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3.0 out of 5 stars
A bitter pill, September 1, 2000
"Civil Wars" is something of a collection of Enzensberger's ruminations and rantings on the state of the world on the eve of the much-heralded new millennium. The book is divided into three parts: the first and principal section is an essay titled "Civil Wars" in which the author takes a hard look at the world's many conflicts and concludes that most, if not all, can be referred to as "civil wars." He defines the latter as any situation in which people living at close quarters are in a state of conflict. Thus, street gang strife in America's inner cities or the wars in Rwanda, Bosnia, etc. can all be called civil wars. However, here Enzensberger tends to generalize a bit much when he equates the various insurgents, rebels, vandals, skinheads, terrorists, "freedom fighters," etc. across the board as perpetrators of autistic violence with no underlying ideology or cause (when they do proclaim some ideals, Enzensberger says this is empty rhetoric with no deep resonance or meaning). This is a bit hard to swallow, as a case-by-case study of the belligerents in the world's various "civil wars" would perhaps refute this thesis. Thus, he gives the impression of someone who just raises his hands in disgust, claiming that "all of them" are crazy, so to hell with them. Despite this, many of Enzensberger's views are worth noting, as they are quite sobering. He points out that there is little call for the hopes that the globalized world economy will contribute to greater peace and prosperity for all, since the brutal economic logic of this process will eventually make even more people throughout the world superfluous and turn them into have-nots. And these have-nots, he adds, will hardly join together in some sort of liberating class struggle, but will more likely take out their frustrations on each other, which is already the defining mark of the type of conflicts Enzensberger discusses in this book.
Another particularly interesting part of the book is the short section on Europe in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Enzensberger cites the observations of several largely forgotten observers (mainly Americans), who painted a grim picture of Europe. The purpose of this section is to remind Europeans that only a few decades ago their prosperous continent was as devastated and destitute as any of the "underdeveloped" regions whose immigrants they so fear today. The essential point of this entire book is to warn people, nations and governments to take care of their own problems at home, their own "civil wars," before becoming involved in those of others. Although this is basically a call for a new form of isolationism, it tends to make sense - just because most of today's foreign interventions, despite the real motivations, are cloaked in a veneer of pious moralism which is nothing short of hypocrisy.
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