Terrorism and Wild Liberalism
Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero
Hamas's attack on Israel is deployed from a terrorist strategy that cannot be seen other than as unjust and unworthy. Terrorism uses fundamentalist ideology to appropriate the identity of a people, but its only path is violence and abuse. At the dawn of the 21st century, terrorism was associated with Muslim fundamentalism; Samuel Huntington and John Gray warned that it constituted a unique element of the clash of civilizations and the failure of modernity. As we approach the first quarter of this century, it is bitter that these academics were right, because the crisis of Western values is more serious than previously thought. The problem of assimilation is real, but the greatest threat lies in the impact and justification that modernity has not been able to achieve.
During the last century, the terrible scope of war was related to international law so that radical differences between nations or states did not affect third parties and, mainly, the civilian population was not harmed. The barbarity of the Second World War constitutes the main reference of human evil that must be averted and international organizations sought to affirm the right so that the conflagrations were kept in due proportion. Terrorism nullifies all of this.
Hamas terrorism generated perplexity in most of the world, but also approval by groups that identify with its actions and causes. Among these, those that promote narcoculture in Mexico can be highlighted. Indeed, terrorism and drug trafficking can coincide, narcoterrorism in our country has reached disproportionate levels and the comparison with Arab fundamentalism is not extravagant. Homologation implies an explanation, an assumption of values. Terrorism is abusive, whether committed by Hamas or Mexican drug crime groups.
Actions similar to those carried out by Hamas are common in several spaces where Mexican narcoterrorists operate. The strength of the armed groups, the momentary and insurmountable impunity, the abuse that only represses and attacks, the overwhelming irrational justification. Those who identify Hamas with the Culiacanazo event simply recognize each other.
These types of events are representative of a current of thought that has come to be called “Wild Liberalism.” In Mexico, some groups of anarchist libertarians propose and admire this type of acracy. The closest case may be the Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei and his anarcho-capitalism – with many sympathizers in the right-wing Mexican middle class. A pro-Nazi extreme right feasts on Hamas, but they forget that the philosophy of Ariosophy took the statist perspective to totalitarianism.
The Israeli State has the justified responsibility to protect its population and use the necessary means to achieve this. Despite everything, Israel has been responsible towards the Arab world and no one can say that there has been a lack of will to seek peace. The problem becomes the justification of a senseless freedom, without any responsibility to confront public order, to destroy the lives of ordinary and simple people. The situation in Israel shows the importance and necessity of the construction of political society, of the role of the State, which regulates uncertainty and contributes to the well-being of people. Societies need to structure their States and international relations increasingly imply the need for international organizations and rights that are respected.
These last years have witnessed a series of conflicts against which the immediate action of the State has saved human groups in different countries. The State as guarantor of public order and primary actor in international relations, recovers its role and importance. It is the monster to scare other monsters.
Various anarchist groups and imperialist actors may have influenced, as they did in the past, to generate the conflict between Hamas and Israel within a geographical area that also constitutes the scene of imperialist disputes and civilizational wars. Unlike states held hostage by Muslim terrorism and invisible power, the force of the State of Israel will effectively try to demolish the conspiracy to which it was subjected.
In any case, it is essential to rethink the debates on political liberalism to stop dogmatizing it and using it to justify almost anything or type of action. No form of savage liberalism finds justification, there are terrorists and criminals who put others at risk and the State has to confront them. If the State does not fulfill its functions, or is distracted and the groups of the civil population remain at the disposal of the state of nature, humanity would truly face extinction.
It seems like a trite and anachronistic idea for current times, but how valid it is and how urgent it is to implement it to avert global cataclysm.
Strengthening the State, promoting law, civic and fiscal responsibility do not seem to be characteristics of liberal culture; However, true liberalism begins by focusing on these types of elements to develop a minimal, although sufficient, State.