Camus catch

Alan Johnson the editor of Democratiya has written an excellent essay called Camus Catch: How democracies can defeat Totalitarian Political Islam. His argument is in three parts. First, the left has not seen the terrorist threat plain. Like the dreamy citizens of Oran in Camus' novel The Plague, it has embraced denial ('there are no rats') or worse - incoherent anti-Americanism ('the rats are to be defended') or self-loathing ('we are the rats'). I set out what the threat actually is - Totalitarian Political Islam - and why it emerged. Second, I discuss two kinds of left-wing response – 'Left Kissingerian Realism' and 'Reactionary Anti-Imperialism' – which I criticise as inadequate, or worse. Third, I map an alternative response (Camus' catch) and I end by echoing Paul Berman's call for a 'third force' - a global network of networks through which democrats can wage and win the battle of ideas