Recent events have shown how ...isms must be presented and articulated clearly. It is all too easy for these umbrella terms to be misused. 'Cultural marxism' and 'islamification' are among the terms which have been used with such astonishing ease that it is simplified into merely an emotional gut instinct.
As with any kind of debating, if you must argue against something, the strongest points of the opposing argument should be tackled. This involves searching the depth of the argument and the complexity behind it. It is all-too-easy to score that open goal.
Misinterpretation or the lack of critical analysis is also a regular symptom of our information age. The most ironic perhaps being the Norwegian killer's writings on Jacques Derrida. He acknowledges the concept of 'the death of the author', and the fact that literature can be twisted away from its original meaning, citing the emergence of feminist critical theory for example. But then he does not acknowledge his own twisting of history - what of Norway's historical development into one of the most open and tolerant societies in the world? His focus on the medieval past betrays his lack of attention towards the more recent past - after all, Norway is the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.
N.B. - The attacks in Norway were indeed barbaric but should not be merely described as the acts of a 'madman'. Mad men do not write about Antonio Gramsci in a 'manifesto'.
Susumu Shimazono's work on new religions (particularly Aum Shinrikyo - the organisation responsible for the terrorist gas attacks) in late 20th century Japan is particularly instructive in trying to decipher how such atrocities came about - the revenge of religion reacting to the disorientation of modern society, the apocalyptic/armageddon-like vision of the world (the need to start anew), the lack of trust in the public and political world, the role of highly educated individuals. This is not trying to condone or explain this barbarism; merely the conditions in which such mindsets could potentially emerge.
Relevant links:
2083 Manifesto
Conversations with Susumu Shimazono
