strategy. Counter-terrorism is a concrete and complicated political action, which involves not only the relations between different cultures, but also the political reality in many countries. We should never simplify the issue, as does Huntington. In a word, we must oppose terrorism, but we should never oppose it from the viewpoint of ＂Clash of Civilizations＂.