Taki Magazine

The Apostle of Progress

by Mark Hackard on June 05, 2009

Obama’s “speech to the Muslim world” in Cairo might have included some balanced thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the possibility of improving relations with Iran. The US president also had a keen sense of his audience; no less than three times did he touch upon sensitivities about women being properly clothed.

Yet far more intriguing than policy details or conciliatory gestures were passages that revealed Obama’s worldview and sense of mission as the Apostle of Progress. It’s also important to note that this general mindset and goals are shared by Western elites as a whole. Implicit in the speech was the enduring desire for radical transformation of the world. Obama hopes to secure the triumph of modernity in the Middle East by a gradualism that condemns the excesses of the last administration.

The juxtaposition of contradictory notions in the speech was particularly jarring, but it nonetheless had a purpose. Obama occasionally used traditional-sounding language referring to “our communities, our families, our traditions, and our faith”, but ultimately asserted that “human progress cannot be denied”. Judging from the prominence of the concept of progress in the president’s speech, it is not difficult to ascertain what is central to the gospel he preaches. Even the laudable appeal to cease oppression of Copt and Maronite Christians was based on the liberal principle of diversity.

The US is now attempting to transform the Islamic world by smoothing the rough edges of intervention and democracy promotion, if only rhetorically. In its effort to change Muslim societies, Washington now gives pride of place to material advancement and science.

“On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create more jobs.  We’ll open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new science envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, grow new crops.”

Besides the fact that “science envoy” sounds like a term coined by Aldous Huxley, Obama’s grand vision merely marks a tactical shift in the US approach toward the Islamic world. It is presumed that Muslims will embrace egalitarianism, manufactured diversity and the various other ailments of the modern West not by Bush’s bombs, but by Obama’s initiatives for eco-friendly job creation (with some counterinsurgency thrown in on the side). US foreign policy remains a social engineering project writ large.

In return for continued US involvement in Muslim societies, Obama will be their advocate this side of Suez. He offers Muslims a secure position and growing influence in the West. To the applause of the crowd, he made clear that the US government would punish institutions that ban Islamic dress. Obama also promised greater cultural exchange, which in practice will amount to more mass immigration. In the West, the multiculturalist program to erase traditional Christianity and dissolve the cultural and ethnic composition of our lands proceeds apace. This disorder, based on the negation of the spirit, can only be defeated through spiritual renewal.

It is helpful to close with the words of the French scholar and metaphysician René Guénon. Guénon, a Sufi Muslim who died in Cairo 58 years ago, was ever the defender of tradition, both in the East and the West. He spoke incisively about the materialists who would co-opt traditional language and symbols to serve their own ends, in this case “Progress”. Obama’s speech corresponds to his analysis quite well:

“Most of our contemporaries have reached such a state of mental confusion that associations of the most contradictory words bring about no reaction on their part and do not even provide them with food for thought”.

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