A Global Divide (and not the one you think)

This fellow Norwegian points out what may be the most significant current global cultural divide. And it is not between Christians and Muslims, or any other simple-minded division based on surface features.

Rather, it goes between those supporting the Bush administration's "war on terror" and those who see it as a profoundly flawed strategy (one that only fuels resentment and violence). As a case in point, there are higher numbers opposing this war on terror in predominantly Christian countries than in some Muslim countries.

Western Europe united against Bush

No other country in the world is so keen as mine to see George Bush lose the coming presidential election. And where do I live? In Indonesia? In an Islamic country? No. I live in Oslo, Norway. [...]

In September, Globe Scan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) published the results of their Global Public Opinion.

Nearly 34,000 people in 35 countries on five continents were asked about their views on US foreign policy. The main outcome was that the majority in 32 of the 35 countries surveyed preferred senator John Kerry to George Bush. Only Nigeria, the Philippines and Poland had populations which preferred to see Bush re-elected.

But if we take a closer look at the results, some really interesting patterns emerge. In Norway, as much as 74% of the population favours Kerry. Only 7% support the incumbent president. No other population surveyed displays such a wide margin between Kerry and Bush. Norwegians are even more in favour of Kerry than the French (Kerry leads by 64% to 5%) and more anti-Bush than the Germans (74% to 10%). [...]

More interesting is that the people in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country with some 220 million citizens, are more positive towards Bush than any of the 10 European countries surveyed.

Thirty-four per cent of Indonesians prefer the incumbent US president. If we are to believe the poll, this represents some 70 million Bush-supporting Muslim people in Indonesia - many more than in the 10 European countries combined. [...]

What do you think the answer was when PIPA asked: "On balance, has the foreign policy of President George Bush made you feel better or worse about the United States?" Well, only 3% of Norwegians answered better, 74% said worse. The majority of Norwegians might have a "correct" feeling, of course; but none the less, no other country displays such a negative view of the current US-led War on Terror. Feelings are not much more positive in the rest of Europe, though. The Poles show the least animosity of all Europeans with 15% answering "better" and 41% "worse". [...]

Third, a PIPA poll, published in October, shows that the American people do not view the world so differently from the rest of us.

Actually, a clear majority of the Americans "showed strong support for multilateralism". Seventy-four per cent oppose the US taking Israel's side with regard to the conflict in Palestine - they want their country to be neutral. Why then the current Israel-friendly policies of the US government? One answer from PIPA's conclusion:

"The study found American leaders misperceive the public position on these issues, especially when it comes to multilateral initiatives ... most Americans mistakenly believe that Congress as a whole and their own representatives vote consistently with their preferences."

So, is contemporary world politics based on an enormous misunderstanding?

At least, all these polls seem to confirm that people from different cultures do not differ too much on the world's most important questions. There is no clash of civilizations, as Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington have propagated for more than 10 years. The great schism of today is not between cultures, religions or civilisations.

Rather, the huge differences can be spotted inside our own cultures and religions. The difference is between individuals who like Bush and the present War on Terror - and they are more likely to be Muslim Indonesians than Christian Europeans - and individuals who do not. We humans agree because of what we as independent individuals think inside, not because of what skin colour we have on the outside.

I am not implying that we, therefore, face less trouble in the future. Rather the opposite - our own neighbour might be a bigger threat to our common global civilisation than the average Joe or Abd Allah of a different religion on the other side of the ocean. We need to fight our inner demons, not the myth of a threat from alien civilisations.

Essay